319. Desired Conclusions

Not all texts conclude. Some meander through a range of perspectives, each providing a different way of looking at a question. Others tend to orbit a particular idea or theme, exploring it carefully through repeated revolutions without ever quite landing on it.

There are also texts that seem built to conclude, as though they were machines designed to carry us to a specific endpoint, without fail. Through the application of weighty evidence and rigorous argument, these texts demand agreement with their conclusions.

While reading such a text, we occasionally realize that the machine is not as well-built as it ought to be. There is a flaw in the argument that causes us to resist the conclusion. Or there is something missing, a gap that has not been properly filled, so the text cannot transport us to its final destination.

But sometimes there are no noticeable flaws. Sometimes we are more than willing to go along to the end. This happens most often when the conclusion is one we want to hear. It aligns nicely with our existing beliefs and desires and we cannot see any reason to question it. We want what it is saying to be true. We want the world to be just as the text says it is.

Of course, this is the time we most need to be skeptical. For if the text is telling us exactly what we want to hear, it might also be leading us into a trap. One such trap is the delusion of wishful thinking, of believing the world is exactly as we want it to be. But there is an even more dangerous trap we can fall into. It is nothing more than the belief that conclusion itself is feasible — that our investigation can actually come to an end.

Even what appears to be a permanent and final conclusion is also temporary and contingent. There is always more for us to see, so everything we believe could change in the future. This means that we need to treat every text as open-ended, especially those that supply the conclusions we most desire. It is by keeping our attention open to further possibilities that we can fully appreciate the morsel of truth in every conclusion, while not also becoming stuck in its finality.