55
votes
What is the term for the fallacy/strategy of ignoring logical reasoning intended to disprove a belief?
Technically speaking a fallacy is an invalid argument. In practice, what we would expect to see is two people starting from shared premises, and reaching contradictory conclusions, because (at least ...
- 30.4k
20
votes
What is the term for the fallacy/strategy of ignoring logical reasoning intended to disprove a belief?
No fallacy, two people have stated their opinions
The whole issue resolves itself quickly with one small clarification (my addition in boldface)
Mr. Black then confronts Mr. Pink one day at lunch, ...
- 5,229
18
votes
Does it matter if certain professions have a lower rate of theism, and if so, why does it matter?
What reason is there to assume that a more intelligent or better educated person is more likely to have a correct opinion about a disagreement that cannot be settled rationally or by evidence? From ...
- 10.9k
16
votes
Accepted
Do people who "withhold judgement" also have a burden of proof?
Describing yourself ("I am not convinced.") is free.
Describing the rest of reality ("Your argument is not convincing.") costs an argument.
- 6,770
15
votes
If someone clearly believes that he has witnessed something extraordinary very clearly, why is it more reasonable to believe that they hallucinated?
Note that there are two relevant questions:
Did they really have the sensory experience they're claiming to have had?
What is the best explanation for the sensory experience they had?
For the first ...
- 10.9k
13
votes
Is there a difference between believing something and behaving as if it were true?
Is there a difference between believing something and behaving as if it were true?
Yes, and the distinction is recognized in epistemic terminology.
Truth that is actually or really true is generally ...
- 29.1k
13
votes
Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?
One possible explanation could be that the "philosophy" category is too narrow. For those who consider a God or other religious view to be reasonable in this world, then the equivalent ...
- 14.6k
12
votes
Why is belief necessary for justified true belief?
Your (1) and (2) are not enough. Here is an example: suppose I have excellent reasons to believe that the earth is round (I've seen photos, listened to lectures, etc.), and that it is in fact true ...
- 6,566
12
votes
Accepted
What the Preface paradox tells us about the principle of explosion
I agree with Just Some Old Man's answer, but to expand on it a little...
If we think of all the statements in the textbook as propositions A1, A2, ..., An then the situation we are trying to describe ...
- 27.2k
12
votes
What sorts of beliefs can be justified non-scientifically?
Ethical and moral beliefs are justified but they are non scientific. Aesthetic beliefs , metaphysical beliefs , epistemological beliefs , religious beliefs , intuitive beliefs , cultural and social ...
- 1,220
11
votes
Accepted
What makes a basic belief a properly basic belief?
In general, what makes it properly basic is that it is justified. The word "properly," in this context, means "justified." A properly basic belief is a belief that has two properties: (1) it is ...
- 126
11
votes
What is the term for the fallacy/strategy of ignoring logical reasoning intended to disprove a belief?
You can't really identify a logical fallacy unless someone makes a claim, and the only claim your question describes is this:
Mr. Black denies all claims that cannot be proved by evidence.
Mr. ...
- 508
11
votes
Do people who "withhold judgement" also have a burden of proof?
First of all, "the burden of proof" is not a hard and fast rule but more about sportsmanship. So as asserting a claim is easier than defending or disproving one the former usually is ...
- 6,782
10
votes
What is the term for the fallacy/strategy of ignoring logical reasoning intended to disprove a belief?
'Mr. Black denies all claims that cannot be proved by evidence.'
It's easy to rug-pull Mr Black if he makes this claim, as a previous answer shows. But he has no need to make this claim. It is ...
- 35.8k
10
votes
What is the term for the fallacy/strategy of ignoring logical reasoning intended to disprove a belief?
Ugh.
Let me rephrase the original post:
Mr. Brown practices a lifestyle of scientific empiricism. Although Mr.
Brown doesn't outwardly proclaim his beliefs, he passively makes them
known to ...
- 1,224
10
votes
Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?
I was going to write about how the worldwide correlation between atheism and income would be a far more instructive metric to explain the incidence and beliefs of philosophers than aggregate ...
- 251
9
votes
Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?
I think the most effective answers in this thread, and the ones that should be marked as correct, are the ones that are very neutral about the truthfulness of religions/theism or non-theism/atheism - ...
- 3,692
9
votes
If someone clearly believes that he has witnessed something extraordinary very clearly, why is it more reasonable to believe that they hallucinated?
If I'm understanding: at its core this is a question purely about probability, and could be expressed as something like:
Someone rolls two 6s on a pair of dice. There was only a 1/36 chance of this ...
- 190
8
votes
Why is belief necessary for justified true belief?
According to Eric Schwitzgebel,
Contemporary analytic philosophers of mind generally use the term “belief” to refer to the attitude we have, roughly, whenever we take something to be the case or ...
- 19.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?
This is partly a sociological question, and therefore an empirical question, however, this sort of question is very much an open question in philosophy that explores the relationship between Religion ...
- 29.1k
8
votes
If someone clearly believes that he has witnessed something extraordinary very clearly, why is it more reasonable to believe that they hallucinated?
The probability that someone somewhere will experience a hallucination or any other perceptual anomaly (misperceiving depth, speed, or size; blind spots; other visual illusions) leading them to to ...
- 1,140
7
votes
Is it contradictory to believe in something but consider something else possible?
If something is merely contingently true, it is actually true, but the situation where it is false is a possible situation.
Conversationally, there is a tension between the assertoric force of “...
- 5,556
7
votes
Accepted
Is there a difference between believing something and behaving as if it were true?
I'd say Pascal's Wager is a counter example. You could rationally follow what you think God's wishes would be without believing in God's existence because of the cost of being wrong.
- 3,045
7
votes
Accepted
Is non-physicalism reasonable?
First Question, is belief in a non-physicalist worldview reasonable
The key issue to consider to answer your first question is to realize how science is done. In a field of empirical inquiry the ...
- 14.6k
7
votes
Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?
Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?
Atheism has some extreme consequences depending on where you live.
Atheists and religious skeptics can be executed in at ...
- 1,574
7
votes
Why are most philosophers non-theists and most non-philosophers theists?
Generally speaking, if there's a statistically significant difference in acceptance of a belief between two groups (i.e. one groups accepts a belief more often than the other), this suggests there may ...
- 10.9k
7
votes
Would it be possible to convince a hungry alien species that human lives are valuable?
IMO the only attempt is to argue with Kant's Categorical Imperative:
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will
that it should become a universal law.
And to point out ...
- 34.6k
6
votes
Accepted
Can logic be used to prove any belief?
According to the Duhem-Quine thesis and the underdetermination of theories in philosophy of science, no theory can ever be completely dismissed by empirical data (See Quine's "Two dogmas of empiricism"...
- 27.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Can someone be both a theist and an atheist?
If different times are involved, then there is no contradiction. S can be a theist at time t1 and an atheist at time t2.
It is possible and quite common for a person not to realise the full ...
- 35.8k
6
votes
Accepted
What does "true" mean in "justified true belief"?
This is slightly tricky as not everyone uttering that may have the same conception of truth, but generally speaking I think the definition only makes sense for some external/correspondence notion of ...
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