ipse dixit

ad hominem

antonym(s) of “unproved dogmatic assertion”

Borrowed from Latin ipse dīxit (“he himself said it”), calque of Ancient Greek αὐτὸς ἔφα (autòs épha).
Originally used by the followers of Pythagoreanism, who claimed this or that proposition to be uttered by Pythagoras himself. Extended during the Middle Ages to the statements of Aristotle, and more famously used in such contexts.

calque

To avoid, therefore, all imputation of laying down a rule for posterity, founded only on the authority of ipse dixit—for which, to say the truth, we have not the profoundest veneration...

1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume V, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book i:

Mr. Lincoln has not character enough for integrity and truth, merely on his own ipse dixit, to arraign President Buchanan, President Pierce, and nine Judges of the Supreme Court, not one of whom would be complimented by being put on an equality with him. There is an unpardonable presumption in a man putting himself up before thousands of people, and pretending that his ipse dixit, without proof, without fact, and without truth, is enough to bring down and destroy the purest and best of living men.

1858 August 21, Stephen A. Douglas, parliamentary debates, Ottawa, Illinois:

(rhetoric) A dogmatic and unproved proposition or dictum that is accepted solely on the authority of someone who is known to have asserted it.


ipse dixit

[ˈɪps̠ɛ ˈd̪iːks̠ɪt̪]

Calque of Ancient Greek αὐτὸς ἔφα (autòs épha, “he himself said it”), originally used by Pythagoreans.

(rhetoric, chiefly Medieval Latin) Used after a statement claimed to be by Aristotle, whose absolute authority made it incontestable.


non sequitur

en-noun

non sequitur (plural non sequiturs or non sequuntur)

non sequiturs (plural)
non sequuntur (plural)

Learned borrowing from Latin phrase nōn sequitur (“it does not follow”).

what does that have to do with the price of tea in China

Having a costumed superhero abduct the vicar was an utter non sequitur in the novel.

Non sequiturs, gratuitous acts, frustrating ellipses, ambiguities, a dearth of emotion: Miss [Lillian] Hellman avails herself of all these current techniques in telling a story that she keeps telling us may not be a story at all.

1980 May 13, Anatole Broyard, “Books of The Times”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(narratology) Any abrupt and inexplicable transition or occurrence.

Gedankensprung

any abrupt and inexplicable transition or occurrence

(logic) Any invalid argument in which the conclusion cannot be logically deduced from the premises.

Ralph Wiggum is generally employed as a bottomless fount of glorious non sequiturs, but in “I Love Lisa” he stands in for every oblivious chump who ever deluded himself into thinking that with persistence, determination, and a pure heart he can win the girl of his dreams.

2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in AV Club:

A statement that does not logically follow a statement that came before it.

Coordinate term: paraprosdokian

(humor) A kind of pun that uses a change of word, subject, or meaning to make a joke of the listener’s expectation.


ad hominem

Audio (US)

Ellipsis of the Latin expression argumentum ad hominem (“argument at the person”). It can also mean attacking the messenger.


ad hominem

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ad hominem


vicious circle

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-vicious circle.wav

(logic) A fallacy in which the premise is used to prove a conclusion which is then used to prove the premise.


move the goalposts

en-verb

move the goalposts (third-person singular simple present moves the goalposts, present participle moving the goalposts, simple past and past participle moved the goalposts)

moves the goalposts (present singular third-person)
moving the goalposts (participle present)
moved the goalposts (participle past)
moved the goalposts (past)

/ˈmuːv ðə ˈɡəʊlpəʊsts/

/ˈmuːv ðə ˈɡɔʊlpəʊsts/

A metaphor of British origin derived from association football (soccer), from the idea that it is difficult for a player to kick the ball into the goal if it is moved.

This is a Government that meets its economic targets and does not move the goalposts.

We were given a moving date, and an exchange date, but the buyers kept moving the goalposts and giving us a later date.

The tempo at which events are moving, the technological changes and the new developments being encountered on all sides sometimes gives the impression that the objectives or goal posts are constantly being moved.

[1958, Telephone Engineer and Management, volume 62, Wheaton, Ill.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publications, →OCLC, page 64:

The conflict between being a lady and having a career was crystallized when I was in high school. It seemed as if my mother kept moving the goalposts around.

1977, The Ladies’ Home Journal, volume 94, Los Angeles, Calif.: Family Media, inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 62, column 3:

The common thread to these four problems is the question of wha can reasonably be inferred about the covert processes, as opposed to the overt acts, of other organisms if we and they cannot communicate directly through verbal disclosure. […] No one baulks at applying the same standards of inference to other cultures of our species, but it is still easy to move the goalposts when another species is involved[…].

