The 6 fallacies everyone should know

Saturday, June 28, 2008

One of the most useful things I ever learned was the logical fallacies. A fallacy is basically an illogical line of reasoning. There are many different types of fallacies, but some are far more common than others. If you spend just a few minutes learning these 6, I guarantee you'll see the media in a whole new light: they're everywhere: particularly with politicians, talk show hosts, friends, and advertisements.

1. Ad Hominem (AKA the "No YOUUUuuuu!" fallacy)

Bob: War is wrong: it is often an unnecessary waste of lives and money.
Dave: You work at Halliburton, Bob!

Dave ignores Bob's reasoning and instead attacks Bob. Bob may be a hypocrite, but that has no affect on the truth of his statement.

2. Begging the Question (AKA the "I'm right because I'm obviously right" fallacy)

Carol: Gay marriage is wrong because marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Despite common usage, Begging the Question is synonymous with Circular Reasoning. Here, Carol is saying that her statement is true because... it's true! Another good example is asserting that God exists because the Bible says so.

3. Appeal to Tradition (AKA the "It's always been done this way" fallacy)

Bill: The death penalty is wrong
Dave: Why? The death penalty has been used for thousands of years!

This is the opposite of the Appeal to Novelty fallacy.

4. Slippery Slope (AKA the "What's next? Men marrying dogs?" fallacy)

How many times have you heard the above argument against gay marriage? A slippery slope fallacy is committed when someone takes a statement several steps further than is realistic, and attacks that inflated statement. This is similar to a straw man fallacy.

5. Straw Man (AKA the "Why do you hate America?" fallacy)

Carol: The Patriot Act invades our constitutional protection from unlawful search and seizure
Jill: Why do you want the terrorists to win so badly?

Here, Jill has contorted Carol's position into a "straw man" replica and attacks that instead.

6. Appeal to Popularity (AKA the "Cummon... everyone's doin' it!" fallacy)

Verizon: Join the 67 million satisfied Verizon Wireless subscribers!

This is basically a form of peer pressure. Very common in advertisements and politics. (Besides, everyone knows Verizon sucks ;) )

There you have it. There are dozens more fallacies, but I consider these to be the most important, and the easiest to find in day-to-day life. They're not always obvious, so be on the lookout.

A challenge to your emotions (Where the Hell is Matt?)

Friday, June 27, 2008

I challenge each and every one of you to watch the following without feeling better about the world. Bonus points if you don't even smile a little bit.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008 edition)


For those who don't know, Matt was once a video game designer, and decided at 26 to do something more meaningful with his life. He has been badly dancing around the world ever since and became an internet sensation awhile back. This is his latest edition. Strangely inspirational.

Interview with Matt

Physics, Dominoes, and the Fallacy of Blame

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Want to give the bird to the guy who cut you off this morning? That's silly: he had no choice in the matter. Disgusted by Bush's war-lust? Why? It's no fault of his. God does not play dice, we weren't hugged enough as children, and guns don't kill people, those tsunami-causing butterflies in Japan do.

You guessed it: we're talking determinism, people. Determinism is based somewhat on the theory that a universal formula exists describing all velocities, positions, and states of all matter in the universe, for any moment in time. More simply put: actions are predictable, physical consequences of prior actions. Even more simply put: Cause and effect, and effect, and effect. This is elegantly summarized by Einstein's famous paraphrased quotation: "God does not play dice" (*).


This leaves little room for our beloved concept of "free will". If there exists such a formula, then that warm, fuzzy feeling that we are making our own choices is just an illusion caused by our internal frame of reference (please see: "The Sun Obviously Revolves Around the Earth Because we See it Rise and Fall and Stuff", written in part by Ages, The Middle).

An analogy to this can be made with book characters. The characters, if asked, would say that the actions they take on the next page are their own. Since they live in their own frame of reference, this is a natural assumption. Yet we as readers can look from the outside, and can see that every time we turn to that page, they do the exact same thing. They have absolutely no choice in the matter (if you're having trouble with the thought that this analogy implies there is an "author", just imagine that the "author" is the formula generating output).

Free will is an essential component of blame, judgment, and moral responsibility. We do not blame the bullet (though perhaps the maker of the bullet) for death, nor do we blame the body (though perhaps the Maker of the body) for bleeding to death, but rather the shooter of the gun (**). We blame him or her because he or she had "free will", and "made a choice" to fire it. And inversely, we do NOT blame the firer of the gun if he or she had NO choice in the matter (e.g. self defense, or pure accident).

So, finally, the point of this entire post is made obvious: blaming a person for the evil he or she commits is non-sense. Just as praising those for the good that they do is non-sense. Like dominoes in line, we fall when and where the domino behind us forces us to fall.

Please note that I'm not saying you shouldn't blame or praise; in fact, "should" is another non-sense phrase in determinism. You either will do something, or you won't. If you're still angry at Bush, yep. You are. If you flip off that driver on the free way, yep. You did. The implications of this post are only whether or not it really makes any sense.

Period.

* Yes, quantum mechanics does disturb the idea of physical determinism slightly. Apparently, QM is truly random. However, I don't think this affects the morality argument since random quantum motion hardly can be considered the basis for free will. In fact, if our actions are the result of randomized occurrences, it makes us seem even less to blame for our actions.

** Relevant Eddie Izzard quote

5 writing tips for avoiding controversy

Thursday, June 19, 2008

By special request, here are my expert tips for avoiding the devil's advocate effect:

First, a distinction:

Arguing: Asserting your own opinion
Advocating: Representing an opinion (not necessarily yours)

People only feel a need to advocate when the arguer makes no allowance for the possibility they've overlooked something or that there could be another side.

For Example, let's take a statement that's closed-ended, and puts even agreeable readers uncomfortable or defensive, and rework it step-by-step:

"John McCain's retarded. Period."

1. Use specifics

"John McCain's retarded [environmental strategy is absolutely, completely absurd]. Period."

2. Remove all adverbs. Writers recommend this in general because they are over-used and place unnecessary emphasis on the adjective.

"John McCain's retarded environmental strategy is absolutely, completely absurd. Period."

3. Remove or replace insulting words and phrases.

"John McCain's retarded environmental strategy is absurd ineffective. Period."

4. Acknowledge the possibility of other opinions. This has the added benefit of letting you save face if you missed something. Embarrassment can lead quickly to hostility.

"[I personally believe that ]John McCain's environmental strategy is ineffective. Period. Thoughts?"

and such as the iraq ;)

5. Back it up.

"I believe that John McCain's environmental strategy is ineffective[, because history has shown that the sale of quotas creates a corporate black market, further encouraging corruption]. Thoughts?"

As you can see, by acknowledging the opinions of others, and providing intelligent support for your own opinions, a reader is less likely to feel defensive, and will reply with the same respect and intelligence you gave them, lest they look like the closed-minded ones.

T minus 1 hour to Firefox 3

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm wiggling and giggling in my seat for the 10:00am release of Firefox 3. Like movie previews, I've deliberately avoided beta-testing this release so I can more easily notice the drastic performance improvements. Firefox 3 promises to be the fastest browser to start up, and to surf with, without hogging your CPU resources.

Here are some real-world metrics to give you some perspective.

Yeah. I'm pretty excited.

Re-re-re-re-joining the blogging community

Monday, June 16, 2008

Hello two people everyone!

It's great to be back in the blogiverse. As my first official gripe, I'd like to express how disappointed I am that "geekofalltrades" was taken.

Thank you.