{"id":1118,"date":"2009-01-07T09:52:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-07T13:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2009-01-07T11:28:59","modified_gmt":"2009-01-07T15:28:59","slug":"argumentum-ad-nit-picking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/?p=1118","title":{"rendered":"Argumentum ad nit-picking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here's<\/a> an interesting bad argument I think we've maybe touched on a few times before. Seems fallacious in the form described, but I'm not sure how to categorize it. Relevance? Ignoratio Elenchi?<\/p>\n

1. Critics of W's policy X were right about the overall undesirability of X (because of hypothetical consequences Y).<\/p>\n

2. But, those critics were mistaken in predicting the details of actual consequences Z as Y.<\/p>\n

3. Thus, they were no more right about X than W.<\/p>\n

You were right to tell me not to drink and drive, but not because I might wreck my car. It turns out I killed someone, so we're both right and we're both wrong about drunk driving. (You were right that I should not drink and drive, and I was right that the danger of wrecking my car was not the real<\/em> reason to not drink and drive.) This would seem to be a nice ignoratio elenchi. <\/p>\n

The difference between hypothetical consequences as reasons and unknown unintended consequences as reasons to do something seems to be an equivocation. Even if it turns out that I did not wreck my car, the danger of doing so is still a reason for not drinking and driving. <\/p>\n

But the argument is interesting since forms of it seem to be good.<\/p>\n

1. You said I had reason Y to do X.<\/p>\n

2. I had reason Z to do X.<\/p>\n

3. My not doing X is excusable because I didn't know that I had reason Z to do X though I knew that I did not have reason Y to do X.<\/p>\n

Seems like sometimes the argument is really an attempt to conceal one failure in deliberation with another. <\/p>\n

1. Your argument Y against policy X was a bad one. <\/p>\n

2. And neither of us saw that there was a good argument Z against X. <\/p>\n

3. Therefore, I wasn't wrong to do X. <\/p>\n

In its political employment I suspect that it hangs on the falsity of the second premise, or on a different form of culpability if 2 is true. Either 2 is true and therefore you're incompetent (you ought to have known), or 2 is false, and therefore you're foolish. Though the first side of the disjunction is undermined by the claim "even my critics didn't see this" <\/em>and so I should not be culpable for not seeing it either." <\/p>\n

 Anyone recall any good examples of this? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here's an interesting bad argument I think we've maybe touched on a few times before. Seems fallacious in the form described, but I'm not sure how to categorize it. Relevance? Ignoratio Elenchi? 1. Critics of W's policy X were right about the overall undesirability of X (because of hypothetical consequences Y). 2. But, those critics … Continue reading Argumentum ad nit-picking?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenonsequitur.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}