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The Irrefutability of nonsense-arguments and implications
by nonsense-argument I mean a line of argument that is based on
either wrong assumption or wrong inference, and this wrongness can be easily
demonstrated, based on common-knowledge. See linguistcis blatant nonsense
for examples.
It may seem that nonsense-arguments are not a problem, because they
can be brushed aside easily. However, there is very large number of possible
nonsense-arguments. Thus when a person uses a nonsense-argument to support
her/his pisition, once you prove this is wrong, shhe can always find another
argument to support his/her position. Since the number of arguments than
can be discussed in any kind of setting is finite (and actually quite small),
a person that uses nonsense-arguments will never run out of arguments.
Thus when a person holds a wrong position and supports it with nonsense-arguments,
shhe can never be convinced thet shhe is wrong (see Trying to publish the
Brain-symbols paper to an extended example).
This problem is much more widespread than most people (or maybe even
all people) are aware of. In particular, in the field of human thinking
it is almost universal. In general, you cannot assume that anybody is free
from using nonsense-arguments, including yourself.
Additional problem is that while people don't like finding that the
position they hold is wrong, they much more hate finding that their arguments
are nonsense. Thus, when a person supports a position by a nonsense-argument,
shhe will be even more reluctant than usual to admit shhe is wrong. Shhe
will also will find any person that points to his/her nonsense-arguments
irritating. This cause many people to avoid pointing to othe rpeople when
they use nonsense-arguments
When a person holds a sound position, shhe can avoid the unpleasent
situation of having to admit a nonsense-argument by using sound arguments
to support his/her position. Thus, normally we should not expect a person
to defend a sound position by nonsense-arguments. Hence, when a person
uses a nonsense-argumenst it is not only not supporting his position, it
is actually suggesting that his/her position is wrong.
Implications
When you make a nonsense-argument
If you are not actually interested in understanding the subject of discussion,
then there is no problem. However, if you are interested, you should monitor
yourslf to see if you make nonsense-arguments. When you find that you have
used a nonsense-argument (i.e. somebody refuted your argument with a short
conter-argument), you should avoid doing the common thing, which is either
changing the subject or coming with a new argument. Instead, you should
re-think what you know about the subject, assuming that your position
(the one you were trying to defend) is wrong. The point is that once
you have defended your position (which is probably wrong) by a nonsense-argument,
you will find it even more diffcult to find that it is wrong in the future,
and will hinder your understanding of the subject.
Discussion with somebody that uses nonsense-arguments
As explained above, once a person uses a nonsense-argument, shhe is unlikely
to be ever convinced that shhe wrong. In principle, you may try to point
to the nonsenseness of his/her argument, and hope that shhe will do th
right thing as in the previous section. In practice, however, it is more
likely that shhe will either pick another nonsense-argument or change the
subject, and the only effect you will have is irritating him/her. As mentioned
above, most of people already worked out the latter point, and avoid poonting
other people's nonsense-arguments.
It should be noted that if you think that you have spotted a nonsense-argument,
it is not not necessarily because the other person used a nonsense-argument.
It may also be because:
-
You misunderstood what shhe said/wrote. You need to assure that you do
understand what the other say/write before concluding that shhe
used a nonsense-argument. In oral discussion, that means asking the other
person what exactly shhe means. In written discussion, that means reading
carefully the text again, looking for relevant points that you may have
missed.
-
your counter-argument may be wrong. You need to think carefully about your
counter-argument, rather than rely on your intuition.
If you avoid pointing the nonsense-argument, or you do and the person you
discuss with picked-up a new nonsense-argument or changed the subject,
then the discussion becomes useless. You are not going to learn anything
useful from the other person, because his/her position is probably wrong,
and shhe is not going to learn anything from you, because shhe is going
to defend her/his position. Ofcourse, they maybe reasons why you will want
to continue the discussion (politeness, you want to get the other person
to do something, you are arguing for an audience), but it is better described
as a 'psychological wrestling' than a discussion.
While the fact that a person usesa nonsense-argument stroongly suggests
that his/her position is wrong, it gives only weak support to your
position. That is because yours and the other person's position are not
the only possible positions, so even after the other person's position
is eliminated, there are competing positions.
Observing somebody using nonsense-argument
As discussed above, that suggests that the position this person holds is
unsound. This suggestion become stronger when the person knows a lot about
the subject, because in this case shhe would have found it easier to find
the sound arguments, if there were any.
It should be noted that because in this case the person does not have
a chance to correct or defend hemself, you need to be more careful in checking
that it is realy a nonsense-argument. On the other hand, it is important
that you take into account the possibility that the person uses a nonsense-argument,
no matter what his/her authority is, because otherwise you will be misled
by the Blatant nonsense effect.
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Yehouda Harpaz
yeh@harlequin.co.uk
12Jul98
http://www.yehouda.com/