Category Archives: Logic

Nuts and Dolts

31 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by in Global warming, Logic, Philosophy of Science, Politics

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So the other day, I made the error of reading the comments section on a post relating to climate change denial manifested by a certain prominent national politician. One individual complained about the (accurate and entirely valid) use of the word “denier” in reference to this politician. The commenter went on to state something to the effect that, “Scientists generally cheerfully embrace differing opinions.” (I have altered the exact wording so as to eliminate any identifiable markers that might lead back to the person and the comment.)Dunce-cap

Now, myself, I find that I tend to look much less stupid than I otherwise might if I resist tossing about terms and concepts in public of which I lack even the barest scintilla of understanding. This is a rule I heartily wish more people would adopt, the above mentioned commenter being a prime example. Anyone with even the littlest, little notion about what science is and how it works – either logically as methodology, or sociologically as practice, to say nothing of both – will instantly recognize such a statement as the childishly fatuous twaddle it obviously happens to be. Yet the doe-eyed naïf who spewed this foolishness was almost certainly being sincere. This got me thinking again about the lunacy that is currently swallowing the federal House of Representatives, and the recent elevation of Paul Ryan to the position of Speaker. You see, the two issues are connected. Continue reading →

I Chose My Data “Carefully” …

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by in Cherry Picking, Critical Thinking, Logic

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Cherry-picking data is often times (and somewhat inexplicably) not even classified as a fallacy. Thus for example, my favorite “go to” source on all things fallacious, the Fallacy Files, does not list it anywhere in its otherwise quite comprehensive encyclopedia. Cherry picking (Gary Curtis, over at Fallacy Files, and I exchanged some cheerful emails, and the simple answer as of this writing is that it simply hadn’t occurred to Gary to add an entry on the subject. He hopes to post something on his weblog in the not too distant future, and once it is up I’ll link to it HERE. [UPDATE: Gary Curtis has now posted his comments at Fallacy FIles.]) Continue reading →

Socialism, Social Solidarity and Race

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Logic

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Dwight Welch, a UCC minister in Norman, OK, has some interesting thoughts on race and justice that I thought merited sharing. I might add my own remarks on socialism as supplementary material: https://garyherstein.com/2014/07/07/30/

servetus's avatar

may                           The poster says in Danish, we are stronger together.

The National Review has a new piece on socialism in Scandinavia. And it notes the continual history of the US left in appealing to the Nordic welfare state model. They don’t appear to be arguing against the system directly, but they raise the question of the whiteness of Scandinavia. And why is it that the left appeals to such a racially not diverse area as a model and never to third world contexts when comparing the US. Is there something white about socialism that is not being acknowledged?

Yes and no and in some ways NR fails to acknowledge the racial components to the argument they are raising. Because whenever you point to 5 weeks paid vacation, free tuition, single payer health care, 80% unionization rates in comparison to the US we are told we cannot have such things. That…

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Privilege … *MY* privilege

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in Logic, Personal History, Race, Racism

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Usually I take more time to compose my thoughts, but there are times when that is exactly the wrong thing to do. I’ve been trying not to think about white privilege too much of late, precisely because it has been overwhelming my thoughts. foolBless me, **ther, for I have sinned

My first genuine experience of my white privilege was when I was 18, and in Basic Training in the Army. Continue reading →

A Field Guide to the Education Industry

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by in Logic

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Diane Ravitch’s blog, and the attached .PDF file, deserve to be widely read and understood: the handbook of the “for profit” education “reform” industry. Of course, “reform” is less the interest here so much as DEFORM. These corporate mutilators would have you believe that education is a commodity, students are consumer/customers, and teachers are disposable instruments only. For some thoughts that might wash the taste of bile from your mouth that you’ll get from the .PDF that Ravitch has provided, you might look at Dewey’s wonderful Democracy and Education. While Dewey’s language suffers in places from a Eurocentric complacency that tips into “white man’s burden” tripe, his larger ideas remain cogent and worthy of thought.

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Here is the handbook of the for-profit education industry (although it does advise you to drop the label “for-profit”).

Here are some basic facts that it recites. The world spends many billions on education. The United States spends close to $2 trillion on education, nearly $900 billion on K-12.

This is a huge market for investors seeking to make a profit.

And then it launches into spin about how terrible the American public education system is, never mentioning that our students (white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian) now have the highest test scores ever on NAEP, the highest graduation rates in history (for all groups), and the lowest dropout rates (for all groups). It is the usual “sky-is-falling” hokum, all intended to persuade the public to turn their public schools over to hedge fund managers and equity investors and hucksters who know nothing at all about education.

