I have long been annoyed at the use of formulations like “I feel” over “I think”. Now, “feel” has its place when it truly comes to feelings; however, all too often, it is used when either a better formulation would have used “I think” (because thoughts are involved) or the speaker would have been better off thinking than feeling (choice of word might have been correct but reflected a more fundamental underlying problem). Ditto variations in person, time, whatnot, as with a “John felt [whatnot]” in a book.
Formulations not using “feel” can still contain a strong element of feeling. For instance, the “annoyed” above certainly reflects a feeling; however, this feeling is ultimately based in thought and the mention serves more as a setting of context or lead in to the text, and is different in character than the examples discussed in the continuation.
I did consider a revision of formulation to be more consistent with the spirit of this text. For now, I let it stand; in part, because I am still uncertain whether such revisions are worthwhile, unlike a “I feel” -> “I think” transition; in part, because it provides an interesting, unintended, illustration of a more general issue.
If in doubt, cf. below, a part of the problem relates to redundancy and length, e.g. in that a formulation like “I feel that I am annoyed” or even “I feel annoyed” is worse than “I am annoyed” without necessarily expressing a different sentiment.
Consider the claim by Ketanji Brown Jackson that triggered the writing of this text: “I just feel that I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people in my [SCOTUS] opinions how I feel about the issues, and that’s what I try to do” (re-quoted from [1]e).
She feels that she has an opportunity to express how she feels... Moreover, and more importantly, while the SCOTUS opinions (including concurrences and dissents) can indeed be a wonderful opportunity for a justice to express her (in a small pronoun concession) thoughts on the legal issues involved and to influence the thoughts of others down the line, this is not a matter of feelings: While there is, of course, some room to express feelings too, the main point is thoughts and, in particular, legal reasoning. Scalia, e.g., was so influential because he made good use of opinions to express his thoughts on legal issues, legal philosophy, etc.
While this text is not specifically about politics, politics is an important special case. Going back to the earliest days of my political awareness (mid-to-late 1980s), I have ever again found the Left to be driven too much by feelings and too little by reason. Indeed, I suspect that much of the difference between the average Leftist and non-Leftist is that the former simply spends more time feeling and less time thinking. (Also note a number of quotes/claims on the theme that not being a Leftie as a pre-adult is a sign of heartlessness, while remaining a Leftie as an adult is a sign of brainlessness.)
An interesting parallel is that women tend to err on the side of feeling—while being more likely to fall into the traps of Leftism than men are. (To what degree women go Left because they feel too much and think too little, and to what degree the greater proportion of women has had a negative effect on the Left, I do not know.)
In the overlap between the two paragraphs above and the SCOTUS, strong Leftism and strong judicial activism seems to correlate both with each other and with being a woman. (Confounding factors include the short history of women on the court and the influence on the respective POTUS on who is nominated.) Ketanji Brown Jackson appears to be a nightmare example of this, as does Sonia Sotomayor.
Or consider some of my recent readings of Japanese “light novels” (a good source of cheap entertainment when relaxing from thought...): Use of formulations like “I feel” are used absurdly often in some works, as are other wishy-washy formulations. Consider a core statement of “the dog barks”—something that either is or is not the case. (With minor reservations for special cases, say, when the dog is far away or when it is unclear which dog barks.) Some works seem to use a formulation like “I feel that the dog barks” as a matter of course. In one case, the extremely insecure-seeming protagonist ever again used formulations like “I feel like maybe the dog barks, right?”. (I feel that I maybe might be uncertain what particular work this conceivably might have been, right?) Here, simply stating that “the dog barks” would have been the right choice. On the outside, a formulation like “I think that the dog barks” might have been justifiable to emphasize some amount of uncertainty (e.g. because the dog was far away). Use of “feel”, however, is just wrong. One can, for instance, “feel upset that the dog barks for hours at an end”, but that the dog barks, as such, is not something that can be felt. (In the current sense; if someone physically feels the vibrations of a bark from a monster dog, the use is acceptable, but then we have a very different sense.) Even then, a formulation like “am upset [...]” is preferable through being more direct and slightly shorter. Unfortunately, some works go in the other direction and use something like “think that I feel upset [...]”, which is just absurd. Small mercy: I have yet to see “feel that I feel [...]”.
