In all my time discussing physics I've seem many kinds of logical fallacies used in physics arguments. I'd like to discuss this subject with everybody. I'llpost a few examples of fallacies that we all probably ran into in physics forum discussions.
I'll start off with the Fallacy of Popularity, which is defined as
Then there is the Straw Argument which is defined as followsThe fallacy of popularity is an argument that tries to justify something strictly by appeal to numbers.
The logical of Personal Attack (aka ad hominem) is defined as followsThe fallacy of a straw argument occurs when a weakened imitation of an opponents argument is attacked instead of the opponents original argument because the immitation is easier to refute,
This is a touchy subject that has already been discussed so perhaps we can gloss over it rather than get into details or examples.Whenever we attack a person instead of his or her argument, we commit a form of fallacy known as [i[personal attack[/i]. Historically, this fallacy has been known as argumentum ad homninem or ad hominem.
The Fallacy of False Authority which is defined as follows
Example, someone who is an expert in physics attempting to give an artument in the field of evolution and expecting that to be a legitimate appleal to authority.The fallacy of fals authority is an argument that violates any of the crieria for a legitimate appeal to authority.
I was wondering what kind of experiences you might have had with such logical fallacies in physics arguements. Is there something that has been irritating for you which seems to keep popping up?
Thank you all in advance.![]()