The Ten Commandments of Rational Debate
1. Thou shall not attack the person's character, but the argument itself. ("Ad hominem")
2. Thou shall not misrepresent or exaggerate a person's argument in order to make them easier to attack. ("Straw Man Fallacy")
3. Thou shall not use small numbers to represent the whole. ("Hasty Generalization")
4. Thou shall not argue thy position by assuming one of its premises is true. ("Begging the Question")
5. Thou shall not claim that because something occurred before, it must be the cause. ("Post Hoc/False Cause")
6. Thou shall not reduce the argument down to two possibilities. ("False Dichotomy")
7. Thou shall not argue that because of our ignorance, claim must be true or false. ("Ad Ignorantiam")
8. Thou shall not lay the burden of proof onto him that is questioning the claim. ("Burden of Proof Reversal")
9. Thou shall not assume "this" follows "that", when "it" has no logical connection. ("Non Sequitur")
10. Thou shall not claim that because a premises is popular, therefore, it must be true. ("Bandwagon Fallacy")
Yes, yes, a cheap hook, I know.
Seeing this from a friend's Twitter link got me thinking. We debate, discuss, and kick ideas around on this forum all the time. And constantly, we see posts, comments, etc casually dismissed due to one fallacy or other - often 'source', or '$fallacy' being the entirety of a response as if that alone lowers the sword of doom over an opponent's head, figuratively.
Out of curiosity, in your experiences - what problems do we regularly run into here on the forums? What do you think we might do to improve that situation? Does falling back on one of these or other fallacies immediately invalidate an argument, or can it be explained and salvaged? Does the current boundaries encourage or discourage the 'shitposting' we often grouse about, or is that just dealing with 'anyone with a keyboard can and will participate' scenarios? Do we perhaps unwittingly suffer under some of these fallacies ourselves, due to 'groupthink' or other phenomenon?
Myself, yes - I see crazy all the time. I see people who BELIEVE WITHOUT QUESTION what they are saying, regardless of how "..." it may seem to me. (I see others who just troll it up for the lulz too, but that's another discussion entirely.) I think education of those who are unaware is a good first step to improving debate overall. And admittedly, the rose-colored-glasses part of me, however small, thinks that a more welcoming less postcount-measures-worth-obsessive environment might be somewhat helpful. But hey.
I don't want names mentioned - this is not a bitch thread about who's been horrible about what. It's generalized to avoid that sort of train wreck. And no, this is not mod-sanctioned or guided. Just me, as a player, pondering things out of the blue. We're not looking to change rules due to any discussion here that I'm aware of, nor am I inclined to suggest anything like that.
