Question

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What Fallacy involves asking a question with an unrelated presumption

1. The Moon landing was Fake

2. How do you know that?

1. Does the Government Hide things from us? Has the Government lied before?

2. Yeah but is that actually evidence?

1. You don't think it was totally possible they might of just shot it on a film stage?

 

asked on Friday, Dec 24, 2021 05:53:11 PM by

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TrappedPrior (RotE)
2

It is possible that it was filmed on a stage. That's not evidence. That's just a possibility.

It's also possible that our brains are inside vats. That's also not evidence that they are definitely inside vats, it's just a possibility.

appeal to possibility
answered on Friday, Dec 24, 2021 08:24:52 PM by TrappedPrior (RotE)

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Dr. Richard
1

This is a burden of proof matter.

When people are in a discussion, and one presents a proposition, unless it is one already agreed upon, the propounder carries the burden of proof to substantiate the proposition. This rule of logic has been around since Aristotle, or maybe Thales. 

I think it is obvious that unless one has evidence to believe something, there is no basis upon which to believe it. Hitchens’s razor puts it, “what may be asserted without evidence, may be dismissed without evidence.” Carl Sagan added what has become the Sagan standard: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

So, when someone presents a proposition but no evidence, the proper response is not to believe it, point out the lack of evidence for the proposition, and ask the propounder to provide some evidence.

If evidence is forthcoming, then the burden of proof shifts to you. You can accept the evidence or, if you do not find the evidence convincing, it is your burden to explain why.

answered on Saturday, Dec 25, 2021 10:23:59 AM by Dr. Richard

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GoblinCookie writes:

 

I think it is obvious that unless one has evidence to believe something, there is no basis upon which to believe it. Hitchens’s razor puts it, “what may be asserted without evidence, may be dismissed without evidence.” Carl Sagan added what has become the Sagan standard: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” 

Except that both those claims are utter rubbish.  You can conclude something exists because it is logically necessary that it exist from something else, even though there is no evidence it does.  In any case, evidence cannot be validated by an eternal line of evidential proofs, so we end up with no evidence for the evidence. 

Sagan's statement is even worse than Hitchen's, since what is extraordinary is an entirely subjective judgment.  What that amounts to is circular reasoning based upon my existing opinions, I believe the world is a certain way, which makes evidence that contradicts my starting POV extraordinary, which means that I can dismiss said evidence to continue to believe in what I already believe. 

posted on Tuesday, Dec 28, 2021 08:16:39 AM