Everyone has their own unique compulsions – let’s pretentiously call them ‘quotidian fetishes’ that can be both a source of insight and aggravation to those (un)lucky enough to experience them. For example, we’ve all been at the dinner table enjoying a pleasant conversation, when suddenly, the strict grammar-phile (and there seems to be one in every family or circle of friends) interrupts the dialogue to correct a misspoken phrase or to point out some obscure malapropism.
This moment of seemingly manic adherence to the the Law of correct grammar seems to provoke in me (and perhaps you) two unrelated responses: complete annoyance with this obnoxious demonstration of book-learning or relief that the mistake was not my own and a quick memorization of the rules being explicated so as to not repeat the same (obviously embarrassing) mistake in the future.
So, I’m hoping that I’ll provoke the latter and not the former response by directing the curious to the Wikipedia listing of logical fallacies.
Special attention should be paid to the so-called ‘red herring’ fallacies under the title heading of ‘informal fallacies’. As you glance over these glaring, frustrating points of illogic and untruth, try to imagine how many times a day you encounter some version or another of these mental stumbling blocks during the course of a day or even, during a single conversation (and if you dare to think about how often you hear them on television your head may explode).
If you’re like me and you took a few logic courses while at university (in a failed but courageous attempt to avoid calculus), nothing will cause you more cognitive dissonance than to hear people routinely frame arguments (or worse, opinions) in ways that are fundamentally illogical.
To be honest, I really do enjoy the rare but always satisfying formal fallacy that surfaces from time to time in casual conversation. As wikipedia notes, a formal fallacy is a type of non sequitur and is often funny. I hear the naturalistic, nirvana, and false dichotomy fallacies more than the others, and they are the bright red flags in conversation that warn the listener, “Don’t believe the conclusion about to be stated.” But formal fallacies are easy to recognize, almost common-sensical. It’s the informal fallacies people!
As mentioned above, the red herring or irrelevant conclusion fallacies are the ones I find particular prevalent and unchecked, but the worst, by far is the dreaded Thought-terminating cliché .
Just have a look at those phrases (and I’m so tempted to list them here) and try to extrapolate how many times a day you hear them (you’ll want to sit down to perform this thought experiment, and be careful. As Wiki notes, just thinking that something is a thought-terminating cliché can termiate thought. Oh cruel paradox!). Amazing isn’t it*!
So remember, the next time that you hear, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.” or “Such is life.” mentally note that your conversational opponent is trying to mask their fallacious logic! Don’t give in to the temptation to let them slide – call them out on their lack of logistical rigor!
Truly, there is enough mystery and illogical in the world to last a lifetime – let us not continue to endure it during our idle moments of conversation.
*The one exception to the rule here is the phrase “That’s what s/he said.” which is often trotted out as some hackneyed appeal to authority. That this phrase is now a common comic innuendo both because of its illicit connotations and because of its introduction of illogic into the course of a conversation means that one can probably exclude it from the list of clichés to get all hot and bothered over.
** I’m doing my best to do a bit of elevated academic prose here – maybe not so much obnoxious as pretentious?
