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Jesse Zuck's avatar

Interesting and compelling essay. Having taught philosophy at the college level (that included logical reasoning) , I was surprised to find that the informal fallacy, 'the exception that proves the rule,' seems to have fallen out of fashion, and I too couldn't find it listed in any reputable philosophy dictionaries. This fallacy was listed in our logic text, and I understood it to mean that an exception does nothing to support or deny a rule, which would support your argument, I think.

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Richard Parker's avatar

Thank you for your kind argument.

Some of these fallacies do not withstand close scrutiny or close contemplation. For example, the notion that the slippery slope argument is a fallacy is belied by what we know about psychology and sociology. Defining deivancy down and the Durkheim constant to say nothing of social contagion proves it is a real and tangible phenomenon.

You may also be interested in my take down of so-called "whataboutism."

https://theravenscall.substack.com/p/whataboutism-a-spurious-charge-exposed

If so inclined, please like, share, and subscribe.

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Jesse Zuck's avatar

Thanks @Richard Parker. Yes, I've always been suspicious of the claimed Slippery Slope fallacy. We are living at the bottom of one right now. Also, great article on whataboutism.

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Birbantum Rex's avatar

Great article, the best I read in a long time.

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Montana Shadow's avatar

FYI- you spelled ‘Sowell’ incorrectly in your title heading as ‘Sewell’. Confusing him with our friend in Australia?

Just thought you’d like to know. 😉

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Richard Parker's avatar

I had it spelled correctly in the body of the essay. To my ear, the way I hear it pronounced, it sounds like it should be spelled "Sewell." I am not sure I have ever heard or seen that name spelled that way. Same thing happens when I spell Gemran-American last names with their proper German spelling,, but the name has been anglicized by spelling a name with an "sh" or "sch."

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Montana Shadow's avatar

I saw it spelled Sewell in your email, then immediately saw the pic of Thomas Sowell and before I even started to read the article, for a split second, wondered how you were going to commingle the two Thomas’ into a story with Brigitte. If anyone could pull that off, it’d be you, but alas, it was just a simple error.

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Montana Shadow's avatar

P.S. It’s spelled incorrectly in the email I received from you but apparently you since caught the error and fixed it. 🤪

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Richard Parker's avatar

Not reading that. Blacks have persistently lagged between one and two standard deviations behind whites, regarldess of decades of efforts to ameliorate the matter. Black adopted children in white families often show greater promise in childhood, before, by and large (there are always) regressing to their mean. There is not, to my knowledge, a population of blacks anywhere in the world, past or present, that have defied this trend on a collective, aggregate, And even if there were, there are still problems with irreconcilable racial differences, the racial commitment to crime embodied by blacks, and so on.

Oh and before responding, familiarize yourself with the comments policy of this publication. Stating precisely the same thing... just don't do it.

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DC Reade's avatar

"not reading that" lol

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