A substantive criticism of the focus on Logical Fallacies

The following post refers to a paper that proposes getting rid of the notion of logical fallacies. 

• https://maartenboudry.blogspot.jp/2017/06/the-fallacy-fork-why-its-time-to-get.html

“By carelessly throwing around labels and crying foul at every turn, defenders of science and reason may actually harm their own cause. People may start to harbor sympathy for the targets of such unfair dismissal – in other words, for woo. And indeed, the complacency of skeptics is understandable. Precisely because doctrines like homeopathy and astrology have been debunked so many times in so many ways, and because it is so unlikely that its advocates will ever rehabilitate their cause, it is tempting for skeptics to become lazy and smug. If you have the truth on your side anyway, why not?

But that would be a pity indeed. Even bad ideas don’t deserve bad criticism. It’s time for skeptics and other fallacy buffs to get rid of fallacies.”

Acknowledging Contributions

There has been a considerable amount of constructive feedback offered by a number of visitors. This is greatly appreciated. Changese were made, enough to call this version of the site 2.1. All future suggestions will be carefully considered. Thanks.

2015 Edition

This spring we are going through each fallacy another time to add content and to eliminate mistakes. This should be completed by the end of March. Once again, any suggestions you have are greatly welcomed.

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Update: This process has been completed. We are calling this version of the site “2.0”.

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We enter our 2nd year

It was a busy year for other projects, but, in spite of the neglect, this site did receive considerable traffic. Over the next few weeks, I plan to go through each fallacy one more time, and rewrite each as clearly as possible. I will also include more case studies, so if readers would like to contribute, this would be much appreciated.

Version 1.0 & PDF Flashcards

I just uploaded expanded versions of each fallacy, plus a “flashcard” PDF file of the fallacies with names and definitions on one card, and an example on the next card. I’ve also solicited the help of a recent philosophy graduate on this project. The agenda is to further clarify the definitions and examples, then to add case studies.

Update: The flash cards have been removed. A revised edition will be introduced in the future.

Beta Version 0.5

I’ve just uploaded 115 fallacy pages. There are gaps in content, over-lapping fallacies and possible errors, but the format looks fine. I hope to get more done this weekend. If you’ve stumbled upon this site, feel free to give advice. It’s going to be quite the balancing act to accommodate each fallacy’s frequency, logical space, and conventional name, definition and usage.

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Εὕρηκα!

Eureka! The site concept arose while playing around with the development of logical fallacy flashcards. Over the past 10 years, I’ve been informally collecting logical fallacies by engaging others of various philosophical, theological and political persuasions on-line. It feels like it’s time to bring them all together into one well-structured source. It remains to be seen whether I can muster the focus to finish the site.

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