There is also no mention of…

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Against the Person

05 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in Logic

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One of the less well understood fallacies that is committed often enough to have a Latin name is the argumentum ad hominem, the argument “against the person.” Many people take it for granted that an ad hominem occurs any time you say something negative about another person or group. Certainly it does not help when popular references – that are supposed to be authoritative – fail to accurately characterize matters.

 Batman Robin

Thus, for example, the online Merriam-Webster dictionary gives two definitions of the ad hominem: The first defines it by saying, “appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect,” the second definition given says, “marked by or being an attack on an opponent’s character rather than by an answer to the contentions made.” (The link may be found HERE.) But definition one is patently wrong; what they are describing is the argumentum ad misericordiam, not the ad hominem. The second is closer, but invites the error of use that I want to mention here. Because, you see, merely by being an evident attack on another’s character is not, by itself, sufficient to mark a statement as an ad hominem fallacy. Continue reading →

Anti-Intellectualism and Racism?

20 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by in Altemeyer, Authoritarians, General Philosophy, Logic, Racism

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A post over at Psychology Today makes the claim that “Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America.” Citing the horrific mass murder in Charleston by the overtly racist Dylann Roof, the essay goes on to state that, “Many will correctly blame Roof’s actions on America’s culture of racism and gun violence, but it’s time to realize that such phenomena are directly tied to the nation’s culture of ignorance.”

Now, among the more singularly despicable statements made by conservative politicians, pundits, and supposed “news” outlets, have been the cowardly red herring evasions of the obvious and irrefutable fact of Roof’s overtly and explicitly stated racist motivations in the mass murder at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The disgusting refusal on the parts of so many to frankly acknowledge and deplore the blatant racism behind Roof’s act of terrorism is beyond inexcusable. The people engaged in such denial and misdirection are themselves complicit in Roof’s crimes as enablers and legitimizers.mckinney-texas-pool-party_400x295_82

But even though anti-intellectualism and racism may likely be frequent, even inevitable, co-travelers, can we justifiably assert that anti-intellectualism is the root, and racism is the branch, as the author in the above Psychology Today post does? I do not think so. Continue reading →

Science and Philosophy

11 Thursday Jun 2015

Posted by in General Philosophy, Logic, Philosophy of Science, Whitehead

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My colleague Brian asked (some little while ago), “I wondered if you might make some comments on the relationship (assuming there is one) between science and speculative philosophy?” Well, now that the generalized madness that is and was the 2015 International Whitehead Conference is behind me, I finally have time to turn my attention to this and other questions.

There is absolutely a relationship between science and speculative philosophy, and it is worth remembering how that relationship expressed itself in the past: Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton all knew themselves to be engaged IN philosophy when they made their grand, speculative proposals. My answer here, however, will be thoroughly Whiteheadian. Not, however, because I’m a “fan,” but because I believe that Whitehead was substantially correct on the issues he chose to engage, and always interesting, regardless.* Continue reading →

Model-Centrism 2: Data Density

24 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Climate Change, Global warming, Logic, Philosophy of Science

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Within the limits of my own study, the idea of “data density” and its relation to science vs. pseudo-science, is not one that I recall having encountered. (And I freely admit that my studies are limited; the world is large, and human life is short.) I suspect that no small part of the problem is that we have only begun to slam into this wall in earnest in the last few generations. I wish to use this idea of “data density” here to compare two branches of scientific study. It is my thesis that the data in gravitational cosmology is especially “thin” and “patchy,” which makes the general lack of attention to alternative models to the standard one especially inexcusable.

Thin grass

Continue reading →

Model-Centrism 1: A Scientific Controversy

20 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by in Logic, model-centrism, Philosophy of Science

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It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.

– Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet

There are scientific disciplines out there that are in a state of fundamental crisis. But unless you’ve a moderate degree of expertise in those fields, it is unlikely you know about such crises. I want to examine one such crisis here, and touch on its relation to a way of approaching the world that I’ve taken to calling “model-centrism.”

BrokenThe Holmesian dicta quoted above is hideously simplistic (one must already have significant theoretical commitments in play before any evidence can make its appearance AS evidence. To decline to theorize entirely would not make one open to the facts and evidence, it would make one completely incapable of recognizing anything as a fact or as evidence.) Nevertheless, it touches upon an important issue with model-centrism, and model-centric thinking, namely the impatience for gathering data that leads some people to favor abstract theories without any regard for how such theories might be tested or validated.

Continue reading →