1992, W[illiam] C[lement] McGrew, “What Chimpanzees Are, Are Not, and Might Be”, in Chimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 1996, →ISBN, page 217:

Sooner or later we have to have rules, and we have to know that they are not going to change, for people to have business plans developed and so that they can go out and raise capital and stick with their business model. But if there is this constant uncertainty that when the Commission changes, or when they have another rule tha they are going to move the goal posts again, nobody is going to want to have anything to do with this field.

2003 January 14, Peter G[osselin] Fitzgerald, “Statement of Hon. Peter G. Fitzgerald, U.S. Senator from Illinois”, in Competition in the Telecommunications Industry: Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Eighth Congress, First Session, Washington, D.C.: Printed for use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; U.S. Government Printing Office, published 2006, →ISBN, page 85:

He had to put down a deposit of sixty grand to secure the theatre and just as he was about to sign the cheque, American Equity moved the goalposts yet again.

2010, Mike Bradwell, The Reluctant Escapologist: Adventures in Alternative Theatre, London: Nick Hern Books, →ISBN, page 249:

When a practice harmfully moves the goalposts, but does not violate freedom to trade, the ban on "unfair methods of competition" in Section 5 of the FTC Act might be a better fit than the ban on restraints of trade in the Sherman Act.

2015, Aaron Edlin, Joseph Farrell, “Freedom to Trade and the Competitive Process”, in Roger D. Blair, D. Daniel Sokol, editors, The Oxford Handbook of International Antitrust Economics, volume 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, section 13.5 (Bundling and Loyalty Pricing), pages 305–306:

(idiomatic) To alter the terms of an agreement or an agreed target, or the rules of a negotiation while it is ongoing, especially in an unfair way.

搬龍門 /搬龙门

to alter the terms of an agreement or an agreed target, or the rules of a negotiation while it is ongoing

menet közben változtatja meg a játékszabályokat

menet közben változtat a játékszabályokon


Bulverism

Coined by British writer, lay theologian and scholar C. S. Lewis in 1941.

coinage

[Y]ou must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. The modern method is to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became so silly. In the course of the last fifteen years I have found this vice so common that I have had to invent a name for it. I call it Bulverism. Some day I am going to write the biography of its imaginary inventor, Ezekiel Bulver, whose destiny was determined at the age of five when he heard his mother say to his father—who had been maintaining that two sides of a triangle were together greater than the third—'Oh you say that because you are a man.'

[1944, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “'Bulverism': or, the Foundation of 20th Century Thought”, in Walter Hooper, editor, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, Grand Rapids, M.I.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, published 1970, →ISBN, page 273:

A rhetorical fallacy in which a speaker assumes that their opponent's argument is wrong, and instead of disproving it, condescendingly explains why their opponent would have come to that conclusion.


begging the question

/ˈbɛɡɪŋ ðə ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/

It is an instance of begging the question to argue that God can only do good deeds because God is good.

But the thing which is called begging the question, is the making use of the very point, that is the thing in debate, or the thing to be proved, as an argument to prove itself. […] It is called begging the question, because it is a depending as it were on the courtesy of the other side, to grant me the point in question, without offering any argument as the price of it.

1844, [Jonathan Edwards], “Misrepresentations Corrected and Truth Vindicated, in Reply to the Rev. Solomon Williams”, in The Works of President Edwards, in Four Volumes. A Reprint of the Worcester Edition, with Valuable Editions and a Copious General Index, volume I, New York, N.Y.: Leavitt, Trow & Co., 194 Broadway; London: Wiley & Putnam, →OCLC, part III (Remarks on Mr. Williams's Reasoning), section VII (Begging the Question), page 263:

We now turn to four particular fallacies that describe special kinds of unacceptable premises. The first two – begging the question and inconsistency – are important because they identify arguments where it is unnecessary even to ask whether its premises are acceptable. […] An argument begs the question when its premises presuppose, directly or indirectly, the truth of its conclusion. […] Begging the question is sometimes referred to by its Latin name: petitio principii. Begging the question typically arises when we want to defend some strongly held conviction, yet have difficulty in finding reasons that will persuade others of its truth.

2004, William [H.] Hughes, Jonathan Lavery, “Assessing Truth-claims”, in Critical Thinking: An Introduction to the Basic Skills, 4th edition, Peterborough, Ont., Orchard Park, N.Y.: Broadview Press, →ISBN, page 133:

The begging-the-question fallacies are flawed because they assume, in a variety of ways, the truth of the conclusion in their premises. Hence, the premises provide no good reason to accept the conclusion.