As I read in English translation, I cannot tell whether these issues go back to the translator, the author, and/or a difference in Japanese and English idioms and customs. I suspect, however, that it is a mixture. At the same time, similar problems are common in original English works too.
The barking dog is, of course, just a convenient basis for illustration and is not based on an actual quote.
The preceding indirectly gives another reason to avoid “feel” (in the current sense): There is a risk of confusion around what “feel” is intended. We already have legitimate and wide-spread meanings corresponding to a physical sensation (e.g. “I feel a vibration”) and an internal feeling (“I feel upset”), and maybe some others that do not occur to me off the top of my head. Why tag on yet another meaning to express something already perfectly expressible by other means?
As for such means, the exact options might differ from case to case, but “I think” (find/believe/suspect/observe/speculate/predict/remember/...), “it seems”, “in my opinion”, and similar are often possibilities. (Also note the ability to express different degrees of certainty and other nuance that is not present when someone stubbornly sticks to “I feel”.) Often, an entirely different formulation might be preferable, notably, by jumping to the core of the matter (“I feel that the dog barks” -> “the dog barks”). Even for the other meanings, better formulations often exist (e.g. “I am angry” over “I feel angry”).
A particularly sad case is use of “feel” in argumentation, including the sometime recommendation of using “feeling words”. These do have a place, notably, when they express actual feeling. Ditto, to some degree when e.g. highly subjective matters are at hand. However, argumentation should usually be based on thoughts and not feelings. Moreover, if someone holds an opinion, he should have the decency to stand by that opinion and not dress it up with vague “I feel” claims. However, what often happens is that claims, opinions, arguments, whatnots are turned into or replaced by “I feel”, as with “I feel that you should not let your dog bark all night” or “I feel that my work is impaired when I do not get enough sleep because of your dog”.
Avoiding “I feel” is the more important, the more important the issue and the more “public” the debate and/or the person at hand.
Sadly, however, real life sees the opposite happen far too often. Politicians, in particular, often avoid making definite statements and taking firm stances. (By a number of means, “I feel” being a special case.)
Even in the context of “conflict management”, interventions, and similar, where the idea of “feeling words” might have originated, the underlying sentiment, and/or what sentiment is ultimately perceived, is often more important than the way that the sentiment is expressed. If, say, a parent tells a kid with poor grades that “I feel disappointed when you come home with poor grades”, chances are that the kid will still take it as “you have disappointed me”—maybe even “you are a disappointment”.
To boot, such phrasings all too easily turn into (or are perceived as) emotional shaming attempts, a despicable and unethical means of manipulation, and one that will often make the victim less likely to cooperate—not more. (Above, e.g., an interpretation that “you should bring back better grades, you ungrateful kid, so that I do have to have this bad feeling because of you” is possible. Note that this holds even when the parent’s actual intent was more benign.)
To declaw a potential argument in favor of “I feel”: Formulations like “I think” already contain implicit aspects of “I might be wrong”, “there might be some ambiguity”, “this is a subjective claim”, and similar. (The exact set can vary depending on the claim and context at hand.) There is nothing to gain in this regard from moving on to “I feel”. Indeed, in many contexts, even an unqualified statement is naturally seen as containing such aspects. For instance, a claim like “The Beatles are great!” is inherently subjective and it is rarely beneficial to prefix it with an “I think that” or “I feel that”. In as far as explicit disclaimers are needed, they are also often better kept more detailed to give an idea of why the claim might be wrong or otherwise need a disclaimer. For instance, the question “What is the best-selling band of all times?” might be answered with “The Beatles, I think”, but “The last time that I saw a list, it was the Beatles, but that was ten years ago. Besides, that might have been for records only, and depending on what you mean by best-selling, the answer could be something different. Of course, I understand ‘of all times’ to be up till now—I do not know what the future might bring.” is often better. (Note, in particular, how it gives the other party an opportunity to revise the question, which might make it more useful. However, the briefer answer might be better in other cases.)
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