• About me (Gary L. Herstein, Ph.D.) / Contact form
  • Furious Vexation (general questions here)
  • Statement of Intent
  • With regard to Comments and Spam

THE QUANTUM of EXPLANATION

~ Science, logic, and ethics, from a Whiteheadian Pragmatist perspective (go figure)

THE QUANTUM of EXPLANATION

Tag Archives: Ignorance

Year of The Plague #2: Argumentum ad Ignorantiam

15 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by Gary Herstein in COVID-19, Economics, Ignorance, Logic, Philosophy of Science

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Economics, Ignorance, pandemic

A recent article (23 March, 2020) by Eric Schliesser and Eric Winsberg (“S&W”) in The New Statesman: America, “Climate and coronavirus: the science is not the same,” attempts to make the case for separating climate science – specifically the facts about Anthropogenic Global Warming (“AGW”) – from the COVID-19 pandemic.i This pandemic is driven by the “novel coronavirus,” but I will stick to just “COVID-19.” Superficially, there is nothing wrong with wanting to do so since these are, after all, different topics. But just because the two subjects are non-identical does not mean that lively and effective analogies cannot be drawn between them. It is this last point that S&W wish to deny. Their attempt is specious on multiple levels, and I wish to address a few of those levels here.dollar sign

To address this speciousness, we must understand the nature of the argument that S&W are making.ii The abbreviated form of their argument goes something like this: (1) The facts about COVID-19 remain highly questionable, as the amount of data is severely truncated by lack of testing, and significantly variable methodologies of evaluations across international, and even local, lines. (2) This lack of data makes any comparison with, or analogy between, COVID-19 and AGW an error. (3) Further, the paucity of adequate data regarding COVID-19 requires us to view any and all such claims with great skepticism. (4) Such skepticism, in fact, that dramatic action which entails substantial economic impact ought to be rejected wholesale. Continue reading →

God o’ The Gaps (part 1)

18 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Gary Herstein in God, Ignorance, naturalism, Philosophy of Science

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

God, Ignorance, naturalism, Science

The “God o’ The Gaps” fallacy is an especially pernicious, yet easily dismissible, form of the argumentum ad ignorantiam. It is pernicious because religious dogmatists, with no interest in or capacity for rational thought, swing this fallacy about with the most abysmally childish enthusiasm, like blind persons with a sledge hammer in an empty field, who fancy themselves to be building a tent city. It is easily dismissible because anyone possessed of nothing more exotic than the mere abstract possibility of intelligence can readily see through it, for no more time or effort than it takes to have such infantilism articulated. All that being said, an analysis of the fallacy does invite some reflections upon the character of explanation, a character which the title of this blog ought suggest is a thing of interest at this site.Gap-In-Mountain

This will be a longish argument, so I’ll be breaking it into two parts. In this part, I will discuss the argumentum ad ignorantiam particularly in light of the God o’ The Gaps (which I’ll simply abbreviate “GotG”) variant, and generically mention some of the places it crops up. The argument will show how the concept/idea of God can play no useful role in natural science, even when the GotG fallacy is avoided. In part 2 I’ll turn to what, in many respects, is my primary question: What might the role of “God” in explanation &/or interpretation be? I’ll review (in a crude way) the distinctions between the religious, the theological, and the philosophical uses of the “G” word (although, I’ve already said a bit about this elsewhere.) With that said, let us turn to the argument itself. Continue reading →

Follow THE QUANTUM of EXPLANATION on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blogs I Follow

  • Cote du Golfe School of Fencing
  • Professor Watchlist redux
  • Free Range Philosophers
  • The Non Sequitur
  • Blog Candy by Author Stacey Keith
  • Philosophical Percolations

Goodreads

Copyright Announcement

© Dr. Gary L. Herstein and garyherstein.com, 2014 -- 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dr. Gary L. Herstein and garyherstein.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. (In other words, share but acknowledge.)
“But in the real world it is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. The importance of truth is, that it adds to interest.” – Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality

Archives

Spam Blocked

61,227 spam blocked by Akismet

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cote du Golfe School of Fencing

European Sword Arts in SW Florida / Fencing Classes & Lessons Naples, Bonita, Estero

Professor Watchlist redux

Free Range Philosophers

Loving Wisdom Beyond the Academy

The Non Sequitur

Your argument is invalid

Blog Candy by Author Stacey Keith

Science, logic, and ethics, from a Whiteheadian Pragmatist perspective (go figure)

Philosophical Percolations

Science, logic, and ethics, from a Whiteheadian Pragmatist perspective (go figure)

Cancel