2008, T. Edward Damer, “Fallacies that Violate the Structural Criterion”, in Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-free Arguments, 6th edition, Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 63:

A logical fallacy in which a premise of an argument contains a direct or indirect assumption that the conclusion is true; offering a circular argument; circular reasoning.


petitio principii

/pɪˈtɪʃiˌəʊ prɪnˈkɪpiˌaɪ/

From Latin petītiō prīncipiī (literally “an assumption from the beginning”), calque of Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhêi aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”).

uder

τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι

begging the question
begging the question

(philosophy, logic, uncountable) The logical fallacy of begging the question (i.e., "assuming the conclusion").


beg the question

en-verb

beg the question (third-person singular simple present begs the question, present participle begging the question, simple past and past participle begged the question)

begs the question (present singular third-person)
begging the question (participle present)
begged the question (participle past)
begged the question (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-beg the question.wav

From Latin petitio principii, from Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhêi aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”).

uder

τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι

The objection is that the argument begs the question, meaning that the premise, that God has all the virtues, assumes the conclusion, that God is benevolent.

1994, D. N. Walton, “Begging the question as a pragmatic fallacy.”, in Synthese, volume 100, number 1:

(philosophy, logic, law) To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii).

olettaa johtopäätös todeksi

to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)


straw man

From straw + man.
Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1986 passim, shows first known usages for things insubstantial date to 1585-95. Universal Dictionary of the English Language, 1897, Vol 4, p. 4485, notes “man of straw” as “The figure of a man formed of an old suit of clothes stuffed with straw; hence, the mere resemblance of a man; one of no substance or means; an imaginary person.”
Compare West Frisian strieman, Dutch strooman, stroman, German Strohmann, Danish stråmand, Swedish stråman, Norwegian stråmann.

If a broker or a salesperson attempts to use a straw man to purchase property for which he or she has a listing, the real estate person must specifically disclose in writing to the seller this relationship with the buyer.

2000, John W. Reilly, The Language of Real Estate, page 381:


Chewbacca defense

en-noun

Chewbacca defense (plural Chewbacca defenses)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Chewbacca defense.wav

Chewbacca (a character from the 1977 film Star Wars) + defense; coined in "Chef Aid", a 1998 episode of South Park.

But at this point John Taylor, at least — and I believe he's not alone — has gone full Chewbacca defense.

2013 July 12, Paul Krugman, “The Monetary Debate: Enter Chewbacca”, The Conscience of a Liberal, in The New York Times:

(law, humorous) Any legal strategy or propaganda strategy that seeks to overwhelm its audience with nonsensical arguments, as a way of confusing the audience and drowning out legitimate opposing arguments.

Chef Aid
Chewbacca
Chewbacca defense
South Park


post hoc ergo propter hoc

See post (“after”), propter (“because of”), hoc – neuter accusative of hic (“this”), and ergō (“therefore”).

(logic) after this, therefore because of this


slippery slope

(by extension) A logical fallacy in which a party asserts that a particular result will probably follow from a given decision or circumstance, without necessarily providing any rational argument for the likelihood of the assumed consequence.


argumentum ad nauseam

(rhetoric) The false proof of a statement by (prolonged) repetition, possibly by different people.


argumentum ad populum

argumentum ad populum (plural argumenta ad populum)

Latin: argūmentum (“argument”, “proof”) + ad (“to”, “toward”) + populum (accusative singular of populus, “people”, “nation”) ≈ “appeal to the people”

The appeals to the public were also expressed differently: that is to say, much less by fallacious argumenta ad populum that played on the fears of the addressees, than by an appeal to rational insights, humanity and democracy.

2001, Martin Reisigl, Ruth Wodak, Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism, page 166:

(rhetoric) A fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that “if many believe so, it is so”.


bandwagon fallacy

bandwagon fallacy (plural bandwagon fallacies)

argumentum ad populum
argumentum ad populum


logical fallacy

logical fallacy (plural logical fallacies)

A valid syllogism contains three terms; with four it commits the logical fallacy known as quaternio terminorum.


argumentum ad verecundiam

argumentum ad verecundiam (plural argumenta ad verecundiam)

(rhetoric) An argument from authority, or an appeal to authority.


two wrongs make a right

(logic, ethics) A logical informal fallacy whereby a wrongful action is justified by the commission of another.


argumentum ad Lazarum

argumentum ad Lazarum (plural argumenta ad Lazarum)

Latin Named after Lazarus, a beggar in the New Testament who receives his reward in the afterlife.

Indeed, the geographical fact that economic wealth and neoliberal globalization are very geographically concentrated, with just a few cities in advanced economies being the preferred locations for the world’s major stock exchanges, for the headquarters of banks and other producer service firms, cannot be wished away through either an argumentum ad lazarum (appeal to poverty) or appreciation for the diversity of urban cultures (eg, see Myers, 2011).

2013, Richard G. Smith, “The ordinary city trap”, in Environment and Planning A, volume 45, page 2290:

(rhetoric, rare) An appeal to poverty; the logical fallacy of thinking a conclusion is correct because the speaker is poor.


false dichotomy

false dichotomy (plural false dichotomies)

(botany) A branching in which the main axis appears to divide dichotomously at the apex but is in reality suppressed, the growth being continued by lateral branches (as in the dichasium).


circular argument

circular argument (plural circular arguments)

A logically circular argument’s conclusion is included as one of its premises.

