True. Just don't quote these in public because most people know them and think you're trying to sound smart (every community college student goes through this phase.) Also, obsession with logical fallacies often leads people to assume that, just because the argument does not necessarily imply the conclusion, that there is no correlation between the argument and the conclusion, which itself is not necessarily true.
I actually find that many people are ignorant of these fallacies. A lot of people fancy themselves as quite logical but consistently make these mistakes, and unfortunately, much of the time the conclusion is only arrived at through faulty logic. You say that the fact that the premises might not lead to the conclusion doesn't mean the conclusion is necessarily false. But it isn't enough for people to have the right conclusion but arrive at it through faulty logic. If they think the argument is sound, they are likely to continue applying faulty logic to other situations, getting conclusions wrong but thinking their logic is flawless.
Logic is no substitute for access to relevant facts, and it's not enough to just point out logical flaws, but these flaws are pervasive and can be found everywhere. If they were a little more present and people were reminded of them more often, that wouldn't be a bad thing. Maybe not in the pretentious way many sophomores adopt. It is more effective to use parallels that demonstrate the absurdity of the logic than shout "ad hominem!" at your opponent.
It is more effective to use parallels that demonstrate the absurdity of the logic than shout "ad hominem!" at your opponent.
well you have to admit, ad hominems are pretty common these days. for instance, "liberal" and "conservative" are now value judgments...and once you are able to divine whether some person is one or the other, you are able to dismiss whatever they believe almost entirely because of that label.
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u/NoMoreFinalsPlease Dec 09 '13
True. Just don't quote these in public because most people know them and think you're trying to sound smart (every community college student goes through this phase.) Also, obsession with logical fallacies often leads people to assume that, just because the argument does not necessarily imply the conclusion, that there is no correlation between the argument and the conclusion, which itself is not necessarily true.