Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Logica Utens

  • Another Transparently Worthless Argument that Justifies the Questioning of Motives

    From my Facebook page, three years ago, today.   Dick Durbin (D-IL): “I’m going to take you back in history for a moment. When that Second Amendment was written, we were talking about the likelihood a person could purchase a muzzle-loading musket.” The implied conclusion, of course, is that the Second Amendment does not protect…

  • Reader Requests Advice re: Learning Basics of Philosophical Argumentation

    A New Zealand reader writes,   I was hoping if you are able to provide me with some guidance regarding where to begin learning the basics of philosophical arguments. I’ve been trying to understand how to evaluate political and theological debates for awhile, but despite my interest I often find them go away over my…

  • Are There Any Arguments for an Afterlife in the New Testament?

    Philoponus writes, Is there anywhere in the NT where they argue for an afterlife, or is it an assumption shared by all the authors of the NT?  Passages? Before I answer this question, there are a couple of logically prior questions of considerable interest.  First, is there any argumentation at all in the NT? Second, does…

  • No Person is Illegal!

    That's true. No person is illegal. But who ever said that any person was? 'Woke' knuckleheads  of the sort who  recently criticized Joey B's SOTU reference to Lincoln Laken Riley's murderer as 'an illegal'  regularly give something like the following lame argument: 1) No person is illegal. 2) If any person is justifiably labelled an…

  • Bare Assertion and Circularity

    "There is no evidence because there is no evidence." Thus some shyster defending Hunter Biden against charges of wrongdoing. I am tempted to call this a presuppositional approach to political apologetics.  A circular argument is an argument, but because the 'diameter' of the circle is zero, it is no better than a bare assertion. It…

  • Is it Ever Legitimate to Question Motives?

    Of course it is. If it weren't I wouldn't do it! You must question the motives of those who give worthless arguments. A very short Stack topper.

  • The No True Scotsman or No True Muslim Fallacy

    Substack latest. In logic a fallacy is not a false belief but a pattern of reasoning that is both typical and in some way specious. Specious reasoning, by the very etymology of the term, appears correct but is not. Thus a logical fallacy is not just any old mistake in reasoning, but a typical or recurrent mistake…

  • Is it Ever Legitimate to Question Motives?

    Absolutely. Suppose someone 'argues' that a photo ID requirement disenfranchises blacks because blacks don't have photo ID. That is a transparently worthless argument, based as it is on a plainly false premise. Once an argument has been refuted it is perfectly legitimate to inquire into the motives of the one giving it. People who give…

  • Logical Barbarity

    One encounters it in leftists for whom what is not a mere opinion is a 'checkable fact' — hence 'fact-checking.'  These chucklewits lack the category of the considered opinion. Considered opinions lie between mere opinions and known facts.

  • It Ain’t Necessarily So: On Not Confusing the Modal with the Temporal

    If someone says, ‘Houses sell above the asking price around here,’ it is idiomatically correct, if not quite grammatical, to respond, ‘Not necessarily’ or 'It ain't necessarily so.' ‘Not necessarily’ in this context means not always. Its meaning is not modal, but temporal: there are times when the houses sell above asking price, and times…

  • Intellectual Hygiene Matters!

    Didn't I tell you to be skeptical? Motorcycle fatality counted as Covid-19 death. Elementary point of logic: if an F is counted as a G, it does not follow that the F in question is a G.

  • About Whataboutism

    Here at Maverick Philosopher: Strictly Philosophical.

  • “If it saves just one life, it will have been worth it.”

    This is a popular but highly dubious pattern of reasoning.  Heather Mac Donald: Less than 24 hours after California governor Gavin Newsom closed ‘non-essential’ businesses and ordered Californians to stay inside to avoid spreading the coronavirus, New York governor Andrew Cuomo followed suit. ‘This is about saving lives,’ Cuomo said during a press conference on…

  • Would a Cut in the Capital-Gains Tax be Racist?

    But of course: Most of us think of the capital-gains tax, if we think about it at all, as a policy that is neutral as regards questions of race or racism. But given that blacks are underrepresented among stockowners, Klein asked, would it be racist to support a capital-gains tax cut? “Yes,” Kendi answered, without…

  • On the Illicit Use of ‘By Definition’

    This is an old entry from 2010. It makes a very important point well worth repeating. The battle against language abusers is never-ending. ……………………………………. What is wrong with the following sentence:  "Excellent health care is by definition redistributional"?  It is from a speech by Donald Berwick,  President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and…