2004 Nov, M Bergmann, “Epistemic Circularity: Malignant and Benign.”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 69, number 3, p. 710 n3:

(philosophy, logic) An argument which commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove.


false analogy

(logic) An informal fallacy applying to inductive arguments, in which the similarity in one respect of two concepts, objects, or events is taken as sufficient to establish that they are similar in another respect in which they actually are dissimilar.


formal fallacy

formal fallacy (plural formal fallacies)

(logic) A pattern of reasoning which is always wrong, due to a flaw in the structure of the argument.


naturalistic fallacy

naturalistic fallacy (plural naturalistic fallacies)

G. E. Moore
Principia Ethica
naturalistic fallacy

Introduced by British philosopher G. E. Moore in his 1903 book Principia Ethica.

No, we do not have to put moral reasoning in a special category and use transcendental premises, because the posing of the naturalistic fallacy is itself a fallacy. For if ought is not is, what is?

1998 April, Edward O. Wilson, “The Biological Basis of Morality”, in The Atlantic:

It is easy to fall prey to the naturalistic fallacy, which suggests that because the companies are successful, they must also be right.

2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 11, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:

The fallacious belief that something is automatically good because it is natural or automatically bad because it is unnatural.

Yet a mistake of this simple kind has commonly been made about good. It may be true that all things which are good are also something else, just as it is true that all things which are yellow produce a certain kind of vibration in the light. And it is a fact, that Ethics aims at discovering what are those other properties belonging to all things which are good. But far too many philosophers have thought that when they named those other properties they were actually defining good; that these properties, in fact, were simply not other, but absolutely and entirely the same with goodness. This view I propose to call the naturalistic fallacy and of it I shall now endeavour to dispose.

Any attempt to define "good" verbally, instead of treating it as an undefined term, in terms of which other terms are defined.


fallacy fallacy

fallacy fallacy (plural fallacy fallacies)

From the fact that assuming a conclusion is false because of a fallacy in the reasoning is itself a fallacy.

(logic) The formal fallacy of inferring that if an argument contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false.


negative proof

A fallacious judgment that, because a premise cannot be proven true, that premise must be false.


affirming the consequent

(logic) A formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:

A formal fallacy, committed by reasoning in the form:
If P, then Q.
Q.
Therefore, P.


false dilemma

A situation in which two opposing options are presented as the only possibilities, when others are available.


argumentum ad hominem

argumentum ad hominem (plural argumenta ad hominem or argumentums ad hominem)

argumenta ad hominem (plural)
argumentums ad hominem (plural)

“He is an ass on two legs, the like of which was never seen before; so go home with your logic you old heathen vagabond, and teach your grandmother to milk the ducks!” The legend which we draw on, and which, never having been in print, we quote from memory, states that this argumentum ad hominem drew down great applause from the saint's supporters, and loud cries of "order" from the ministerial side of the house.

1843 March 13, “St. Patrick's Day”, in The Illustrated London News, volume 2, number 46, page 185:

[T]hey prefer argumentum ad hominem, which is a hell of a way to conduct a discussion.

1976, Scott Beach (lyrics and music), “Religion & Politics”, in Dr. Demento’s Dementia Royale:

The Fat Clown Derek keeps saying that I am making an argumentum ad hominem against him[.]

2002 January 13, “Latin & Logic: Derek the Fat Clown knows neither”, in alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian (Usenet):

(rhetoric) A type of fallacious argument in which the attempt is made to refute a theory or belief by discrediting the person(s) who advocate that theory or belief; an ad hominem argument.


red-baiting

(US, sometimes Philippines) The (ad hominem) practice of accusing someone of being a communist, socialist or anarchist with the intention of discrediting their political views.


base rate fallacy

base rate fallacy (plural base rate fallacies)

A common error in logical reasoning where an effect is attributed to an incorrect cause because the basic statistical ratios have not been taken into account.


think of the children

en-verb

think of the children (third-person singular simple present thinks of the children, present participle thinking of the children, simple past and past participle thought of the children)

thinks of the children (present singular third-person)
thinking of the children (participle present)
thought of the children (participle past)
thought of the children (past)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:think of the children.

argumentum ad passiones
argumentum ad passiones#English

(usually as an interjection) An appeal to suspend rational consideration of an issue owing to its presumptive negative effects on the young and impressionable; usually in ironic or mocking parody of another's argumentum ad passiones or moral panic.


ignotum per ignotius

From Latin ignōtum per ignōtius, “[to explain] the unknown by the more unknown”.

