Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral
by timdiggerm on Thursday September 01, 2016 @11:41AM
(#12406164)
Even if they are (which is apparently disputed), pointing out that someone is using a fallacy does not make them automatically wrong. Next time, you should try saying something more substantive than "Fallacy!"
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Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral
by matt-attack on Thursday September 01, 2016 @12:36PM
(#12406706)
> using a fallacy does not make them automatically wrong
I thought that is precisely what using a fallacy makes you. It's what the word fallacy means. It essentially means a "false statement".
Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral
by mikeash on Thursday September 01, 2016 @12:45PM
(#12406806)
Fallacy means faulty reasoning, not a false statement. It is possible to use faulty reasoning to arrive at a correct statement. For example, "The sun rises each day, because if it didn't then everyone would die." That's the fallacy of an appeal to consequences, yet the conclusion (the sun rises each day) is correct.
Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral
by elmigranto on Thursday September 01, 2016 @02:03PM
(#12407510)
Well, everyone would die, though :)
Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral
by mikeash on Thursday September 01, 2016 @03:47PM
(#12408292)
Of course! The only incorrect thing in there is "because."
Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral
by psahabu on Thursday September 01, 2016 @01:43PM
(#12407338)
This line of reasoning is itself a fallacy. http://www.fallacyfiles.org/fallfall.html
Re:A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has exploded at Cape Canaveral
by riboflava on Thursday September 01, 2016 @04:04PM
(#12408433)
Furthermore there are other forms of reasoning than pure deduction. If you allow probabilistic inference, which is how humans generally operate intuitively, many deductive fallacies turn into probabilistic theorems.