Word (and Idea) of the Day: Sophistry.

Yes, let's get right to that core fault, that fundamental flaw in human argument and mentation, that is as easily the Road To Hell as that road paved with good intentions. Never mind that sophistry also is the road to:

Bigotry,
Ignorance,
Mob Mentality,
Lynch Mob, Mentality,
Genocide,

and just about all the ills of the World (well at lot of them, at the least; those involving Poor Human Judgment, at least.)

Again, thanks to the fine folk at Wiki.

Here are the snips and bits:

In modern philosophical usage, sophistry is a derogatory term for rhetoric that is designed to appeal to the listener on grounds other than the strict logical validity of the statements being made.

* * *

Reconstruction of Sophist philosophy

In traditional logical argument, a set of premises are connected together according to the rules of logic and lead therefore to some conclusion. When someone criticizes the argument, they do so by pointing out either falsehoods among the premises or logical fallacies, flaws in the logical scaffolding. These criticisms may be subject to counter-criticisms, which in turn may be subject to counter-counter-criticisms, etc. Generally, some judge or audience eventually either concurs with or rejects the position of one side and thus a consensus opinion of the truth is arrived at.

The essential claim of sophistry is that the actual logical validity of an argument is irrelevant; it is only the ruling of the audience which ultimately determine whether a conclusion is considered "true" or not. By appealing to the prejudices and emotions of the judges, one can garner favorable treatment for one's side of the argument and cause a factually false position to be ruled true.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophistry


Why am I on this topic today? Honestly, I was way over due, but I just spent some time "slumming" on the message board of one particually bull shit AM radio host, and reading some of the bits of (un)wisdom there like "there is no difference between a lib and an islamofascist," "Kill them All," "lib marxists," (and that one really gets me. Resurgent Archie Bunkerism??? Yecchh. Talk about people being totally incapable of self reflection!)

The thought occured to me that if we could declare sohistry illegal on the public airwaves, we could get the likes of Hannity, Rush, and most every other AM Hate-Talker off the air, and be all the better for it.

Let's put Classical Music on during their old timeslots. That would be more wholsome. When have you ever heard of a riot being started by fans of Beehtoven or Vivaldi?