(logic) A type of fallacious argument in which one attempts to prove something unknown by relying upon an assumption that is also unknown.


reductio ad Hitlerum

en-noun

reductio ad Hitlerum (plural reductio ad Hitlerums)

Coined by Leo Strauss in 1951, by analogy with reductio ad absurdum.

Just on Twitter alone, there were too many arguments, too many reductio ad Hitlerums for me to handle alone.

2018, Carl Miller, chapter 7, in The Death of the Gods […] , William Heinemann, →ISBN:

An attempt to invalidate someone else's argument on the basis that the same idea was promoted or practiced by Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party.


appeal to authority

appeal to authority (plural appeals to authority)

(rhetoric) Deeming an assertion to be true because of the position or the authority of the person asserting it.


non distributio medii

From Latin, literally "undistributed middle".

An educated man must be in some sort instructed; but it is a mere non distributio medii to say that an instructed person must be an educated person.

1932, Albert Jay Nock, The Theory of Education in the United States:

categorical syllogism
categorical syllogism

A logical fallacy that is committed when the middle term in a categorical syllogism isn't distributed.


argumentum ad fidem

argumentum ad fidem (plural argumenta ad fidem)

Latin: argūmentum (“argument”, “proof”) + ad (“to”, “toward”) + fidem (accusative singular of fidēs, “faith”, “belief”) ≈ “appeal to faith”

For quotations using this term, see Citations:argumentum ad fidem.

(rhetoric) A fallacious argument that asserts the truth of a proposition by an appeal to pious testimony or religious revelation.


argumentum ad passiones

argumentum ad passiones (plural argumenta ad passiones)

/ɑːɡjuːˈmɛntəm æd pæsɪˈəʊniːz/

Latin: argūmentum (“argument”, “proof”) + ad (“to”, “toward”) + passiōnēs (accusative plural of passio, “suffering”, “passion”) ≈ “appeal to the passions”

When an argument is borrowed from any topics which are ſuited to engage the inclinations and paſſions of the hearers on the ſide of the ſpeaker, rather than to convince the judgment, this is argumentum ad paſſiones, an addreſs to the paſſions; or if it be made publicly, it is called ad populum, or an appeal to the people.

1724, Isaac Watts, “Logick: or, The Right Uſe of Reaſon”, in Works, publiſhed by himſelf, V (1753), page 154:

Divide your sentence into three distinct members, each member commencing with the same words, but terminating with words conveying different ideas. […] Sometimes three or more kindred words may have the same happy effect, in which case we should have a view […] to alliteration. […] This mode may be denominated argumentum ad passiones.

1825 September, Lachlan MᶜLean, “Essay on Composition” in The Glasgow Mechanics’ Magazine IV:xcv (15th October 1825), page 142

The argumentum ad passiones, or the argumentum ad populum, is an argument similarly irrelevant with the type of argumentum ad hominem we have just been considering. Here it is not the judgment that is convinced, but the inclinations and passions.

1908, William Ralph Boyce Gibson, Augusta Klein, The Problem of Logic, page 288:

The speaker uses the argumentum ad hominem by comparing his race with the Chosen People, an argumentum ad fidem in exploiting for the purposes of his similitude their belief in the miraculous origin of the tables of the law, and an argumentum ad passiones in his description of the browbeating of a small inspired race by the arrogant spokesman of a mighty empire.

1930, Stuart Gilbert in: Howard Russell Huse, The Illiteracy of the Literate (1933), page 175

(rhetoric) An appeal or argument intended to convince the listener(s) by agitating the emotions, rather than by appealing to sober judgment.


ad verecundiam

Shortened from Latin argumentum ad verecundiam (“argument to modesty”).

der

Appeal to authority, argument from authority.


Barnum effect

Named after American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum.

named-after

The tendency of individuals to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.


fallacy of composition

en-noun

fallacy of composition (plural fallacies of composition)

A theorist who moves from the putative fact that every shot in a given nonfiction film represents a personal point-of-view to the conclusion that every nonfiction film is a personal vision commits the fallacy of composition.

1996 March 29, Noël Carroll, Theorizing the Moving Image, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 229:

There is a small segment of the psychology literature that effectively commits a fallacy of composition, reasoning that if we can explain individual behavior, then this carries over immediately to the group.

2012, “Conclusion: Psychology, Neuroscience, and Economics”, in David K. Levine, editor, Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?: The Ordinary versus the Extraordinary, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, →ISBN, →OL, page 127:

The cosmological argument, according to Edwards, commits the fallacy of composition because it assumes that because each part of the universe is caused that therefore the universe as a whole must have a cause, but that doesn't take into account the possibility of an infinite regress of events.

2013 August 5, Richard E. Creel, Philosophy of Religion: The Basics, Wiley Blackwell:

A presumption that if something is true of part(s) of a whole, then it is true of the whole itself.


special pleading

special pleading (countable and uncountable, plural special pleadings)

Lt. Gilbert deserves a full and fair hearing just like everyone else, no matter how the chips fall, no special pleading, and no playing the gender card.

