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OfflinePsiloman
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Registered: 04/11/03
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Carl Sagan's Balooney Detection Kit
    #3073262 - 08/31/04 10:03 AM (19 years, 6 months ago)

Based on the book "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark" published by Headline 1996.


The following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments:




Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
Quantify, wherever possible.
If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
"Occam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?


Additional issues are

Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.
Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.


Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric

Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
Argument from "authority".
Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavourable" decision).
Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).
Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").
Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.
Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).
Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").
Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
Confusion of correlation and causation.
Straw man - caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack..
Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public"


Hmmm...that is a usefull adjunct to philosophy...Should it be stickied?

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OfflineStrumpling
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Registered: 10/11/02
Posts: 7,571
Loc: Hyperspace
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Re: Carl Sagan's Balooney Detection Kit [Re: Psiloman]
    #3074206 - 08/31/04 02:33 PM (19 years, 6 months ago)

I do fall into using some of these "tactics" occasionally but its usually unconscious.

I think you forgot to bring up the burden of proof as well..

Bob: There are Ghosts in my room
Ted: No there aren't.. Prove it!
Bob: Shyeah right dude you prove they're NOT in my room!

Bob has placed the burden of proof on the wrong side of the claim.. He made a claim and he has to back it up with evidence. You can't even try to prove that something is NOT there if it hasn't been shown to BE there..


--------------------
Insert an "I think" mentally in front of eveything I say that seems sketchy, because I certainly don't KNOW much. Also; feel free to yell at me.
In addition: SHPONGLE

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InvisibleHuehuecoyotl
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Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,689
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Re: Carl Sagan's Balooney Detection Kit [Re: Psiloman]
    #3075194 - 08/31/04 06:19 PM (19 years, 6 months ago)

I loved that book.

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