> There are multiple logical fallacies in this sentence.
No, there aren't any fallacies in that sentence and can't be.
The statement expresses a personal preference; to be fallacious there must be some logic that can be unsound. That is, it must start from some premises and then derive a conclusion. To find a fallacy, you have to show that at some point the conclusion does not follow from the premises.
Since it's a simple assertion, it is implicitly sound. (The graph of premises to conclusions is just a single node.) And since the author knows with certainty what his preferences are, we can take it as true. It's fruitless to argue with people about what their preferences are.
> First is the use of the world 'until' which is ambiguous here
Virtually all "fallacies" you see online are just people typing their thoughts in a hurry. Take advantage of interaction and ask them to clarify.
> Lastly, your personally preferred outcome for your personal data is not a measure for all of society, but you grant it that "public service" label as if your preference matters above everyone else's.
And as a member of the public, if it serves my interest, it is a public service to some extent.
Now, fair enough, you're trying to attack it as not being some broader notion of a public service. You have that broader notion in mind, but you don't explain what it is.
Instead you apply your internal definition through "as if..." which puts you in the territory of inventing a claim they simply never made. That's not even fallacious, it's pure fiction.
> A blind deletion of unknown data belonging to unknown people is not a public service.
You do make some claims, mostly coached as questions, that might lead to this conclusion. You never plainly state your premises, nor do you connect them to this conclusion.
So after all that, your conclusion is a non sequitur!
> One problem with the frequent popular invocation of claimed "fallacies", such as "argument from authority", is many of them are only strictly speaking fallacious when used as purely deductive arguments,
> For example, using "appeal to authority", it is logically true that just because a group of Fields Medalists think your proof is wrong, does not necessarily mean that your proof is wrong. But in practice, there is a very high chance you are in the wrong.
The proof is wrong not because the status of those Field Medalists but instead because of the content of their argument. That's all that the appeal to authority is saying.
I'd agree that it's a mistake to relate the existence of a logical fallacies to the probability of a statement being correct. Instead, it only gives information about whether the reasoning of the statement is on solid ground.
>But it you're turning off your logic in casual conversation, expect to get burned. Detecting fallacies should be an always-on feature, like HTTPS.
I don't suggest turning off logic in casual conversation. Rather I suggest that one doesn't put it in autopilot -- as if fallacies (or their lack thereof) are the ultimate judgement of an argument.
> it's equally important to realize that the presence of an informal fallacy in an argument does not imply that the argument is either invalid or that the conclusion is false.
> But I think this sort of enumeration of logical fallacies is of very limited value. In the abstract there are only a few ways that arguments fail, and informal fallacies are all iterations on an extremely similar theme.
I think the value of enumerations -- in addition to creating a vocabulary which is often useful in discussing problems with an argument, even if, as you correctly note, exactly which fallacy is most applicable is a subject of interpretation -- is that it helps recognize instances of potentially problematic arguments. Even if, on a certain level of abstraction, a lot of the named fallacies are just different views of a smaller number of real problems, understanding the different manifestations of those common problems helps to recognize them in practice.
> Given the basic definition of an argument as a structure linking premises to a conclusion, a fallacy is simply a flaw in the structure. It doesn't invalidate the premises or the conclusion, only how they relate to one another.
True, and there's a name for that logical error -- it's the "fallacy fallacy" or "argument from fallacy", the error of assuming that, because there's a fallacy in one's argument, therefore the conclusion must be wrong.
> So while you're certainly free to attack the structure behind a conclusion, really you're better off attacking the conclusion itself with an argument of your own.
Yes. On the other hand, such a reply may serve to strengthen or clarify an argument, and is therefore sometimes appropriate.
>just because an argument's a logical fallacy, that doesn't make it incorrect. //
An argument that uses fallacious reasoning is an incorrect argument, but pointing out a fallacy doesn't negate a conclusion (that would be the fallacy fallacy).
So, we can't tell if the conclusion is wrong when someone uses a fallacy.
> If you can directly identify any of these fallacies while arguing on the internet your stance on the subject instantly becomes correct and the opposing view wrong.
Elsewhere, this line of reasoning is called the "fallacy fallacy". But the linked site describes the fallacy fallacy as "an argument that is based on false claims, but is logically coherent", which sounds more like a false premise to me.
> Can the conclusion stand if the arguments are not correct?
It can; arguing it can't would be an 'argument from fallacy', itself a fallacy.
Put another way, I can make up a totally absurd, incorrect argument that the sky is blue, but the sky is still blue. I can also make up a totally absurd, incorrect argument that the sky is green, but it isn't. An argument that doesn't hold water doesn't say anything useful about the conclusion either way.
No, there aren't any fallacies in that sentence and can't be.
The statement expresses a personal preference; to be fallacious there must be some logic that can be unsound. That is, it must start from some premises and then derive a conclusion. To find a fallacy, you have to show that at some point the conclusion does not follow from the premises.
Since it's a simple assertion, it is implicitly sound. (The graph of premises to conclusions is just a single node.) And since the author knows with certainty what his preferences are, we can take it as true. It's fruitless to argue with people about what their preferences are.
> First is the use of the world 'until' which is ambiguous here
Virtually all "fallacies" you see online are just people typing their thoughts in a hurry. Take advantage of interaction and ask them to clarify.
> Lastly, your personally preferred outcome for your personal data is not a measure for all of society, but you grant it that "public service" label as if your preference matters above everyone else's.
And as a member of the public, if it serves my interest, it is a public service to some extent.
Now, fair enough, you're trying to attack it as not being some broader notion of a public service. You have that broader notion in mind, but you don't explain what it is.
Instead you apply your internal definition through "as if..." which puts you in the territory of inventing a claim they simply never made. That's not even fallacious, it's pure fiction.
> A blind deletion of unknown data belonging to unknown people is not a public service.
You do make some claims, mostly coached as questions, that might lead to this conclusion. You never plainly state your premises, nor do you connect them to this conclusion.
So after all that, your conclusion is a non sequitur!
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