{"id":2974,"date":"2014-09-08T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2014-10-21T14:56:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T13:56:50","slug":"focusing-arguments-upon-sound-knowledge-common-fallacies-of-logic-and-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/2014\/09\/08\/focusing-arguments-upon-sound-knowledge-common-fallacies-of-logic-and-rhetoric\/","title":{"rendered":"Focusing arguments upon sound knowledge: common fallacies of logic and rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/files\/2014\/05\/debate-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-3582 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/files\/2014\/05\/debate-2.jpg\" alt=\"debate 2\" width=\"213\" height=\"128\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/files\/2014\/05\/debate-2.jpg 496w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/files\/2014\/05\/debate-2-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 213px) 100vw, 213px\" \/><\/a>Dealing with change usually involves debate: what to change, why, where, when, how and who?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">There is often the danger that skeptical inquiry can creep towards defensiveness and cynicism. Here are some things to challenge when these attributes appear in negative arguments presented by others (adapted from Paine 2013):<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><em>POOR responses<\/em><\/span> in discussions include:<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Attacking <\/strong>the person not the argument, or <strong>stereotyping<\/strong> a position to make attacks easier.<\/li>\n<li>Relying on &#8216;authority\u2019. <strong>Hierarchy<\/strong> should make no difference, one person\u2019s opinion should be no weightier than another\u2019s (both are, after all, just opinions) \u2013 what are the facts?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Observational selection<\/strong> (counting positives and forgetting the negatives, or vice versa).<br \/>\n\u25cf Statistics of small numbers<br \/>\n(such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes)<br \/>\n\u25cf the \u2018sample of one\u2019: using a single case which could be an extreme outlier rather than the norm<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0&#8216;conveniently&#8217; <strong>considering only two extremes<\/strong> to make the opposing view look worse:<br \/>\n\u25cf Excluding the middle options in a range of possibilities<br \/>\n\u25cf Short-term <em>v<\/em> long-term: \u201cwhy pursue research when we have so huge a budget deficit?\u201d.<br \/>\n\u25cf Slippery slope \u2013 unwarranted extrapolation \u201cgive an inch and they will take a mile\u201d\u00a0 &#8211; would they&#8230;always?<\/li>\n<li>Misunderstanding the nature of <strong>statistics<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Confuse correlation &amp; causation<\/strong> (cause &amp; effect):<br \/>\n&#8216;it happened after so it was caused by&#8217; &#8211; is this really justified?<\/li>\n<li>Appeal to<strong> ignorance<\/strong><br \/>\n(but &#8211; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">To address these arguments ask: what is the purpose of the discussion? what do we know? what are the facts? what are we assuming? what knowledge can we reasonably base our decision making upon? how can we examine, predict and monitor outcomes?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">As Deming says, most of what is important is unknown or unknowable, but we don\u2019t assume that it doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Bring the <a title=\"Cool runnings? Change perspectives. Just do it.\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/2014\/02\/24\/cool-runnings-change-perspectives-just-do-it\/\">skeptics into the argument<\/a>, involve their questions in the testing and development of ideas. <a title=\"\u201cResistance is useful\u201d: a new assumption?\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/2012\/01\/09\/resistance-is-useful-a-new-assumption\/\">Make resistance useful<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Further reading:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Deming W.E. (1982) Out of the Crisis, MIT CAES, Cambridge MA.<\/p>\n<p>Deming W.E. (1993) The New Economics, MIT CAES, Cambridge MA.<\/p>\n<p>Herrero, L. (2006) Viral Change, meetingminds, UK.<\/p>\n<p>Paine M. (2013) Baloney Detection Kit prepared excerpt from The Planetary Society Australian Volunteer Coordinators <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/index_ideascontent.htm#baloney\">http:\/\/www.carlsagan.com\/index_ideascontent.htm#baloney<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dealing with change usually involves debate: what to change, why, where, when, how and who? There is often the danger that skeptical inquiry can creep towards defensiveness and cynicism. Here are some things to challenge when these attributes appear in negative arguments presented by others (adapted from Paine 2013): POOR responses in discussions include: Attacking &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/2014\/09\/08\/focusing-arguments-upon-sound-knowledge-common-fallacies-of-logic-and-rhetoric\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Focusing arguments upon sound knowledge: common fallacies of logic and rhetoric<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2246,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118935,119315],"tags":[18229,51526,25076,16,25036,19057],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2974"}],"version-history":[{"count":98,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4332,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions\/4332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/change-academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}