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Shawn

Logical fallacy or just a "hare"-brained idea

The tortoise wins the race not because it is faster, but because it is more persistent.

Likewise, people with PhDs are not smarter than those who don't. Like the tortoise, they simply keep at it until they finish, after which they return to being slow and dim-witted like the hare. 

asked on Friday, Nov 12, 2021 08:39:05 AM by Shawn

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Answers

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Shawn
2

The tortoise wins the race because the hare took a nap and overslept. The tortoise won the race because of this.

This little story bears no relation to the concept of smartness in people who either have or do not have  PhDs. 

In terms of violation of logic, there is no logical fallacy here, but since that is what we are supposed to be  looking for, I will make one up.

It's called the Shoehorning In A Fallacy Where No Fallacy Exists Fallacy :)

So the bottom line is that there is no logical fallacy at all.

answered on Friday, Nov 12, 2021 11:48:54 AM by Shawn

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Bo Bennett, PhD
2

The person is missing the point of the fable. It is not about persistence per se; it that there are other factors involved in succeeding. The tortoise won the race for many reasons; perhaps the primary reason being the hare was cocky and chose to take a nap.

Fallacy? Perhaps insignificant cause . It can also be argued that the tortoise/hare example is simply a weak analogy to why PhDs are not always smarter than non-PhDs.
answered on Friday, Nov 12, 2021 09:27:21 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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