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Michael Mote

Opposite fallacy to that of personal incredulity?

Is there a fallacy that is the opposite of an argument from (personal) incredulity (such as a fallacious argument from credulity)? Thanks ahead.

asked on Monday, Mar 18, 2024 07:50:33 AM by Michael Mote

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Answers

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Mr. Wednesday
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If I'm understanding your question correctly: An argument from incredulity states "I find this argument difficult to believe, therefore it is false," so the opposite of that would be "I find this argument easy to believe, therefore it's true."

While it isn't quite phrased the same way, I think appeal to common sense fits pretty well. By claiming something is common sense, there's an implication that the argument is easy to believe because it's self-evident or consistent to the lived experience of most people.
answered on Monday, Mar 18, 2024 09:50:20 AM by Mr. Wednesday

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TrappedPrior (RotE) writes:

A variant in philosophy is the use of "intuitions" which are ambiguous/underexplained to defend a claim.

 

posted on Monday, Mar 18, 2024 10:44:27 AM
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Mr. Wednesday writes:
[To TrappedPrior (RotE)]

I did look at appeal to intuition when I was looking for the first fallacy. And, thinking about it a little more, I think there's a case to be made for it, depending on what the person making the argument from incredulity means.

In the case of "I can't believe this because the argument is inherently unbelievable," that seems to align more with the opposite of "I find this argument believable because it's common sense."

In the case of "I personally find this argument unbelievable," I think that is more likely to be based on an intuition. In cases where intuition is taken to mean "I have tangible experience that leads me to believe this, but I can't articulate the logic" that does tend to lead to a more commonly used and more believable type of argument than intuition just being a feeling with no logic behind it.

[ login to reply ] posted on Monday, Mar 18, 2024 04:13:10 PM
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Michael Mote writes:

Thanks on both responses.

posted on Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024 11:13:34 AM
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AI Fallacy Master
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The opposite fallacy to an argument from personal incredulity could potentially be an argument from inappropriate authority or argument from authority. This occurs when someone believes a claim to be true simply because an authority or expert on the issue has said it is true, without questioning or critical thinking. This could be seen as a form of credulity, where someone is too willing to believe things without sufficient evidence. However, there isn't a named fallacy that is explicitly defined as the 'opposite' of argument from personal incredulity. The identification of fallacies is more about spotting flawed reasoning rather than finding exact opposites.
answered on Monday, Mar 18, 2024 07:50:45 AM by AI Fallacy Master

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