1997 September 30, The Court-Martial of Sandra Gilbert (JAG), season 3, episode 2:

Arguing that a particular case is an exception to a generally accepted rule, without justification and without a relevant basis.


argumentum ad baculum

Unadapted borrowing from Latin argūmentum ad baculum (literally “argument to the cudgel”).

ubor

(rhetoric) The use or threat of force to coerce acceptance of an argument.


masked man fallacy

en-noun

masked man fallacy (plural masked man fallacies)

That is to say, one cannot infer from one's subjective state of certainty and uncertainty about two propositions, to the objective connection or lack of connection between them; but it is just such an inference that Descartes seems to be making about himself and his body, and which gives his argument its embarrassing resemblance to the masked man fallacy.

1978, Bernard Williams, Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry, New York: Routledge, published 2005, page 97:

Consider the Masked Man fallacy, which shows that I can know something under one description but not under another.

1999, Jonathan E. Pike, From Aristotle to Marx: Aristotelianism in Marxist social ontology, Ashgate, page 176:

[…] that because the per diem payments are compensatory, ipso facto they are not travel expenses. Without further explication, this latter proposition might be thought to exemplify a species of the so-called masked man fallacy ("I know who my father is; I do not know who the masked man is; so, my father is not the masked man.").

2001, Reports of the Tax Court of the United States, volume 117:

(logic, philosophy) A fallacy of inferring that since one knows (or does not know) something by one description, one must know (or not know) it by another, as in "I know who my father is. I do not know who the masked man is. Therefore, my father is not the masked man."


argumentum ad crumenam

argumentum ad crumenam (plural argumenta ad crumenam)

That it be known and distinguished by the name and title of the Argumentum Fistulatorium, and no other;—and that it rank here∣after with the Argumentum Baculinum, and the Argumentum ad Crumenam, and for ever hereafter be treated of in the same chapter.

1759, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman:

The argumentum ad crumenam, however, is understood wherever there are pockets to appeal to, and even where there are none.

1908 December 19, “An Unsavoury Bait”, in The British Medical Journal, volume 2, number 2503, →JSTOR, page 1832:

An electioneering budget is an argumentum ad crumenam, and most elections in democracies have a strong element of this old argument.

1991 April 12, Philip Howard, “Rhetoric and All That Rot”, in The Times, London:

Because this rich individual obviously made many correct choices in life, his belief in Jesus, according to the apologist, only makes sense. We call such a ridiculous proposal argumentum ad crumenam, an argument based on wealth.

2005 January 19, Jason Long, Biblical Nonsense: A Review of the Bible for Doubting Christians, Lincoln, IN: iUniverse, →ISBN, →OL, page 25:

(rhetoric) The logical fallacy of concluding that a proposition is correct because the person advancing it is rich.


ignoratio elenchi

/ˌɪɡ.nəˈɹeɪ.ʃiˌoʊ ɪˈlɛŋ.kaɪ/

/ˌɪɡ.nəˈɹɑ.tiˌoʊ/

From Latin ignōrātiō elenchī (“ignorance of the refutation”).

bor

The fallacy of presenting an argument that may or may not be logically valid, but fails to address the issue in question.


no true Scotsman fallacy

en-noun

no true Scotsman fallacy (plural no true Scotsman fallacies)

An informal fallacy in which one attempts to defend or protect an a posteriori claim from a falsifying counterexample by covertly modifying the initial claim.


argumentum ad consequentiam

Borrowed from Latin argūmentum ad cōnsequentiam.

(rhetoric) A logical fallacy in which a statement is determined to be true or false based on whether it would be pleasant or desirable, rather than based on reality.


argumentum ad dictionarium

argumentum ad dictionarium (uncountable)

(rhetoric) An argument citing a dictionary definition as the proper and correct usage, and claiming that an excluded usage must be incorrect.


apelo à autoridade

pt-noun

apelo à autoridade m (plural apelos à autoridade)

(rhetoric) appeal to authority (an assertion deemed true because of the position or authority of the person asserting it)


whataboutism

en-noun

whataboutism (countable and uncountable, plural whataboutisms)

And I'd no time at all for 'What aboutism' - you know, people who said 'Yes, but what about what's been done to us? ... That had nothing to do with it, and if you got into it you were defending the indefensible.

1994, Joe Austin, “The obdurate and the obstinate”, in Tony Parker, editors, May the Lord in His Mercy be Kind to Belfast, Henry Holt & Co, →ISBN, page 136:

Soviet propagandists during the cold war were trained in a tactic that their western interlocutors nicknamed 'whataboutism'.

