Want to get notified of all questions as they are asked? Update your mail preferences and turn on "Instant Notification."
As you start to list properties that the animal lacks to justify eating them, you begin to realize that some humans also lack those properties, yet we don’t eat those humans. Is this logical proof that killing and eating animals for food is immoral? Don’t put away your steak knife just yet.
In Eat Meat… Or Don’t, we examine the moral arguments for and against eating meat with both philosophical and scientific rigor. This book is not about pushing some ideological agenda; it’s ultimately a book about critical thinking.
* This is for the author's bookstore only. Applies to autographed hardcover, audiobook, and ebook.
|
A hasty generalization , like most informal fallacies, exist on a continuum. This means that are "degrees" of fallaciousness, of which are arguable. One also must take into account the context in which the argument is being made. For example, if someone were to say, colloquially, "people who smoke get cancer," this would be a fair and reasonable assessment of data as long as it is understood as a generalization. Of course, not everyone who smokes get cancer, so this isn't technically or scientifically accurate. Given this, within a more structured debate context or especially a scientific context, it would never be acceptable to say "people who smoke get cancer." One should be as precise as possible in these contexts and choose words carefully. For example, 90% of people who smoke more than a pack of cigarettes per day develop lung cancer after twenty years of continued smoking.* So in summary, fallaciousness for this particular fallacy is dependent on intention, degree, and context. An argument would have to be made for any claim as to how fallacious it is or is not. * This is an example, the data is most likely inaccurate. Scientifically, I would also want to know if this was one study that showed this? Who are the "people" - demographics? It this from a meta-analysis, etc. |
|||
answered on Saturday, Dec 05, 2020 09:01:31 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD | ||||
Bo Bennett, PhD Suggested These Categories |
||||
Comments |
||||
|