Common Sense often lies
Sunday, 5. July 2009, 20:43:07
'Common Sense' don't always make sense. On cracked.com there is a good article about the 5 most common ways it lies to us everyday. It starts with reminding us that Albert Einstein defined common sense as a collection of prejudices acquired by the age of 18.
I'm going to list these five major logic fallacies in thinking in short here, and you can go and read in more detail at the original article.
* The Historian's Fallacy
This is when we look at past errors and think how people were stupid when making them, not trying to see it from their point of view, and forgetting they didn't know what we know now. Like thinking how totally and obviously stupid it was to sail the Titanic north and causing the sinking.
* The Nirvana Fallacy
Thinking how something is not worth doing if you can't do it perfect. Like why would you feed a homeless person when it won't fix poverty.
* The Appeal to Probability
Misinterpreting probability theories in a fuzzy way, like "if something can happen, it probably will". For example buying lottery tickets and justifying it with "somebody's got to win, why wouldn't it be me?".
* The Regression Fallacy
Seeing patterns where there are none. Thinking that A is cause of B, just because it happened at the same time. This is the reason for most of the superstitious beliefs.
* Special Pleading
Making an exception out a general rule without any justification except that it suits our needs at the moment. The interesting thing about this one is that we apply it to itself. We may allow ourselves to do it, but when other people do it we say it's wrong.
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I picked up this article a few months ago from Ze's blog, and I thought it was interesting enough to share, so I finaly did
I'm going to list these five major logic fallacies in thinking in short here, and you can go and read in more detail at the original article.
* The Historian's Fallacy
This is when we look at past errors and think how people were stupid when making them, not trying to see it from their point of view, and forgetting they didn't know what we know now. Like thinking how totally and obviously stupid it was to sail the Titanic north and causing the sinking.
* The Nirvana Fallacy
Thinking how something is not worth doing if you can't do it perfect. Like why would you feed a homeless person when it won't fix poverty.
* The Appeal to Probability
Misinterpreting probability theories in a fuzzy way, like "if something can happen, it probably will". For example buying lottery tickets and justifying it with "somebody's got to win, why wouldn't it be me?".
* The Regression Fallacy
Seeing patterns where there are none. Thinking that A is cause of B, just because it happened at the same time. This is the reason for most of the superstitious beliefs.
* Special Pleading
Making an exception out a general rule without any justification except that it suits our needs at the moment. The interesting thing about this one is that we apply it to itself. We may allow ourselves to do it, but when other people do it we say it's wrong.
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I picked up this article a few months ago from Ze's blog, and I thought it was interesting enough to share, so I finaly did
WIDGETIZE