Nonsense A Handbook of Logical Fallacies By: Robert J Gula ISBN: 0966190858 See detail of this book on Amazon.com Book served by AMAZON NOIR (www.amazon-noir.com) project by: PAOLO CIRIO paolocirio.net UBERMORGEN.COM ubermorgen.com ALESSANDRO LUDOVICO neural.it Page 1 CHAPTER One Everyday Nonsense "I just know that that doesn't make any sense, but I'm not sure why." It's frustrating to know in your heart that what you've just heard is nonsense but not to be able to pinpoint why it is nonsense . If you've ever found yourself in that position, this book should help. It identifies and itemizes the many different guises that erroneous thinking may assume, and it explains some of the reasons for erroneous thinking. This book will not turn you into a skilled rebuttalist, but it will give you the ammunition to become one. And, even more important, it will put you in a position of strength in steering a discussion. You'll find many of your friends and acquaintances throughout these pages, but you will also find yourself from time to time. None of us is immune to nonsense. Are men and women by nature hopelessly muddled creatures ? By nature, yes. Muddled, yes. Hopelessly, no. Men and women may be rational animals, but they are not by nature reasoning animals. Careful and clear thinking requires a certain rigor; it is a skill, and, like all skills, it requires training, practice , and vigilance. Before one can use one's reason, one should know the traps that are always awaiting the untutored mind. Hence this book-a book on nonsense, a summary of the devices that camouflage and subvert reason. If we recognize the Page 2 NONSENSE pitfalls and ruses, we may be able to avoid them and we may be able to discourage others from relying upon them. First, some general principles. Let's not call them laws; and, since they're not particularly original, I won't attach my name to them. They are merely a description of patterns that seem to characterize the ways that people tend to respond and think. For example, people: 1. tend to believe what they want to believe. 2. tend to project their own biases or experiences upon situations. 3. tend to generalize from a specific event. 4. tend to get personally involved in the analysis of an issue and tend to let their feelings overcome a sense of objectivity. 5. are not good listeners. They hear selectively. They often hear only what they want to hear. 6. are eager to rationalize. 7. are often unable to distinguish what is relevant from what is irrelevant. 8. are easily diverted from the specific issue at hand. 9. are usually unwilling to explore thoroughly the rami- fications of a topic; tend to oversimplify. 10. often judge from appearances. They observe something , misinterpret what they observe, and make terrible errors in judgment. 11. often simply don't know what they are talking about, especially in matters of general discussion. They rarely think carefully before they speak, but they allow their feelings, prejudices, biases, likes, dislikes, hopes, and frustrations to supersede careful thinking. Page 3 EVERYDAY NONSENSE 3 I (cid:26)2. rarely act according to a set of consistent standards. Rarely do they examine the evidence and then form a conclusion. Rather, they tend to do whatever they want to do and to believe whatever they want to believe and then find whatever evidence will support their actions or their beliefs. They often think selectively : in evaluating a situation they are eager to find reasons to support what they want to support and they are just as eager to ignore or disregard reasons that don't support what they want. 13. often do not say what they mean and often do not mean what they say. To these principles, let's add four observations cited by J.A.C. Brown in his Techniques of Persuasion: "Most people want to feel that issues are simple rather than complex, want to have their prejudices confirmed, want to feel that they 'belong ' with the implication that others do not, and need to pinpoint an enemy to blame for their frustrations." The above comments may seem jaundiced. They are not meant to be. They are not even meant to be critical or judgmental . They merely suggest that it is a natural human tendency to be subjective rather than objective and that the untrained mind will usually take the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance is rarely through reason. Page 4 CHAPTER Two Emotional Language His tongue Dropt Manna, and could make the worse appear The better reason, to perplex and dash Maturest Counsels: for his thoughts were low; To vice industrious, but to Nobler deeds Timorous and slothful; yet he pleas'd the ear. -Milton, Paradise Lost, II We all have emotional needs: the need to love, to be loved, to be accepted, to feel a sense of accomplishment, to feel a sense of self-worth, to feel important, to feel needed, to protect ourselves , to attain status in our own eyes and in the eyes of others, to be secure. These needs, in turn, conceal other emotions: love, hate, fear, jealousy, anger, guilt, greed, hope, loyalty. The emotions are fragile and sensitive. They are easily tampered with and they are easily manipulated. A person who knows how to appeal to our emotions can deceive us, manipulate us, and get us to accept as true that which is untrue. The following are some of the ways that the emotions are preyed upon in order to deceive reason. If we recognize them, we may be able to avoid deception and manipulation. Appeal to pity (argumentum ad misericordiam). Instead of giving carefully documented reasons, evidence, and facts, a Page 5 EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE 15 person appeals to our sense of pity, compassion, brotherly love. We are shown a picture of an emaciated child, a victim of malnutrition , and we are urged to send as large a donation as