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Conflicting COnditions

Since you used the example, "I don’t care what you believe, as long as your beliefs don’t harm others." I am wondering if that would apply to something many people say "I don't care what you do as long as you aren't hurting others" or in general anything you do is fine as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. Your thouhgts?

asked on Monday, Mar 29, 2021 09:29:11 PM by

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mchasewalker
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"I don’t care what you believe, as long as your beliefs don’t harm others."

Although contradictory, it is not overtly deceptive. The problem is more rhetorical than fallacious.

For instance, if the statement was rephrased as, "I only care about your beliefs if those beliefs are harmful to others", it would be perfectly valid.

answered on Tuesday, Mar 30, 2021 12:23:15 PM by mchasewalker

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TrappedPrior (RotE) writes:

Although contradictory, it is not overtly deceptive. The problem is more rhetorical than fallacious.

Brilliant summary. Like many fallacies, it's rhetorical rather than formal so only a problem if we are deceiving people. 

posted on Tuesday, Mar 30, 2021 09:39:36 PM
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TrappedPrior (RotE)
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Logically speaking, when the implications of condition A make condition B impossible, you have the fallacy contradictio in adjecto, or conflicting conditions.

"I don't care what you believe" implies that what person Y believes is irrelevant to person X. However, adding "as long as your beliefs don't harm others" implies that at some hypothetical point, person X will care what person Y believes - hence, it isn't irrelevant.

The same would go for your example.

Practically speaking, though, anyone in person X's position is simply trying to say that their tolerance for difference of belief ends at active harm, in other words, their patience, like everyone else's, has a cutoff point. Thus, it is really not worth it to call 'fallacy' on someone, especially since tolerance lies on a spectrum.

Remember the exception to this rule: "When the self-contradictory statement is not put forth as an argument, but rather as an ironic statement, perhaps with the intent to convey some kind of deeper truth or meaning, but not necessarily to be taken literally, then this fallacy is not committed."

answered on Monday, Mar 29, 2021 10:07:30 PM by TrappedPrior (RotE)

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TrappedPrior (RotE)
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False Equivalence

answered on Monday, Mar 29, 2021 09:34:19 PM by TrappedPrior (RotE)

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TrappedPrior (RotE) writes:

Care to explain why you think so?

posted on Monday, Mar 29, 2021 10:08:53 PM
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GoblinCookie
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self-sealing argument?

The second statement is a separate argument to the first, so it becomes impossible to argue that your beliefs don't harm others without refuting the first statement, which is a statement of a subjective nature that you cannot refute evidentially.  

answered on Tuesday, Mar 30, 2021 08:17:38 AM by GoblinCookie

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Dr. Richard
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This looks like a discussion of the Non-Aggression Princple. My experience is it evokes emotions that destroy the discussion. In the 3,000 years of NAP debate, each side seems to have dug in its heels. It is a moral issue, not a logical issue.

answered on Tuesday, Mar 30, 2021 06:11:50 PM by Dr. Richard

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