Re: virus: Belief and Knowledge (was: The truth about faith)

David McFadzean (morpheus@lucifer.com)
Sat, 5 Jul 1997 17:45:44 -0600


> From: Reed Konsler <konsler@ascat.harvard.edu>
> Date: Saturday, July 05, 1997 12:06 PM
>
> But, David, I am surprised:
>
> [reference: I highly recommend this logic gallery:
> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies]
>
> Fallacy: Appeal to Authority, designated as meme <a>
> Fallacy: Appeal to Popularity, designated as meme <b>
> Fallacy: Ridicule, designated as meme <c>
> Fallacy: Appeal to Consequences of a Belief, designated as meme <d>
>
> "I hope the thousands <b> of scientists <a> that work in the field of
> abnormal psychology don't find out that their work is
> imaginary<c,d>!" -David McFadzean

Wow, four fallacies in a single statement! Too bad its not true.

Do you think scientists working in abnormal psychology are
irrelevant to the question of whether logic can be applied to
illogical matters? Obviously not. That is what they do.

Do thousands of scientists amount to most people? Nope.

I admit to using sarcasm (I thought it would make the point
better, sorry). I don't think that is ridicule.

Consequences of Belief has to do with saying X is true
of false because of the positive or negative consequences.
Since I was joking I don't think it applies at all.

Let me spell it out for people who don't want to make the
effort of the Discipline of Translation:

Tim said that logic is silent on illogical matters.

I say a counter example exists in the people working is
abnormal psychology (this is just the most obvious of
many possible counter examples). If abnormal psychology
doesn't count as an illogical matter, then tell me what
does and I'll try again.

(Hidden assumption: a counter example is sufficient to
show that a claim is not true. I guess if you don't care
for logic or consistency then my logical argument will
carry very little weight.)

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/