2008 January 31, Edward Lucas, “Whataboutism - Come again, Comrade?”, in The Economist:

'Whataboutism' was a favourite tactic of Soviet propagandists during the old Cold War. Any criticism of the Soviet Union’s internal aggression or external repression was met with a 'what about?' some crime of the West, from slavery to the Monroe doctrine.

2008 December 11, Staff writer, “The West is in danger of losing its moral authority”, in European Voice, retrieved 2017-07-03:

Back in the Cold War, we had a term for this: 'whataboutism.' Whenever anyone criticized the Soviets about the gulags, their mouthpieces would start a sentence with 'What about...' and go on to talk about racism and poverty and whatever bad thing they could think of that was happening in the United States.

2014 August 25, Robert Tracinski, “Crime: Understanding Ferguson: Fort Apache, Missouri”, in The Federalist:

There's another attitude ... that many Russians seem to share, what used to be called in the Soviet Union 'whataboutism,' in other words, 'who are you to call the kettle black?'

2016 July 24, Jill Dougherty, “Olympic doping ban unleashes fury in Moscow”, in CNN:

what was known during Soviet times, as 'whataboutism'

2017, Andreas Umland, “The Ukrainian Government's Memory Institute Against the West”, in IndraStra Global, volume 3, number 3, →ISSN, retrieved 2017-07-04, page 7:

This particular brand of changing the subject is called 'whataboutism' — a simple rhetorical tactic heavily used by the Soviet Union and, later, Russia.

2017 March 17, Danielle Kurtzleben, “Trump Embraces One Of Russia's Favorite Propaganda Tactics — Whataboutism”, in NPR, retrieved 2017-05-20:

A logical fallacy where criticisms are deflected by raising corresponding criticisms of the opposite side.


argumentum ad feminam

argumentum ad feminam (plural argumenta ad feminam)

(rhetoric) A faulty argument that simply attacks the woman making a point.


appeal to nature

appeal to nature (plural appeals to nature)

An argument and informal fallacy where something is believed to be good because it is natural, or bad because it is unnatural.


Kafkatrap

Compound of Kafka + trap, coined by American programmer & open source advocate Eric S. Raymond in 2010 (see the quotation below) in reference to the book Der Proceß (The Trial, 1925) by the Bohemian author Franz Kafka (1883–1924), in which a man is accused of crimes that are never specified, and every defense is treated as proof of guilt.

coinage

Jill said Jack was paranoid, and when he told her he was not she just nodded knowingly. It was a perfect Kafkatrap.

One very notable pathology is a form of argument that, reduced to essence, runs like this: "Your refusal to acknowledge that you are guilty of {sin, racism, sexism, homophobia, oppression …} confirms that you are guilty of {sin, racism, sexism, homophobia, oppression …}." I've been presented with enough instances of this recently that I've decided that it needs a name. I call this general style of argument "kafkatrapping", and the above the Model A kafkatrap. In this essay, I will show that the kafkatrap is a form of argument that is so fallacious and manipulative that those subjected to it are entitled to reject it based entirely on the form of the argument, without reference to whatever particular sin or thoughtcrime is being alleged.

2010 July 18, Eric S[teven] Raymond, “Kafkatrapping”, in Armed and Dangerous (blog), archived from the original on 2020-12-19:

James Lindsay, an independent American critic of Critical Theory and Social Justice, who along with his partners Helen Pluckrose and Peter Boghossian, masterminded the “Grievance Studies Hoax,” in which they managed to get seven academic papers of critical theory and identity studies nonsense accepted for publication in scholarly journals, calls Critical Theory a "kafkatrap." If you deny that you are a witch, then you are a witch. And if you do not deny it, then you are a witch for sure.

2020 June 26, Bruce Pardy, “Apocalyptic Science: How the West is Destroying Itself”, in Financial Post, Toronto, Ont.: Postmedia Network, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-01-25:

David Edward Burke, for example, points out that her [Robin DiAngelo's] concept of "white fragility" is a "Kafkatrap" because it is an irrefutable theory: white people are either self-acknowledged racists (proving her theory true) or are denying it (displaying white fragility and therefor proving her theory true).

2020 September 25, Nicoli Nattrass, Jeremy Seekings, “UCT ‘says no to non-racialism’: A Freudian slip, or an embracing of the cult of ‘anti-racism’?”, in Daily Maverick, Cape Town, Johannesburg: Daily Maverick, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-04-22:

A sophistical rhetorical device in which any denial by an accused person serves as evidence of guilt.


red-tagging

(Philippines, Philippine politics) The ad hominem practice of branding, naming or accusing individuals or organizations critical or not fully supportive of the government's position as communists, leftists, subversives or terrorists in an attempt to discredit or suppress them.


false equivalence

en-noun

false equivalence (plural false equivalences)

A logical fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between two subjects based on flawed or false reasoning.


