Pessimists such as myself are seldom startled by realizing things are worse than they’d supposed. It happened to me recently, though. I was in a conversation with my pastor when the unhappy thought jolted me: “Maybe people don’t know that having an unfalsifiable position is an intellectual defect!” In other words, if you take a position that can’t be proved wrong even if it is, that’s not good thinking. My pastor agreed. We’re in the middle of a fallacy pandemic.
Emotions are running high. People are rioting in the streets. Others are afraid of dying from a pandemic. Everyone has a place to state their opinion (or at least memes) on social media. So it’s a ripe time for critical thinking to break down.
I’m a philosopher by trade, so please indulge me as I say a few words about the fallacy pandemic. Philosophers are always — or should be — bothered by poor reasoning. We try to offer rational arguments, anticipate criticisms, and bring intellectual clarity to important topics.
Back to Basics
Sometimes, though, we have to get back to the basics. Thus, for forty years, I have been arguing for what I take to be of ultimate concern (and for some lesser concerns). Meanwhile, though, I have also tried to teach principles and practices of critical thinking. There is no better time than now to do so again. This time I do it with an eye toward trends I find to be irrational and thus unhelpful to solving our social ills — especially related to disease and race.
One of the better ways to teach critical thinking is by showing how not to think well, which means teaching about logical fallacies. I won’t try to be comprehensive here, but I do have some principles for sound thinking to offer. I will illustrate each fallacy with an example from apologetics and one from social issues.
1. Define your terms.
Without clear definitions, we literally don’t know what we are talking about. Suppose you are arguing for God’s existence. What do you mean by God? Francis Schaeffer wrote that the word “God” was the most ill-defined word in English. It can mean the Trinity, Allah, a pantheistic substance, a finite god, and more.
Or suppose you’re arguing that America suffers from “systemic racism.” What does that term mean? Once you’ve defined it, what indicators do we find to support the claim? Suppose you’ve concluded that America does suffer from this malady. What counter-evidence could persuade you otherwise?
Thomas Sowell, a prolific black economist, was recently asked if he believed that the U.S. suffered from systemic racism.
He answered that no reliable indicators of such have been offered, so the theory could not be tested. He could well be right about that. Even if he is wrong, though, you should appreciate the intellectual rigor he brought to the question.
2. Do not argue against a straw man.
You commit the straw man fallacy when you argue against a caricature of a position. Just as a straw man is not a real man, a straw man argument attacks a false representation of a position.
Consider the person who says, “You Christians must appeal to blind faith. You’re afraid of rational arguments.” This person misrepresents the Bible and the history of the church. There is an entire discipline for defending Christianity as true, rational, and meaningful; it’s called apologetics.
Or if someone says, “You political conservatives support the Confederacy, and you don’t even care that the Confederate flag stands for racism,” she is arguing against a straw man, being a conservative doesn’t require supporting the Confederacy. It is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for conservatism.
3. Beware the false dichotomy.
This may be the king of the fallacies. If not, then it’s co-king with ad hominem. It speaks its lying voice everywhere.
First, consider true dichotomies. You are either an American citizen or you aren’t. You are either a Christian or you aren’t. A false dichotomy claims that it is either A or B and that’s it, there are no other alternatives, when, in fact, there are others. So, we hear many say, “Don’t do apologetics, preach the gospel!” Why not do both well? There is no contradiction between them, and the Bible calls us to do both.
Or, someone might say, “You are either with Black Lives Matter or you are a racist.” But certainly the field of non-racists is larger than the set of people who adhere to the basic tenets of Black Lives Matter. It is an organization, after all. Much of what it affirms is open to question.
Emotions are running high. People are rioting in the streets. Others are afraid of dying from a pandemic. Everyone has a place to state their opinion (or at least memes) on social media. So it’s a ripe time for critical thinking to break down.
I’m a philosopher by trade, so please indulge me as I say a few words about the fallacy pandemic. Philosophers are always — or should be — bothered by poor reasoning. We try to offer rational arguments, anticipate criticisms, and bring intellectual clarity to important topics.
Back to Basics
Sometimes, though, we have to get back to the basics. Thus, for forty years, I have been arguing for what I take to be of ultimate concern (and for some lesser concerns). Meanwhile, though, I have also tried to teach principles and practices of critical thinking. There is no better time than now to do so again. This time I do it with an eye toward trends I find to be irrational and thus unhelpful to solving our social ills — especially related to disease and race.
One of the better ways to teach critical thinking is by showing how not to think well, which means teaching about logical fallacies. I won’t try to be comprehensive here, but I do have some principles for sound thinking to offer. I will illustrate each fallacy with an example from apologetics and one from social issues.
1. Define your terms.
Without clear definitions, we literally don’t know what we are talking about. Suppose you are arguing for God’s existence. What do you mean by God? Francis Schaeffer wrote that the word “God” was the most ill-defined word in English. It can mean the Trinity, Allah, a pantheistic substance, a finite god, and more.
Or suppose you’re arguing that America suffers from “systemic racism.” What does that term mean? Once you’ve defined it, what indicators do we find to support the claim? Suppose you’ve concluded that America does suffer from this malady. What counter-evidence could persuade you otherwise?
Thomas Sowell, a prolific black economist, was recently asked if he believed that the U.S. suffered from systemic racism.
He answered that no reliable indicators of such have been offered, so the theory could not be tested. He could well be right about that. Even if he is wrong, though, you should appreciate the intellectual rigor he brought to the question.
2. Do not argue against a straw man.
You commit the straw man fallacy when you argue against a caricature of a position. Just as a straw man is not a real man, a straw man argument attacks a false representation of a position.
Consider the person who says, “You Christians must appeal to blind faith. You’re afraid of rational arguments.” This person misrepresents the Bible and the history of the church. There is an entire discipline for defending Christianity as true, rational, and meaningful; it’s called apologetics.
Or if someone says, “You political conservatives support the Confederacy, and you don’t even care that the Confederate flag stands for racism,” she is arguing against a straw man, being a conservative doesn’t require supporting the Confederacy. It is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for conservatism.
3. Beware the false dichotomy.
This may be the king of the fallacies. If not, then it’s co-king with ad hominem. It speaks its lying voice everywhere.
First, consider true dichotomies. You are either an American citizen or you aren’t. You are either a Christian or you aren’t. A false dichotomy claims that it is either A or B and that’s it, there are no other alternatives, when, in fact, there are others. So, we hear many say, “Don’t do apologetics, preach the gospel!” Why not do both well? There is no contradiction between them, and the Bible calls us to do both.
Or, someone might say, “You are either with Black Lives Matter or you are a racist.” But certainly the field of non-racists is larger than the set of people who adhere to the basic tenets of Black Lives Matter. It is an organization, after all. Much of what it affirms is open to question.
