Part 9: Apples, Oranges, and Character Assassination “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.” — Socrates Only two fallacies on the docket today, but they are biggies! Category mistake/error I’m sure you have heard the term, “It’s apples and oranges.” Maybe you have used it, yourself. When Person A says this […]
Part 8: Validity and Clarity “Most of the arguments to which I am party fall somewhat short of being impressive, owing to the fact that neither I nor my opponent knows what we are talking about.” — Robert Benchley, American columnist & actor Hey, folks! Ready for another lesson in logic? Of course, you are!! […]
Part 7: Causes and Comparisons “Correlation does not equal causation.” — many people, including me (‘cuz it makes me sound smart) We’re baaaaaaack, and we have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get started! Clear thinking & reasoning require at least a basic understanding of causal relationships. Unfortunately, it’s also easy to make […]
“Use soft words and hard arguments.” — English proverb “Soft words are hard arguments.” — Thomas Fuller (emphasis mine) Among the various books I have in progress, lately I’ve been reading Arguing with Friends: Keeping your friends and your convictions by Paul Buller. It’s a relatively thin book, but I only read 2 or 3 […]
Part 6: Avoiding Presumptions “A presumption becomes a self-refuting assertion.” — R. Alan Woods Following hot on the heels of “Part 5: Facts Over Feelings”, today’s logical fallacies involve inappropriate presumptions that confuse and invalidate one’s argument. (Of course, I would never do this! … OK, OK, maybe.) Sometimes when making a case or […]
Part 5: Facts Over Feelings “Feelings should never supersede rational thought… so, if you feel that you’ve got the answer, you should think some more.” — Julie Ann Elliott-Morton Up to this point in the series, we have dealt with the basics. We learned about the fundamental laws of logic, categorical propositions and logical relationships. […]
Today’s post is a bit more philosophy-rich than I am usually comfortable with and, thus, than I would normally post. But, as I was reading the book named below (and stretching my brain cells), I realized that the topic and observations are at least as, if not even more, relevant today than when written almost […]
Part 4: Three Ways to Argue Meanwhile, at the clinic… Client (Michael Palin): “Aha! If you’re arguing, I must have paid.” Mr. Barnard (John Cleese): “Not necessarily. I could be arguing in my spare time….” OK, if you aren’t a Monty Python fan (and I am only marginally) and you don’t understand the above quote, […]
Part 3: Logical Suicide and Staying on TRACK “Without good support, not only is it a ‘bad argument’, it’s merely opinion.” — me Welcome back! (Or, just “Welcome!”, if this is the first part you read in this series.) So far, we’ve been learning some fundamental ideas in what is known as “informal logic”. We […]
Part 2: Propositions and Logical Relationships “Having, then, once introduced an element of inconsistency into his system, he was far too consistent not to be inconsistent consistently, and he lapsed ere long into an amiable indifferentism which to outward appearance differed but little from the indifferentism….” — Samuel Butler, iconoclastic Victorian author Despite what you […]