JAQ off

en-verb

JAQ off (third-person singular simple present JAQs off, present participle JAQing off, simple past and past participle JAQed off)

JAQs off (present singular third-person)
JAQing off (participle present)
JAQed off (participle past)
JAQed off (past)

Blend of JAQ (“just asking questions”) + jack off (“to masturbate”); because of the former phrase originally chiefly used in the gerund form, and so coined by a user of the James Randi Educational Foundation’s International Skeptics Forum on 14th September 2006 about truthers.

blend

Coordinate term: sealion

(slang, derogatory) To ask loaded questions inviting someone to justify their views or behaviours, in an attempt to make tangential claims of little verisimilitude appear acceptable.


beggar the question

en-verb

beggar the question (third-person singular simple present beggars the question, present participle beggaring the question, simple past and past participle beggared the question)

beggars the question (present singular third-person)
beggaring the question (participle present)
beggared the question (participle past)
beggared the question (past)

1964, Hearings of the Special Subcommittee on Construction of Military Hospital Facilities of the Committee on Armed Services, No. 64, United States Congress, p. 9823.
So this could and can be done but, of course, that beggars the question of putting these people on the civilian economy.

Unfortunately, this definition beggars the question because we are left not knowing what it is that allows access to the sick role, but prefer not to seek it.

1997, Issy Pilowsky, Abnormal Illness Behaviour, John Wiley, pages 16–17:


apex fallacy

The informal fallacy of evaluating a population based only on its apex, its best members.


obscurum per obscurius

From Latin obscūrum per obscūrius, “[to explain] the obscure by the more obscure”.

We have no doubt—in spite of those rumours to the contrary which took so preposterous a shape in the table-talk of Lord Byron—that Miss More’s part in the transaction was blameless; but she certainly owes little to the dull slipslop with which Mr. Roberts has contrived to overlay—obscurum per obscurius—the only page in her history that really demanded elucidation.

1834, “Review of Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More”, in The Quarterly Review, volume 52, page 423:

Ivy has been compared to Latin ibex ‘wild goat’ (that is ‘climber’), but, unfortunately, the origin of ibex is obscure […] and, according to the golden rule of etymology, one should never explain obscurum per obscurius.

2002, Anatoly Liberman, “Origin unknown”, in Donka Minkova, Robert Stockwell, editors, Studies in the History of the English Language: A Millennial Perspective, →ISBN, page 119:

In the first place, it cannot be denied that Napoleon changed the political face of Europe in a mere ten years[…]. To explain this by the intervention of some vast, impersonal force is undoubtedly an explanation of obscurum per obscurius at the very least, and it seems quixotic to deny that Napoleon’s rare talent as a military commander must have played a role here as well.

2012, Frank Ankersmit, Meaning, Truth, and Reference in Historical Representation, →ISBN, page 249:

ignotum per ignotius
ignotum per ignotius#English

Synonym of ignotum per ignotius (“explaining an obscure subject by resort to one even more obscure”)


contradictio in adjecto

la-noun

contradictiō in adjectō f (genitive contradictiōnis in adjectō); third declension

contradictiō in adjectō (canonical feminine)
contradictiōnis in adjectō (genitive)

Literally, “contradiction in what is qualified”, i.e., originally, a contradiction between a noun and a qualifying adjective.

Nam Homo mortuus, includit in se non viuum; Homo autem includit in se viuum: & ita sequitur contradictio in adiecto.

1243 – 1316, Giles of Rome, In libros Aristotelis primum et secundum Perhiermenias; republished as In Porphyrij Isagogen, Aristotelis Categorias, et lib. Peri Hermenias […] absolutissima Commentaria, 1591, page 181:

For “dead man” encompasses not-living; “man”, however, encompasses living, and there thus follows a self-contradiction.

Nam qui est stultus, quomodo ille potest dici ingeniosus & ad studia literarum aptus? Videtur enim esse contradictio in adjecto.

1656, Christian Matthiae, Theatrum historicum theoretico-practicum, in quo quatuor monarchiae […] , page 489:

For if someone is stupid, how can he be said to be ingenious and gifted in the study of letters? There seems, therefore, to be a self-contradiction.

contradiction in terms
contradiction in terms

(Medieval Latin, New Latin) contradiction in terms, oxymoron, self-contradiction


toupee fallacy

en-noun

toupee fallacy (plural toupee fallacies)

In reference to the conventional wisdom that all toupees look bad, caused by the fact that good quality toupees are usually not noticed.

Alternative form: toupée fallacy

Not all toupees are bad, but you only spot the bad toupees. That's the toupee fallacy.

(logic) A form of selection bias in which something is wrongly judged to be of poor quality in general, caused by the fact that most people only notice poor quality instances of it.


reverse causation

An informal fallacy in which an effect is mistaken for a cause.