From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Fri Apr 12 2002 - 10:59:59 MDT
> (Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com>):
> Many people make this logical fallacy:
>
> 1. Belief in idea "A" is "racist"
> 2. "Racist" ideas are "wrong"
> 3. Idea "B" is not "wrong"
> 4. Therefore, idea "B" is not "racist"
>
> This is faulty logic. The conclusion is not supportable by logic.
> Truth is not a defence to point 1. Truth would be a defense of point
> 2. That is, racists can argue that racism is correct. It is silly to
> argue that they aren't racist. That would be like Darwin arguing that
> evolution is really religion because its "right."
That's not a very good logical analysis: the syllogism above is
actually quite logically correct. It fails simply because premise
#2 is false. Depending on one's definitions of "racist" and "wrong",
one may or may not be a strict subset of the other.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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