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> So far as has been observed, life does require liquid water.

That's a bit like a newborn baby saying "so far as has been observed, there are only a couple people in existence".

That strikes me as a reasonable assumption to hold, pending evidence to the contrary.

A baby doesn't have evidence that there's stuff outside his/her perceptions. We do - knowing that we keep finding extremophiles in hot springs and underground rocks and water in unexpected places like Mars and Europa, we should be a lot more careful than a baby when we say "this is how it is".

But then again, this is an universal counterargument and can be used to dismiss any kind of selection as hubris. We need to act to the best the information available allows us and learn from mistakes.

Thus is the nature of knowledge and of discovery? This is why the Scientific Method was invented, correct?

Part of the scientific method is knowing when to say "we don't know yet". We don't know how to define "habitable" yet, so we should stop saying it.

You quoted "So far as has been observed". How much more hedging do you need? Basically you're arguing for something useless; that no definition be made until there is 100% certainty, regardless of caveats. Such a high bar gives us no utility.

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