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Steven Flax

What is the logical fallacy operating here? (Please see below.)

"Research shows that even very young children have a natural tendency to help other people solve their problems. So self-dealing is not only not good, it is not natural."
asked on Thursday, Jan 11, 2018 04:57:25 PM by Steven Flax

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Bo Bennett, PhD
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First we have the statement / premise:

Research shows that even very young children have a natural tendency to help other people solve their problems.



Working under the assumption that this is factually true, we move to the conclusion drawn from this:

So self-dealing is not only not good, it is not natural.



Here are the problems with this:

1. We are defining "self-dealing" as the opposite of very young children helping other people solve problems. This can be the definist fallacy .

2. Unless there was more to this argument, we never established that self-dealing is not good; we simply asserted it. This would be an unwarranted assertion.

3. We are jumping to the conclusion that because we help people, that people helping themselves is "unnatural." This is like saying that because my wife likes to touch my penis, that masturbation is "unnatural." It does not follow - a non-sequitur.

I really hope for the sake of humanity that this was a YouTube comment or something similar, rather than an actual argument by someone who should know better.

answered on Thursday, Jan 11, 2018 05:16:58 PM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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