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Claims are constantly being made, many of which are confusing, ambiguous, too general to be of value, exaggerated, unfalsifiable, and suggest a dichotomy when no such dichotomy exists. Good critical thinking requires a thorough understanding of the claim before attempting to determine its veracity. Good communication requires the ability to make clear, precise, explicit claims, or “strong” claims. The rules of reason in this book provide the framework for obtaining this understanding and ability.
This book / online course is about the the eleven rules of reason for making and evaluating claims. Each covered in detail in the book.
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Scientists have been wrong before. They've also been right before, so based on the statement alone, there's no more reason to reject what scientists are saying than to accept it. In other words, "science has been wrong before" is meaningless. When used to reject a scientific claim this is a non sequitur, yes. "Truth" isn't subjective, I'm afraid. This is just incorrect. |
answered on Friday, Dec 24, 2021 08:22:00 PM by TrappedPrior (RotE) | |
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To say, "science has been wrong before" kind of misrepresents what science is and does. Science is not about being right or wrong, its a methodology and as long as the methodology is followed then the science is being done right, even if it gets something wrong. For example, hypothesis are formed primarily to be falsified. So in science things are shown to be "wrong" more often than they are shown to be "right." And in fact, science being "wrong" is what makes science so strong as it evolves to get better and better accuracy as new data comes in and as more things are falsified. There can be some wiggle room for saying Truth is subjective. For example, facts are not and can not be subjective, but truth being a story that resonates with someones truth has some wiggle room. Plus, there are other definitions of truth such as "this is my truth" etc. There are four types of truth; objective, normative, subjective and complex truth. So a possible equivocation fallacy going on there as well. |
answered on Saturday, Dec 25, 2021 10:23:55 PM by Jason Mathias | |
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"Science has been Wrong Before"... Well, duh, yeah, scientific methodology encourages, expects, and even demands falsification. If a hypothesis doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny it is dismissed until someone can replicate it or shows that it works more often than not. So, science is wrong most of the time i.e. until it's not. The leading claim is not a fallacy, because it's not really false. But it is more of a thought-terminating cliché. |
answered on Saturday, Dec 25, 2021 01:27:12 PM by Mchasewalker | |
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Appeal to possibility is what they are doing here. Just because they can prove the science could be wrong (because it was in the past) does not mean it is. |
answered on Tuesday, Dec 28, 2021 07:54:53 AM by GoblinCookie | |
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