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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
by 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 agoThe 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...