Then, too, the man who is asked whether he has horns on his head is not such a fool as to feel for them on his forehead, nor again so silly or dense that you can persuade him by means of argumentation, no matter how subtle, that he does not know the facts.
Such quibbles are just as harmlessly deceptive as the juggler's cup and dice, in which it is the very trickery that pleases me.
But show me how the trick is done, and I have lost my interest therein.
And I hold the same opinion about these tricky wordplays; for by what other name can one call such sophistries?
Not to know them does no harm, and mastering them does no good.
—from Seneca, Moral Letters 45
In reaction to a clever logical proof concluding that he had horns, Diogenes of Sinope observed that he certainly couldn’t touch them, just as he started going for a walk when another philosopher denied the reality of motion. This has long seemed to me a common-sense way of dealing with specious arguments, since nothing puts a quick end end to casuistry like a dose of cold, hard experience.
Nevertheless, Seneca makes me wonder if I need to respond at all, and while Diogenes and his fellow Cynics, who had a special calling to a sort of performance art, may have had the gumption to take on the demagogues and hypocrites, I am far more likely to get myself tied up in knots.
After all, intellectual charlatans like to play these mind games in order to draw attention to themselves, and by allowing them to push my buttons I will only urge them on. I can’t help but notice how delighted they are when they have the spotlight, and how deeply annoyed they become when they are ignored.
I can be completely civil while I go about my own business, free to admire their flair, while compassionate in pitying their insecurities. I must be clear that I am always available to help, though sincerity must be a condition for any conversation.
I was fascinated by magic tricks as a child, even as I never quite had the knack for performing them. My interest faded quickly, however, once I was shown the sleight of hand behind the performance, much the same way I now feel as an adult when I have discovered the fairly simple gimmicks that make people appear bigger than they truly are.
Whenever folks ride on the outer appearances, they are betraying a neglect of inner character.
Along with the ad hominem attack, the bandwagon, and the false dichotomy, I have found the red herring to be a favorite fallacy of the sophists. Avoid the matter at hand over here by planting a distraction over there, and they think they have made an argument, when instead they have merely played us for fools.
In reaction to a clever logical proof concluding that he had horns, Diogenes of Sinope observed that he certainly couldn’t touch them, just as he started going for a walk when another philosopher denied the reality of motion. This has long seemed to me a common-sense way of dealing with specious arguments, since nothing puts a quick end end to casuistry like a dose of cold, hard experience.
Nevertheless, Seneca makes me wonder if I need to respond at all, and while Diogenes and his fellow Cynics, who had a special calling to a sort of performance art, may have had the gumption to take on the demagogues and hypocrites, I am far more likely to get myself tied up in knots.
After all, intellectual charlatans like to play these mind games in order to draw attention to themselves, and by allowing them to push my buttons I will only urge them on. I can’t help but notice how delighted they are when they have the spotlight, and how deeply annoyed they become when they are ignored.
I can be completely civil while I go about my own business, free to admire their flair, while compassionate in pitying their insecurities. I must be clear that I am always available to help, though sincerity must be a condition for any conversation.
I was fascinated by magic tricks as a child, even as I never quite had the knack for performing them. My interest faded quickly, however, once I was shown the sleight of hand behind the performance, much the same way I now feel as an adult when I have discovered the fairly simple gimmicks that make people appear bigger than they truly are.
Whenever folks ride on the outer appearances, they are betraying a neglect of inner character.
Along with the ad hominem attack, the bandwagon, and the false dichotomy, I have found the red herring to be a favorite fallacy of the sophists. Avoid the matter at hand over here by planting a distraction over there, and they think they have made an argument, when instead they have merely played us for fools.
—Reflection written in 2/2013
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