New answers tagged fallacies
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What's the name of the logical fallacy of when you answer a question with essentially something that doesn't mean anything?
'Anacoluthon' may come close. It is often presented as though someone has launched into a sentence without enough of a plan to carry it through. The classic example is Shakespeare's King Lear's...
&...
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What's the name of the logical fallacy of when you answer a question with essentially something that doesn't mean anything?
Thanks everyone for your answers as it pushed me in the right direction, especially the Obfuscation Fallacy.
After reading a bit more about fallacies, i feel that the best one to describe my example ...
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What's the name of the logical fallacy of when you answer a question with essentially something that doesn't mean anything?
When (or if) this is a kind of fallacious response, then in keeping with the parameter "the response is not irrelevant to the question," we should say that there is some sort of "...
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What's the name of the logical fallacy of when you answer a question with essentially something that doesn't mean anything?
Obfuscation + Fallacy == Obfuscation Fallacy
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What's the name of the logical fallacy of when you answer a question with essentially something that doesn't mean anything?
In argumentation, relevance is an important consideration in determining something is a fallacy. It is one of Edward Dahmer's three criteria. Therefore, such a characteristic of irrelevance may be ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
First let us agree that science is a social endeavor- the dialogue and collaboration are key aspects of it. The pseudo-problem here arises since Alice and Bob never properly discussed the matter. Bob ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Like with morality, the key to this is the motivation for the doubt. Bob might remain unconvinced of pregnancy being caused by sexuality because Bob prefers magical thinking. Bob might remain ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
I think we can say no, nothing about Bob's attitude "relegate him to quackery and pseudoscience" and we can use a historical example to demonstrate this.
Until Einstein proposed the theory ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
A lot of the answers seem to be missing the bigger picture.
The objective of science is to extend our understanding of the nature of reality. And to that end we try to weave our observations of ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
At its core, the scientific method boils down to:
Make an observation.
Come up with a theory that can explain the observation.
Perform experiments whose results can disprove the theory.
Eventually, ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
I strongly disagree with the first answer that says that the burden of proof rests on Bob.
My view is that "science" is just a name for the rules of the game called prover-skeptic: the ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
The go-to case to keep in mind for questions like this is Ignaz Semmelweis. You may have heard of him. Back in the day, he achieved great success at the clinic where he worked in eliminating the ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Is the method reasonable?
You mentioned Alice using some method to arrive at her explanation. Whether this method is reasonable is distinct from whether any other explanation exists, and one can ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
We should always be skeptical of scientific hypotheses and results. The scientific method never proves that a hypothesis is absolutely true, it can only disprove things (when results are inconsistent ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Not necessarily unscientific.
If I tell you that my anti-gravity device can save humans in 100mph concrete wall crash, and I have designed an experiment to try with a volunteer.. to test this ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
It is my opinion that this is the way science works a lot of the time. An observation is made of some phenomena. Lots of scientists work on this until eventually one comes up with a theory for the ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Let's suppose the answer to your question was yes, it is unscientific to doubt theories without alternative explanations. Bob would have to say 'No need to perform your experiment, Alice; I can't ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Not only is it not unscientific, it's not uncommon either. Scientists often offer up alternative explanations for things, but they didn't arrive at those conclusions instantly. Einstein's general ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Definitely not. To say that it is unscientific is to fall into what is sometimes called the Sherlock Holmes fallacy. Alice seems to be saying that her explanation must be right because she has ruled ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
I would say that Bob is not "flouting" the scientific method, but he's not yet doing very good science. Alice is doing better science than him so far.
I would say that Bob pointing out "...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
she proposes a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon, as well as an experiment to validate (or otherwise) her hypothesis... Bob still believes that it is reasonable be open-minded, even though he ...
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Accepted
Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Alice has made some anecdotal observations. Through a process of elimination, she proposes a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon, as well as an experiment to validate (or otherwise) her hypothesis.
...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
First, just a reminder that hypotheses stand to be disproved, not proved. Karl Popper explained this. The phrase in brackets, unbeknownst to him, causes a problem with your question. We cannot know ...
