Favorite Fallacies—of the Very Informal Kind
Long ago, I started a thread on logical fallacies sometimes seen on here—not of the formal kind, or even run-of-the-mill informal fallacies—but ones formulated with, perhaps, a bit of whimsy. It is likely that they can be reduced to run-of-the-mill informal (or even formal) fallacies—but the idea is to present them in a fun way, based on stuff that has been seen on these threads.
For example:
Argument from Terribleness: “If that were true, then that would be just terrible; therefore, it cannot be true!”
Or:
The Any Idiot Argument: “Any idiot knows that—so, if you don’t already know it, there’s no sense in explaining it.” (Subtitle: “No epistemic justification needed”.)
Those may not be particularly good ones, but you get the idea. I thought it might be fun to see what people might come up with. So . . .?
Originally posted by vistesdThe 'impossible' argument: Lets see you produce a rose from a rock....(Think Dasa)
[b]Favorite Fallacies—of the Very Informal Kind
Long ago, I started a thread on logical fallacies sometimes seen on here—not of the formal kind, or even run-of-the-mill informal fallacies—but ones formulated with, perhaps, a bit of whimsy. It is likely that they can be reduced to run-of-the-mill informal (or even formal) fallacies—but the idea is to ...[text shortened]... but you get the idea. I thought it might be fun to see what people might come up with. So . . .?[/b]
Originally posted by vistesdArgumentum ad Typo You spelt [insert word often written in haste] wrong. If you can't spell then how in blazes are you supposed to follow a difficult argument!?
[b]Favorite Fallacies—of the Very Informal Kind
Long ago, I started a thread on logical fallacies sometimes seen on here—not of the formal kind, or even run-of-the-mill informal fallacies—but ones formulated with, perhaps, a bit of whimsy. It is likely that they can be reduced to run-of-the-mill informal (or even formal) fallacies—but the idea is to ...[text shortened]... but you get the idea. I thought it might be fun to see what people might come up with. So . . .?[/b]
The "I don't understand it, therefore it belongs in a different category" argument. eg 'God did it', 'it's supernatural', 'it must have been aliens'. Even though a natural physical or human explanation is always the most reasonable explanation people tend to separate out certain phenomena they cant understand and invent a category that doesn't have to follow the normal rules and thus they have an excuse for not understanding. Of course they then make up a new set of rules regarding this category and can then proclaim to understand the phenomena without anyone else being able to contradict them.
Argument from someone else's lack of personal experience. Very common when discussing education/bringing up children.
"You wouldn't think that if you had actually had kids"
(even though you have cited 26 separate authoritative studies proving your point).
(I know, I had this thrown at me before I had kids. Now I have them, of course, I realise its true.) 🙂
Argument from similarity leading to equality.
This is Kellys favourite argument, but I most recently came across it from knightmeister:
Once you realize that your whole world view rests upon a premise which you cannot prove you will realize that we are ALL in the business of faith in a subtle way that many don't acknowledge.
Essentially the argument is that since we both have some doubts about something our views have equal likelihood.
Argument from Meaninglessnes: “Even if we don’t know what ‘good’ means when applied to George, we can still know that George is ‘good’.”
If You Can’t Show It Isn’t So, Then I’m Justified in Believing It: “Ha! You can’t know that there isn’t a tiny orange unicorn in the refrigerator who only shows up when the door is closed—so I’m just as justified in believing it as you are in denying it. Ya can’t prove a negative, ya know!”