Comment by Fenris on The noncentral fallacy - the worst argument in the world? · 2012-09-24T11:45:13.227Z · LW · GW

This is my first post here so I apologise to everyone if I break any protocol or repeat what has been said many times before.

My Academic background is in two disciplines. Firstly history and secondly philosophy. Within the study of philosophy we look at argument in great detail and the arguments here generally come into what we refer to as common fallacies which have been given an appropriate taxonomy.

These aren;t really represented here except in the introduction.

1) Abortion is murder!

This is not a logical fallacy. It is either wrong or right and it depends on two issues: in The Anglo Saxon world of common law ( that's USA, Canada,Ireland, UK , New Zealand, most Carribean countries etc ) Murder must be i) The Killing ii) Of a person, iii) In being iv) unlawfully and v) with malice aforethought.

For abortion to be murder the fetus must be i) a person and ii) abortion must be illegal. (i) is a matter of discussion and (ii) uis just a simple fact determined locally

ii) Euthanasia is murder!

It is technically murder. Those of us who are pro euthanasia just beleive it shouldn't be illegal and therefore no longer murder.

iii) Taxation is theft.

Again just wrong because theft must be unlawfull.

iV) Affirmative action is racist

It is racist. there is no Issue here . Indeed the bad argument is yours. You argument appears to be that if something is 'good' then it can't be racist. This is just incorrect. There is nothing that implies morality within the definition given in English lanaguge dictionaries apart from those published by the Marxist left (whom I implictly reject).

I beleive that black people win Gold at the Olympics 100m every year because the human varient found in West africa has the highest proportion of fast twitch to low twitch muscles that produce incredible explosive power. It is something that sports scientists agree on. It is implictly racist because it states that someone has a superior facility (in this case sprinting) on a racial basis and yet it is morally neutral.

Your argument is false because you applied qualia to the word 'racist' that are not implicit.

I will now read your suggested essays before replying further.

Thank you for your time.

Fenris.