Name That Fallacy
Interesting thread on logical fallacies.
Here is my contribution.
No rice is snow
No snow is hot
Thus, no rice is hot
This is a syllogistic fallacy.
Says a reader:
The fact that "No snow is rice" is sort of accidental in Philip's formulation of the fallacy.
His fallacy has the form:
No A is a B
No B is a C.
*. No A is a C
For instance, the following is the same fallacy:
No horse is a centaur
No centaur has wings.
*. No horse has wings
Notice that in this case, every one of the lines is in fact true (in Greek mythology at any rate). However, the argument is still fallacious. So while it is still a bad argument, you can't really reply "No centaur is a horse, false conclusion".
Here is my contribution.
No rice is snow
No snow is hot
Thus, no rice is hot
This is a syllogistic fallacy.
Says a reader:
The fact that "No snow is rice" is sort of accidental in Philip's formulation of the fallacy.
His fallacy has the form:
No A is a B
No B is a C.
*. No A is a C
For instance, the following is the same fallacy:
No horse is a centaur
No centaur has wings.
*. No horse has wings
Notice that in this case, every one of the lines is in fact true (in Greek mythology at any rate). However, the argument is still fallacious. So while it is still a bad argument, you can't really reply "No centaur is a horse, false conclusion".
Labels: logic

0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home