4 ms·

You realize tautology is a logical fallacy, right?

• pdonis 2y ago
  Huh? A tautology is a statement that is automatically true by the laws of logic.
  • maxbond 2y ago
    GP is correct that the argument contains an informal fallacy[1], and people often express this criticism by saying "your argument is tautological," and you are correct that a tautology is a statement which is always true [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_(logic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_(logic)
    • pdonis 2y ago
      > GP is correct that the argument contains an informal fallacy The GP didn't say that. As for which informal fallacy the GGP's argument contained, I would say it was more like a false dilemma. And the GGP did say "almost tautological", which implicitly recognizes that there might be other possibilities. > people often express this criticism by saying "your argument is tautological," I have never seen this (nonsensical) way of expressing the criticism that an argument is false by saying that it is tautological (and therefore true).
      • deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      • maxbond 2y ago
        The point is that it's an overloaded term, which makes it easy to talk past each other. If you wish to see usages like I described, have a look here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22argument%20is%20tautological%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
• schrodinger 2y ago
  It's like saying "A beginner is new to a subject." That's tautological since the definition of beginner implies being new to a subject. Those aren't logical fallacies; they're just not very useful.
• auggierose 2y ago
  It is not. It is actually quite the opposite.
• pfdietz 2y ago
  The first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club. https://xkcd.com/703/ https://xkcd.com/703/