"You clearly don't understand...."
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Original Question
In debating people, they quite often make an assumption that I don't understand the subject (and they do). Rather than debating the issues, they focus on this. Sometimes this happens when it is my field of professional expertise (and probably not theirs)!
They say something like, "If you truly understood the way that tanks work, you'd be forced to admit that Montgomery was the greatest general ever."
Is this assumption -- or declaration -- of ignorance on my part a logical fallacy? What is it called?
Thanks!
Answers
3This is bulverism. Assume they are wrong, then explain to them how wrong they are, instead of demonstrating that they are wrong. Thus, we avoid the important part (checking our premises) and focus on discrediting people rather than evaluating arguments.
It's begging the question + fallacy of opposition.
This also sounds like a non-sequitir to me. I came to this conclusion by trying to look at the argument in standard form:
1. You don't admit that montomery was the greatest general ever.
2. Therefore, you don't understand how tanks work.
The first thing that strikes me is The Dunning-Kruger effect — the cognitive bias in which people wrongly overestimate their knowledge or ability in a specific area. This is a fallacy, but more of a psychological issue.
For discussions, I have found it far better to use the Boghassian approach, which is to have the other person explain to you what you are missing. In the process, they will either (1) reason themselves to your position or (2) you will learn you did make a mistake.
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