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Is my analysis of Dawkins' fallacies correct?
It is not necessary for Dawkins to argue against God. If someone argues for the existence of God, or any particular god or belief, it is for that person to prove this. If, however, they merely assert ...
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What is the basis of the sunk cost fallacy?
Is the so called sunk cost fallacy truly a total fallacy, or does it have some kernel of truth? Certainly it is a widespread instinctive/impulsive form of reasoning.
Gambling addiction is an ...
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What is the basis of the sunk cost fallacy?
There are situations where you have the choice: Either admit that you made a costly mistake or spend more money on the mistake.
If admitting a mistake is a cost to my reputation and the cost of ...
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What is the basis of the sunk cost fallacy?
From a scientific stance, I think it is a form of "good enough" reasoning, which confers an evolutionary advantage. From a philosophical point of view, I do not consider it a fallacy. There ...
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What’s the logical fallacy that’s based on “what could have been” arguments?
I believe that what troubles you is the teleological reasoning of theology.
Teleology ... is a branch of causality giving the reason or an
explanation for something as a function of its end, its ...
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What’s the logical fallacy that’s based on “what could have been” arguments?
Hypotheticals are useful in philosophy, and also in science. Thought experiments are also useful and involve hypotheticals. I have no interest in religious philosophy, as an atheist. What you describe ...
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What fallacy is this?
Not sure where the fallacy is. The idea that two processes are mutually dependent or co-occurring is not inherently contradictory or fallacious.
For example, any system of coupled differential ...
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What's so fallacious about the Slippery Slope Fallacy?
The short answer is that X may lead to Y, but it is not inevitable. For example, banning automatic weapons will lead to a ban on all guns under all circumstances. This is the slippery slope fallacy. ...
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Why do they say I am committing a fallacy when I am just insulting someone?
An ad hominem argument is not a simple insult and there are various types. Guilt by association is one. For example, X says that the state should help poor people. Y says that X is friendly with ...
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Can reason be precisely defined?
It is not immediately apparent what is meant by reason. So a robust definition is needed. Synthesising the answers here, it appears that logic is not necessarily employed. I accept the overarching ...
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Can reason be precisely defined?
By looking at the definitions of reason in Wikipedia and Britannica - as proposed by the initial comments - I find a contradiction (truth is missing in Britannica); to my understanding this ...
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Can reason be precisely defined?
If we identify reason as something which explains an event or action then reason can not be precisely defined especially in the human context.
For example - A person may fight with his wife because he ...
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Can reason be precisely defined?
Must reason be founded in logic?
You will have to make up your own mind about this.
Arguments are just the exhibit of reasons: Why do you bring an umbrella? Because the weather report says it is ...
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Can reason be precisely defined?
Very few words can be precisely defined, since they are all open to shades of interpretation which in turn can be dependent on the context in which they are used, so the answer to your headline ...
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Accepted
Can reason be precisely defined?
Kant in his “Critique of Pure Reason” (CpR) discriminates between on one hand mind (= Verstand), and on the other hand reason (= Vernunft). Of course, both human capabilities to think rely on logic.
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Can reason be precisely defined?
From personal experience, these are the concepts that fit the best with most documentation:
Knowledge is a model of the world. See some types of knowledge. Knowledge will always be incomplete and ...
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Accepted
On Modus Ponens/Tollens Fallacies
As alluded in the comments, we need to go to modal logic K (for Kripke) to get to something like "maybe":
We have two new concepts in K-modal logic:
◻ =def "it is necessary that" (...
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On Modus Ponens/Tollens Fallacies
I'm assuming (1) that you are using classical logic, (2) you are using valid in the usual conventional way to mean an argument that instantiates a form that has no possible counterexample, and (3) ...
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On Modus Ponens/Tollens Fallacies
Maybe ~q Valid! Correct/Incorrect/Both/Neither?
Yes, correct, but trivial!
And maybe q, too.
Because, if we assume (p → q) ∧ ¬p, then we don't assume anything about q or about ¬q.
So maybe ¬q, but ...
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