we can to a fund chartered to feed starving children. Now, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with such an appeal. But we should not be so na(cid:26) as to think that all of our donation will, in fact, go toward feeding a starving child. How much of that donation will be used for administration, for other advertisements , for plush salaries for the executives of the fund? The problem with this particular appeal to pity is that it does not tell us how our donation is going to be used and that it does not even assure us that the donation will be used for the purpose for which it was solicited. The appeal to pity is often used in personal relationships. Mr. Brown's business is failing and he is trying to secure a bank loan. "If you don't give me the loan," he exclaims to the bank official, "I will have to declare bankruptcy. I'll be wiped out." This is sometimes an effective appeal, but it is not logically sound. The bank official would be a fool to authorize the loan unless he were convinced that Mr. Brown had enough business sense to use that loan productively. A variation of the appeal to pity is the plea for special treatment . Sammy, a not particularly gifted basketball player, goes up to his coach: "You've got to let me play in tonight's game. My family is visiting me and they've never seen me play." Presuming that winning is most important, Sammy's plea is not a good reason to allow the boy to play, and, if the coach is a sensitive person, he is in an awkward position. Should he, against his better judgment, treat Sammy as a special case and risk losing the game? The appeal to pity is a favorite rhetorical device. A fine example appears in a speech delivered by that famous lawyer Clarence Darrow. In 1924 he was defending Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who were on trial for murder. The issue was not guilt; guilt had been established; rather, the issue was Page 6 NONSENSE a whether the two men should be executed or sentenced to life imprisonment. But there are others to consider. Here are these two families, who have led honest lives, who will bear the name that they bear, and future generations must carry it on. Here is Leopold's father-and this boy was the pride of his life. He watched him, he cared for him, he worked for him; the boy was brilliant and accomplished , he educated him, and he thought that fame and position awaited him, as it should have awaited. It is a hard thing for a father to see his life's hopes crumble into dust. Should he be considered? Should his brothers be considered ? Will it do society any good or make your life safer, or any human being's life safer, if it should be handed down from generation to generation, that his boy, their kin, died upon the scaffold? And Loeb's the same. Here are the faithful uncle and brother who have watched here day by day, while Dickie's father and mother are too ill to stand this terrific strain, and shall be waiting for a message which means more to them than it can mean to you or me. Shall these be taken into account in this general bereavement? Have they any rights? Is there any reason, Your Honor, why their proud names and all the future generations that bear them shall have this bar sinister written across them? How many boys and girls, how many unborn children will feel it? It is bad enough as it is, God knows. It is bad enough, however it is. But it's not yet death on the scaffold. It's not that. And I ask Your Honor, in addition to all that I have said, to save two honorable families from a disgrace that never ends, and which could be of no avail to help any human being that lives. Page 7 EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE 7 e? Closely connected with the appeal to pity is the appeal to guilt. Let's return to a previous example. We are shown a picture of a starving child; then we are shown a picture of a comfortable family at the dinner table. "You don't have to worry," the advertisement proclaims; "you have all you need. You have it so good compared to the millions of starving people all over the world." We are invited to feel guilty because of our comfort. And, it is implied or perhaps even stated, we will feel even more guilty if we don't contribute. We are invited to think of that starving child the next time we bite into our supper. That image will haunt us until we donate. Three points can be made about this appeal to guilt. First, no one has the right to prey upon our emotional balance. Second, unless sound reasons can be given for the speculation that we ought to feel guilty, that speculation is worthless. Third, even if we were to feel guilty, we have been given no reasons to do what the ad is suggesting; there is still no assurance that our donation will effect any palpable good. The appeal to fear (argumentum ad mentum) tries to frighten us into a specific action or into accepting a specific belief . "If you don't do X, then Y will happen." Of course, Y is something dreadful. "If you don't get the enemy first, he'll get you." But in order for the statement to have any validity, the speaker is obligated to show a specific cause-and-effect relationship between X and Y. For example, you bring your car to a garage for a tune-up; the mechanic says that the transmission is about to go, and he then proceeds to describe what will happen when the transmission does go. If the mechanic is unscrupulous, he is merely appealing to your sense of fear. In order for his claim to be sound, he is obliged to tell you specifically why he concludes that the transmission is faulty. Sometimes the appeal to fear is personally directed. The protection racket employed by organized crime is an example. "See Billy's Bar? See what that freak fire did to it? Don't you think you should have protection in case the same thing should happen