Friday, December 11, 2015

Pic Problems

This picture exudes fallacious expertise, the type of thing novices fall for, then imagine themselves experts.

But almost everything on that list is unclear, too unspecific or otherwise fallacious.

There are hundreds of important logical principles, not ten.

1. Fails to distinguish between abusive ad hominem and circumstancial ad hominem claims, including when circumstancial ad hominem claims are relevant such as when character is the issue.

3. Unclearly refers to small sample fallacies, not hasty generalizations.

4. Arguments must contain some assumptions, otherwise they would be infinitely long.

5. False cause is failing to provide strong evidence for a causal claim, not merely stating a prior thing caused a later thing.

6. Alternatives, not "possibilities."

7. Unclear.

8. Unclear and unspecific.

9. Unclear. Most people have no idea what that first phase means or that non sequitur means irrelevant.

10. Appeal to popularity (bandwagon) is a fallacy of irrelevance, thinking the existence of larger, smaller, increasing or decreasing numbers of believers lends support to some conclusion, the exception being what should legally be law in a legitimate democracy (which no existing national government practices). It is not about whether the ad populum premise itself is true or false.

An important, if not the most important, principle of logic is to search thoroughly for arguments and counterarguments, then accurately weigh the good points of all sides, regardless of pre-existing inclinations, giving no weight to fallacies, that is, doing the sorts of things almost no one does, especially since most people fanatically repeat the arguments of powerful groups.

Any list of logical commandments must emphasize accurately weighing competing good points.

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