My quest for tenability

I think I understood most of Chapter 4. It took me a while of reading the discussion of rational equilibrium and initial tenability to get it, but it clicked eventually. I'm going to try to illustrate what my original conception of this was with the example of 'paths' through a forest as a search for knowledge that we talked about in a class a while ago. It stands to reason that most people want to travel on the easiest path--one with a clear surface for walking, spacious, and not dangerous or tricky. That, I figured, would be the tenable path as I understood it. And as you're standing at the beginning of the forest, getting ready to choose a path through, you have a wide variety of paths to choose from that you could take. These represent the different beliefs one could have in which to base their "world" or "system" off of. But a path that originally looks clear could be fraught with danger later on, and a path that may not even seem to exist at the forest's edge might be safe and easy--much like abandoning an initially tenable belief that becomes no longer tenable for one that wasn't initially tenable, it would be wise to turn around a try another path when the going gets tough.

So there I was, I had finished the reading, and I got it. Then, I thought to myself, "You know, Elgin used the word 'tenable' in like every other sentence, and I don't really know what it means. I should look it up." I was assuming it meant something like "plausible" or "logical." Turns out it means "capable of being held, maintained, or defended." I don't think the difference between the two definitions is insignificant. There's a difference (I think) between the ability to come to a conclusion and the ability to then maintain that conclusion--they're two separate steps in the conclusion-having process.

Now I don't know what to think. Does this shatter my fragile understanding of the concept? (which is kind of ironic--this kind of illustrates the accepting of an initially tenable idea and switching) Does the difference in what "tenable" means matter enough?