Skip navigation

Sign up | Lost password? | Help

Notes on Logic:

Informal, Deductive, and Inductive

Statements, Whether Confused Or False, Are Not Fallacies

Friday, 21. July 2006, 13:14:12

, , ,

BBC News--Technology reports on a recent study about bloggers:

A study by social networking site MSN Spaces found that nearly 60% of people in the UK use blogs as an online diary.
"Citizen journalists" are increasingly dominating the headlines for reporting events using online tools like blogs.
A second survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 65% of people in the US who write a blog also do not consider their work journalism.

(BBC News Technology. "Numbers cut through blogging hype." (20 July 2006) URL=<http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5197808.stm>"

The confusion implicit in the first sentence implies that 60% of the people in the UK blog. However, the context provided by the two following sentences in the quoted passage make it clear that the intent of the author is to report that of the people in the UK who blog, 60% of those blog in an online-diary form.

The mistake in the composition of the population studied is not an instance of the Composition Fallacy, since a fallacy need have at least two statements: a premise and an conclusion. This passage is only one statement with no supporting ellipsis.

Instead, by the Principle of Charity, it's best to regard the statement as confused rather than false. Thus, we should translate to an appropriate contextual meaning before analysis.

Method of Authority and Argumentum ad Verecundiamad Hominem, Character Attack, Emotive Significance

Write a comment

You must be logged in to write a comment. If you're not a registered member, please sign up.

December 2009
S M T W T F S
November 2009January 2010
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31

Philosophy Sources

  • The Bloomsbury Research Centre

    The Bloomsbury Research Centre is a free on-line database containing 17,000 cross-referenced entries linked and fully indexed. The Centre's search engine selects a wide range of subjects by title or by topic including areas of literature, art, myth,

  • The Ism Book

    Self-described as "an intellectual "field guide" that provides brief definitions of theories, doctrines, movements, and approaches in philosophy, religion, politics, science, the arts, and related disciplines. It was originally written in 1990 and wa

  • Meta-Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    Meta-Encyclopedia of Philosophy--a dynamic resource, by Andrew Chrucky, accessing the following sources: Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), Dictionary of Philosophy, 1942 , Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Dictiona

  • New York Times -- Philosophy

    The New York Times philosophy news with newletter or email alerts about academic philosophers and philosophy as well as societal applications of philosophy published in the Times over the last several years with links to additional articles on ethics

  • The Philosopher's Magazine

    The Philosopher's Magazine has a sampling of online articles with popular and introductory philosophical topics. Links to international newspaper articles with philosophical content are provided, but access to full content requires subscription. The

  • Philosophy Courses

    Tutorials in philosophy, logic, scientific reasoning, ethics, and Eastern philosophy. Online etexts in philosophy, aesthetics, and Eastern philosophy.

  • Social Science Information Gateway

    The World Philosophy Information Gateway is an extensive set of links rivaled only by EpistemeLinks.com, although the later site is somewhat better organized. The Internet resources include bibliography, books, journals, mailing lists, news, referenc

  • The Philosophy Pages

    The Philosophy Pages includes a dictionary of philosophical terms and names, a survey of the history of Western philosophy, a timeline for key figures, discussion of several major philosophers, a summary treatment of the elementary principles of logi

  • The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a continuously updated reference work and is a publishing project of the Metaphysics Research Lab at the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) at Stanford University. The General editor of

  • Wikipedia

    Wikipedia an online free encyclopedia for all subject, not just philosophy, is licensed under the Gnu Free Documentation License and contains a half-million articles maintained and edited by Wiki according to the philosophy of the free software movem

  • Dictionary of the History of Ideas

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, edited by Philip P. Wiener, was published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, in 1973-74. Now out of print, the Dictionary is published online with the help of Scribner's and t

  • Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology

    Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology by James Mark Baldwin is a developing resource, first published in 1901, including terms from ethics, aesthetics, logic, philosophy of religion, mental pathology, anthropology, biology, neurology, physiology,

  • Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind

    Edited by Chris Eliasmith, the <b>Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind</b> is a free resource for the major concepts in the philosophy of mind. The dictionary has a policy of blind peer review for all submissions, and is sponsored by The Philosophy

  • EpistemeLinks.com

    EpistemeLinks.com is one of the oldest and most thorough sites on the Internet having comprehensive links for many different interests in philosophy including philosophers, philosophic subjects, reference works. blogs, philosophy discussion lists, et

  • Eserver.org

    This collection of e-texts contains philosophic classics and links to scholarly philosophic organizations. The English Server has other collections in addition, however, in critical theory, history, and in eighteenth century studies, which also addre

  • Free Online Dictionary of Philosophy

    OLDOP stands for the Free On Line Dictionary Of Philosophy, edited by the SWIF (Sito Web Italiano per la Filosofia). This resource contains about 2500 entries as of 01.01.05 contributed by qualified volunteers. The entire database is downloadable off

  • The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

    The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (subtitled "A Field Guide to the Nomenclature of Philosophy") consists of regularly updated original articles by fifteen editors, one hundred academic specialists, and technical advisors. The articles are autho

  • The Internet Philosopher

    The Internet Philosopher is a tutorial on the use of the Internet for studying philosophy. The tutorial covers the prominent Internet sites, how to search, what to trust, and how to maximize information skills. Other features include printer friendly