Logically Fallacious Blog

When I was a teenager, I had an unquenchable thirst for motivational material. I listened to these motivational gurus on cassette tapes, many of which were hilariously warped from sitting in my hot car that when played, sounded like demon-posessed chipmunks. Although I have many, many criticisms of the self-help movement in general, I did manage to take away several nuggets that I feel shaped my life for the better. One such nugget was from Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who wrote, "When given the choice b. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

People like to make rules to justify their positions. This can be a form of rationalization, but more often it is an honest and conscious attempt to provide a good reason for one’s position. The problem is, very often, the rules that one creates lead to less-than-desirable consequences. To be clear, this isn’t the appeal to the consequences fallacy where the consequences are undesirable, therefore the claim is false; it the use of a rule to support a position without realizing that the same rule. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

Recently, science-fiction writer Patrick S. Tomlinson posted a question on his Twitter feed that he said he has been asking the "Life begins at Conception crowd" for decades. Ben Shapiro, American conservative political commentator, columnist, author, radio talk show host, and a lawyer, along with thousands of keyboard warriors around the world, offered their opinion on the "argument." Let’s make that "thousands" and one. I will not be offering a pro-choice or pro-life defense of Tomlinson . . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

The interesting thing about conspiracy theories is that some of them are actually true. This gives all conspiracy theories a hint of legitimacy in that no matter how ridiculous a theory might sound; there is a chance that it could be true. But as I have said before, reason is not about possibility; it is about probability. It is not about the outcome; it is about the process. One can be right for all the wrong reasons, but it is far more important in the long run to be wrong for all the right re. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

I received this question a while back, and thought it was worth reviving it.How do I respond to presuppositionalist’s claim that circular logic is not fallacious? Because presuppositionalists say that since every worldview commits this fallacy. It leads to the absurd conclusion that every worldview is invalid (I am applying the principle of charity here, which means that the argument they present is actually weaker). Presuppositionalism is a school of Christian apologetic whose adherents think t. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

I remember a bit from one of my favorite comedians, Eddie Murphy, in his video titled Raw. Without getting nearly as graphic as Eddie or being nearly as funny, I will paraphrase the joke: he talks about how a woman gets to be so enamored with a man that she can catch him in bed with another woman "butt-naked," then storm out of the room. When she confronts the man the next day, he would simply deny it. Then after a few back-and-forths, the woman would say "maybe it wasn’t you." Although written . . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

A question was asked recently about women, rape, and responsibility. Paraphrasing, the argument went something like this:Women have some responsibility in doing things to prevent rape. Women are (or at least should be) responsible for doing things that make them less of a target (being out with friends instead of being alone, not wearing extremely revealing clothing, etc.).To which the response was:If "hanging out in groups" or "dressing more conservatively" helped to prevent rape, explain why c. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

There is a disturbing trend in the social justice movement where science, data, facts, and reason are sacrificed for ideology. Critics of the social justice movement often reject the overall ideas of social justice because of these reasoning flaws (which is problematic in itself—see Argument from Fallacy). If you are a supporter of social justice, and you are allowing your passion to affect your reason, realize that you are most likely doing more harm to the movement than good. There are s. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

Often people form their beliefs with strong emotions. One of the best examples of this is how the anti-vaccine campaigns win support by connecting autistic children to vaccine use. Beliefs have both emotional and logical components. The more emotion is used, the less evidence is required for the belief to hold. This is why the appeal to emotion is such a dangerous (and powerful) fallacy. If a claim is void of any decent evidence, appealing to emotion is an effective way to compensate if the goal. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

From an evolutionary perspective, beliefs and knowledge should be seen as the same thing‚Äîjust on different ends of the spectrum. So in this sense, knowledge can be seen as beliefs where the confidence level is very high. In this regard, we can see how beliefs would help us survive and procreate. It is important to note that the beliefs don’t have to be true; they just need to be conducive to one of those two goals. Positive delusions are a good example from psychology that is an overall go. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

If you have come across the fundamental attribution error, actor-observer bias, and the self-serving bias, you should rightfully be confused. So here is my attempt to clear these up.The fundamental attribution error is an observer bias where the actor-observer bias is an actor bias. So imagine I see you trip. Because of the fundamental attribution error, my tendency would be to overestimate your dispositional influences. In other words, I would call you clumsy. However, as the actor (i.e., I am . . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious

I often see people call "fallacy" when someone makes a probabilistic statement rather than coming to a definitive conclusion based on a questionable source. For example:Person 1: I read on ConspiricyBlogs.com that our government comprises many lizard people!Person 2: That is an extremely unreliable source. Pardon me if I don’t believe in lizard people running the government.Person 1: That is the genetic fallacy! You are judging the truth of the claim by it source!Had person two said something su. . . See the complete description at Logically Fallacious