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Political Discourse, the Argumentum ad Misericordiam, and the Tu Quoque Fallacy

It is not a novel insight that the most recent inauguration has been contentious, nor is it a novel insight that political discourse has been so acrimonious that it is less a true discourse and more a... read more

Logical Fallacies and the Art of Debate

For further commentary on burdens of proof, see argumentum ad ignorantiam, above. Argumentum ad misericordiam ... in fact, a fallacy at all, but simply a logical extension or amplification of an argum... read more

The most dangerous result of the CIA torture scandal

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? Not any different than America's subjugation of Vietnam. Political prisoners? America's prison system is no model for the world. Civil rights? What about the horror ... read more

A New Climate Survey Tells Us What?

Instead, they keep refighting old battles that are no longer relevant to a constructive discourse. The latest example is this survey by John Cook et al that is getting a lot of undeserved attention in ... read more

The Norms of Society and Presidential Executive Orders UPDATE

First, like the average citizen (of all political stripes) he is ignorant of how anything works. Second, like the bully that stands by the batter’s box, he shall not observe any rule that he does happ... read more

Logical Fallacies

‘Argumentum Ad Baculum’/argument to a baculum [a short stick-shaped weapon] Argument that uses some form of coercion or unpleasant backlash (force, threat of force…) to make the listener accept a conc... read more

Guest Post – The Thinker’s Evolutionary Argument Against God (EAAG)

I’ve come up with a counter argument to Alvin Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism called the Evolutionary Argument Against God or the EAAG. This argument is predicated on the traditio... read more

Is This Where Libertarians and the Gay Community Part Ways?

Now that government gay marriage recognition is a settled matter, it's worth taking an inventory of political issues frequently raised ... have to follow all the government regulations." This argument ... read more

Stephen Hawking Settles the God Question Once and For All

I fear that some subtleties of the argument may be lost. But if we’re lucky, other people elsewhere on the internet will also talk about these questions, and we’ll get it all sorted out. Let me know i... read more

Dawkins on the nose again

Get the bishops and theologians on the side of science — so the argument runs — and they’ll be valuable allies against the naive creationists (who include a worryingly high proportion of Christians an... read more

Greenwald on Ron Paul and Sports Fan Politics

He begins: As I’ve written about before, America’s election season degrades mainstream political discourse even beyond its usual lowly ... about election season is reflected in the central fallacy tha... read more

Ann Coulter's Testosterone Injection

The argument that your opponent is weak and effeminate can be ... I don't want anyone signing agreements to stop making political arguments, obviously. UPDATE: Someone in the comments wonders whether ... read more