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Never-Ending Chain of Questionable ReasoningI've been dealing with this problem where I contemplate things and can't prove a point, so my mind resorts to saying: "Well, you may not have the answer now, BUT you will get the answer that will prove this point in the future!" When I question the legitimacy of this new "proof," I'm met with another questionable answer: "Well, you'll eventually get the answer to this too!" And when I accuse it of being assumptive without having actual proof, it repeats: "The answer will arrive!" and so on.
I recognize this line of reasoning is, quite frankly, stupid, in that it literally justifies anything as long as you say that you'll eventually get the answer. What I get caught up on is that since it's a never-ending line, it's just the same response over and over: that I'll get the answer to my question somehow, eventually, and I whenever I try to argue back that this isn't the case, it retorts the same thing. So, what am I getting wrong here? I recognize the argument's lacking, but why is it weak? I apologize if this is a stupid question, but I've been racking my brain and have been unable to find an answer. Any help is appreciated! |
| asked on Friday, Nov 22, 2019 10:11:55 PM by Josh | |
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Many of our ideas about the world are based more on feelings than facts, sensibilities than science, and rage than reality. We gravitate toward ideas that make us feel comfortable in areas such as religion, politics, philosophy, social justice, love and sex, humanity, and morality. We avoid ideas that make us feel uncomfortable. This avoidance is a largely unconscious process that affects our judgment and gets in the way of our ability to reach rational and reasonable conclusions. By understanding how our mind works in this area, we can start embracing uncomfortable ideas and be better informed, be more understanding of others, and make better decisions in all areas of life.
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It’s no different than any Argumentum ad Ignorantiam
Argumentum ad Ignorantiam: (appeal to ignorance) the fallacy that a proposition is true simply on the basis that it has not been proved false or that it is false simply because it has not been proved true. This error in reasoning is often expressed with influential rhetoric. Appeal to ignorance: the claim that whatever has not been proven false must be true, and vice versa. (e.g., There is no compelling evidence that UFOs are not visiting the Earth; therefore, UFOs exist, and there is intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe. Or: There may be seventy kazillion other worlds, but not one is known to have the moral advancement of the Earth, so we're still central to the Universe.) This impatience with ambiguity can be criticized in the phrase: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. |
| answered on Friday, Nov 22, 2019 11:35:09 PM by mchasewalker |
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I apologize if this is a stupid question, but I've been racking my brain and have been unable to find an answer.
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| answered on Saturday, Nov 23, 2019 09:24:34 AM by Bo Bennett, PhD | |
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