It's final exam day here in my world–Critical Thinking is the course. A friend on Face Book posted this article about being a Republican who believed climate change to be a real thing. Actually, the article is about understanding what the claim about climate change entails, in particular the difference between climate and weather. This difference … Continue reading Final Exam
The only thing that makes George Will madder (and more incoherent) than "global warming" are teachers' unions. Just as teachers' unions have singularly (without any interference from any other causal factor) been able to destroy public education and all that's good in America, environmentalists aim to destroy the economy for their Marxist political agenda. I … Continue reading The Green Hornet
Sometimes you read the same column over and over again. Today provides one example. A still very confused Robert Samuelson writes: >But the overriding reality seems almost un-American: We simply don’t have a solution for this problem. As we debate it, journalists should resist the temptation to portray global warming as a morality tale — … Continue reading Morality tales
Yesterday in my seminar on the philosophy of religion we had a discussion about burden of proof. Burden questions seem to be a tricky mix of psychology, politics, and epistemology–to name a few things. And this goes back to the second feature of critical thinking–at least the second one we came up with here (yesterday)–i.e., … Continue reading Weird Science
It may take a few days to sort out the sheer idiocy of George Will’s Sunday Post column. The other day–with a little help from our new friends down under–my colleague discussed the argument from ignorance that Will has been flogging for quite a while now. On “This Week” last week (click here for the … Continue reading Heads up!
Special note: we’re in the process of rewriting this page–if you think we ought to add anything, or if you think we ought to clarify something, or you have fun examples of any of the fallacies you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below. What’s a non sequitur? … Continue reading What’s a non sequitur?
Only just recently George Will argued that Michael Crichton’s appendixed and footnoted science-fiction thriller about global warming–sorry, climate change–merited unironic juxtaposition with the body of unthrilling and nonfictional scientific research from the majority of the world’s qualified scientists. Now this past week in The Washington Post he argues that Larry Summers’ off the cuff and … Continue reading Ad Feminam
The editors of *Thenonsequitur.com* would like to apologize for their rather long vacation, which they enjoyed doing their regular jobs. The editors also apologize for not posting a notice to that effect. The fact is, however, they never intended to take a vacation; it took them. But, in addition to that, they have to admit … Continue reading State of Ignorance