1. De rationibus absurdisque (On Reason and Absurdity)
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This article is from the Rational Investigation FAQ, by Sherilyn sherilyn@sidaway.demon.co.uk.
1. De rationibus absurdisque (On Reason and Absurdity)
With all sorts of conspiracy theories going around about skepticult
and whatnot, I thought I'd revisit an old posting I made to
alt.paranormal.moderated when one poster gave an unusually candid
description of his problems with skepticism. Having read
the bizarre web page at the URL below, I'm uncertain whether it's
deliberate misinformation or something the author actually believes,
but it strikes me as the end result of a process I described quite
precisely in this posting.
http://www.angelfire.com/me/lucianarchy/
I think the following paragraph, in particular, applies here:
One way to guarantee that people will laugh at you is to blurt out
in public "I know you're all laughing at me!" Similarly, one way
to guarantee that a person will not take you seriously is to claim
that that person is bent on ridiculing you. By asserting such an
"a priori" relationship, one is simply indulging in an ad hominem
fallacy, and insofar as one holds to that argument (which in time
validates itself as more and more people take one less and less
seriously) one courts ridicule. In short, it's an argument that,
by its nature, cannot but provoke ridicule.
Repost in full follows:
Subject: Re: Hello to group
Date: 11 Jun 1998 00:00:00 GMT
From: Sherilyn <Sherilyn@sidaway.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.paranormal.moderated
In article <897287560.325197@linux2.bluegrass.net>,
Scott <bogus@mailbag.com> wrote:
...
>
> Take the contrast between my actions and that of a sketpic. I hear
> of an event and attempt to discover what caused the observed
> phenomenon. If it cannot be explained via known physics then it
> falls into the category "to be considered". A true skeptic goes
> through this same sequence, but those events that cannot be
> explained via known physics fall into the catagory "from a nut".
>
> Sketpics are out of place here. If not for the above reason, then
> for the reason that they wish to quash anything that they themselves
> do not believe in.
These two statements express with great clarity a distressingly common
argument of justification for the a priori discounting of certain modes
of examination of the paranormal. The basic premise seems to be that
(one claims) a certain mode of inquiry is tainted by a motivation
towards suppression by ridicule, therefore such modes of inquiry (which
one usually identifies in a post hoc manner according to the results of
the inquiry) are to be ruled invalid, even though the methods used might
be (as in this case) openly admitted to be otherwise indistinguishable
from one's own.
We all should be aware of the self-fulfilling nature of this argument.
One way to guarantee that people will laugh at you is to blurt out in
public "I know you're all laughing at me!" Similarly, one way to
guarantee that a person will not take you seriously is to claim that
that person is bent on ridiculing you. By asserting such an "a priori"
relationship, one is simply indulging in an ad hominem fallacy, and
insofar as one holds to that argument (which in time validates itself
as more and more people take one less and less seriously) one courts
ridicule.
In short, it's an argument that, by its nature, cannot but provoke
ridicule. I stress here that my ridicule is reserved for the argument,
not the proponents in this instance, whom I have every reason to
believe to be susceptible to reason.
There's only one way out of this--adhere to standards of reasoning
that are universally recognised as reasonable. An excellent
introduction here:
http://www.sidaway.demon.co.uk/skeptic/toolkit.html
An alternative way of viewing this would be as a "tragedy of the
commons". If only we'd all agree not to laugh at one another behind
our backs no matter what the provocation, and stick to it, then
ridicule would be banished from the planet. I don't happen to think
the world would be better place, but you might differ. In the
meantime, we might all try to stop acting like it mattered a toss if
anybody ridicules us.
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