Social construction

What do you say to someone who says everything is a social construction, meaning everything is made up by man and has no existence beyond our perception? 

Truth, Justice, Right, Wrong, Men, Women, even logical fallacies themselves. 

So if we all collectively decide that these things have no real meaning outside of us and we decide to do away with them, does that mean they stop existing all together? 

If that’s the case what do you say to someone who says logical fallacies are social constructions made up by people, so therefore if we all decide logical fallacies exist, erase all mention of them, and silence anyone who tries to make the claim that they exist, do logical fallacies still exist? 

 

Well, let's saunter down to slipperystreet for a hot sec. If everything's a social construction, built with the Lego blocks of the human mind, does that mean gravity's also a figment of our joint imagination? Say, we all collectively decide that gravity has no real meaning outside of us and do away with it, would we start floating? No, we wouldn’t. I checked – still stuck to the ground. Past due gym membership to blame.

In the brain-bending saga of social constructions, logical fallacies are in a unique position. They're like the ultimate method actors – they become the roles they play. Say, we all get selective amnesia and forget logical fallacies existed. What happens then? Do they disappear in a puff of logic? Nope. Because, logically, doing something illogically still renders it illogical – whether or not we consent to its existence.

In essence: sure, Batman, we could "construct" the Penguin to be a cuddly pet. But in the grand comic book of life, there's a chance he'll still end up being a supervillain – at least until we socially construct a reinterpretation of supervillainy. Bats working for the Penguin - what a topsy-turvy world that would be!

So, to those who claim everything we know (or don't know) is just a complex web of socially constructed narratives, remember this: you might not believe in gravity, but it still believes in you.