Uploaded April 2022 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
Take a look at nearly any book on critical thinking and you’ll come across a list of fallacies: ad hominem, god of the gaps, argument from ignorance, appeal to emotion, appeal to authority, post hoc ergo propter hoc, and so on. The problem is that many of these “fallacies” closely resemble good lines of reasoning. Overreliance on fallacy lists – common practice in the skeptic community – fosters shallow criticism, distracts from the substance of an issue, and doesn’t even accomplish the ostensible purpose of demarcating good and bad reasoning.
I’m hard on skeptics in this episode, but that’s because I used to lean on this crutch myself. Over time, the usefulness of this approach struck me as less and less credible, and talk about fallacies tapered off. Fortunately, philosophers like Maarten Boudry and Michael Huemer, whose work you can find below, explained in clear terms what is so unhelpful about this mode of thinking. “Fallacy theory,” as Boudry calls it, is only one feature of a shallow, facile mode of philosophizing, one which isn’t very conducive to a genuine search for truth. I would suggest that one way of improving the quality of our discourse would be to lay off the fallacy accusations a bit. It would lead to a more fruitful search for knowledge and understanding.
The Fallacy Fork: Why It’s Time to Get Rid of Fallacy Theory - Maarten Boudry maartenboudry.be/2017/06/the-fallacy-fork-why-its-time-to-get.html
Playing Fallacy “Gotcha!” - Maarten Boudry maartenboudry.be/2018/01/playing-fallacy-gotcha.html
Knowledge, Reality, and Value: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy - Michael Huemer amazon.com/Knowledge-Reality-Value-Mostly-Philosophy/dp/B091F5QTDS
The Fake, the Flimsy, and the Fallacious: Demarcating Arguments in Real Life - Maarten Boudry, Fabio Paglieri & Massimo Pigliucci philpapers.org/rec/BOUTFT
Twitter @waldenpod
Transcript emersongreenblog.wordpress.com/2022/04/21/logical-fallacies
https://linktr.ee/emersongreen
/ Counter Apologetics /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/counter
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counter-apologetics/id1273573417
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0xp05xgyg04BWh0U1tCZ0z
/ Walden Pod /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/waldenpod
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5It3kjkrB9CTDen1Sx3aGl?si=fZ6MENZ4TdSLDPLAJ_6dAA&nd=1
/ Timestamps /
0:00 Introduction & the Fallacy Fork
1:26 Post hoc ergo propter hoc
3:09 Ad hominem
5:05 Ad populum
6:36 False Positives & Conclusion
Take a look at nearly any book on critical thinking and you’ll come across a list of fallacies: ad hominem, god of the gaps, argument from ignorance, appeal to emotion, appeal to authority, post hoc ergo propter hoc, and so on. The problem is that many of these “fallacies” closely resemble good lines of reasoning. Overreliance on fallacy lists – common practice in the skeptic community – fosters shallow criticism, distracts from the substance of an issue, and doesn’t even accomplish the ostensible purpose of demarcating good and bad reasoning.
I’m hard on skeptics in this episode, but that’s because I used to lean on this crutch myself. Over time, the usefulness of this approach struck me as less and less credible, and talk about fallacies tapered off. Fortunately, philosophers like Maarten Boudry and Michael Huemer, whose work you can find below, explained in clear terms what is so unhelpful about this mode of thinking. “Fallacy theory,” as Boudry calls it, is only one feature of a shallow, facile mode of philosophizing, one which isn’t very conducive to a genuine search for truth. I would suggest that one way of improving the quality of our discourse would be to lay off the fallacy accusations a bit. It would lead to a more fruitful search for knowledge and understanding.
The Fallacy Fork: Why It’s Time to Get Rid of Fallacy Theory - Maarten Boudry maartenboudry.be/2017/06/the-fallacy-fork-why-its-time-to-get.html
Playing Fallacy “Gotcha!” - Maarten Boudry maartenboudry.be/2018/01/playing-fallacy-gotcha.html
Knowledge, Reality, and Value: A Mostly Common Sense Guide to Philosophy - Michael Huemer amazon.com/Knowledge-Reality-Value-Mostly-Philosophy/dp/B091F5QTDS
The Fake, the Flimsy, and the Fallacious: Demarcating Arguments in Real Life - Maarten Boudry, Fabio Paglieri & Massimo Pigliucci philpapers.org/rec/BOUTFT
Twitter @waldenpod
Transcript emersongreenblog.wordpress.com/2022/04/21/logical-fallacies
https://linktr.ee/emersongreen
/ Counter Apologetics /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/counter
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counter-apologetics/id1273573417
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0xp05xgyg04BWh0U1tCZ0z
/ Walden Pod /
Consider supporting at patreon.com/waldenpod
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walden-pod/id1474408172
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5It3kjkrB9CTDen1Sx3aGl?si=fZ6MENZ4TdSLDPLAJ_6dAA&nd=1
/ Timestamps /
0:00 Introduction & the Fallacy Fork
1:26 Post hoc ergo propter hoc
3:09 Ad hominem
5:05 Ad populum
6:36 False Positives & Conclusion
