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I hope to one day see a thread with no misplaced logical fallacies.

by personZ 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Dewie 12y ago
What are you even trying to say? The appeals to authority are not always used in a fallacious way (like the informal logical fallacy). But I don't personally like it, and I think it is intellectually lazy. It's better to let the product itself stand or fall on its own merit.
- personZ 12y ago
  Your incantation of the logical fallacy is how it often appears in what could best be described as ignorant conversations. The appeal to authority fallacy is if I measured the acidity in a lake over a long term period, and then presented my findings and someone declares that such can't be the case because the Environment Agency says it's fine. They're undermining my objective, demonstrated efforts with a hand waving appeal to someone else. If, on the other hand, I casually and lazily said "I think that there lake is acidic, no matter what anyone tells me", it isn't an appeal to authority to point out what someone who is undoubtedly in a better position thinks and actually knows. In this case someone offhandedly, based upon nothing but the fact that they seem to want it to be true, declared the ease with which the Go team -- you know, the actual people working on it -- could add generics. No fuss, no muss. It isn't an appeal to authority to point out that they are in absolutely no position to make such a claim.
  - Dewie 12y ago
    > Your incantation of the logical fallacy is how it often appears in what could best be described as ignorant conversations. Like I said; I didn't mean that you, or necessarily people in general, use the appeal in a fallacious way. But it was my fault for not making that clear to begin with. This is a general note, not thinking of any post or argument in particular: I can hardly count the number of times people who advocate Go will bring up the fact that people like Rob Pike and Ken Thompson are or have been involved in the project, and how smart they are and even 'how can I even question their work, given their skill and talent'.

I hope to one day see a thread with no misplaced logical fallacies.

by personZ 12y ago

I hope to one day see a thread with no misplaced logical fallacies.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Dewie 12y ago

What are you even trying to say? The appeals to authority are not always used in a fallacious way (like the informal logical fallacy). But I don't personally like it, and I think it is intellectually lazy. It's better to let the product itself stand or fall on its own merit.

personZ 12y ago
Your incantation of the logical fallacy is how it often appears in what could best be described as ignorant conversations. The appeal to authority fallacy is if I measured the acidity in a lake over a long term period, and then presented my findings and someone declares that such can't be the case because the Environment Agency says it's fine. They're undermining my objective, demonstrated efforts with a hand waving appeal to someone else. If, on the other hand, I casually and lazily said "I think that there lake is acidic, no matter what anyone tells me", it isn't an appeal to authority to point out what someone who is undoubtedly in a better position thinks and actually knows. In this case someone offhandedly, based upon nothing but the fact that they seem to want it to be true, declared the ease with which the Go team -- you know, the actual people working on it -- could add generics. No fuss, no muss. It isn't an appeal to authority to point out that they are in absolutely no position to make such a claim.
- Dewie 12y ago
  > Your incantation of the logical fallacy is how it often appears in what could best be described as ignorant conversations. Like I said; I didn't mean that you, or necessarily people in general, use the appeal in a fallacious way. But it was my fault for not making that clear to begin with. This is a general note, not thinking of any post or argument in particular: I can hardly count the number of times people who advocate Go will bring up the fact that people like Rob Pike and Ken Thompson are or have been involved in the project, and how smart they are and even 'how can I even question their work, given their skill and talent'.