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Ad Ignorantiam

Golden Mean Fallacy

Otherwise known as: Argument to Moderation.

Informal fallacy which asserts that the truth can be found as a compromise between two opposite positions.

Otherwise known as appeal to ignorance.

The basic structure goes as follows:

Statement p is unproved.

Not-p is false.

OR

Statement not-p is unproved.

p is true.

This is the fallacy that states that a statement is true simply because it has not been proven false, or that a statement is false simply because it hasn't been proven true.

Knowledge Issue

Golden Mean Fallacy

Ad Ignorantiam

Knowledge Issue:

"How can reason be used to justify the compromise between the two extremes?"

Implication:

  • There are two extremes.
  • Claims has severity
  • A whole spectrum between the two extremes exists.

Knowledge Issue:

"If evidence is not present, how could you use reasoning to prove it does not exist?"

Implication:

  • There is evidence.
  • With opposite statements one must be true and one must be false.
  • It could lead people to believe false information is true.

Examples

Comparison

Bob says we should buy a computer. Sue says we shouldn't. Therefore, the best solution is to compromise. Together, they bought half a computer.

Ryan says the sky is blue. Toby says the sky is red. Therefore, the best solution is to compromise and say the sky is purple.

Golden Mean Fallacy

Ad Ignorantiam

No one has said that Mrs. Blankenship's random notebook checks are bad, therefore they must be a good thing.

There is no evidence that lobsters feel pain while being boiled, therefore they do not feel pain.

It has not been proven that there is no such thing as aliens, therefore there are aliens in outer space.

Golden Mean Fallacy

Ad Ignorantiam

  • Argument to Moderation
  • Compromise
  • There are two extremes on a spectrum
  • Appeal to ignorance
  • Speculated answer.
  • If something is not proven true than the opposite must be "true".

Harry Potter

  • Two Sides
  • Comes to a conclusion
  • However the conclusion doesn't have to be the truth.

Real Life Example

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

This scene is about a mythical creature called bogarts.

[Joe McCarthy] announced that he had penetrated "Truman's iron curtain of secrecy" and that he proposed forthwith to present 81 cases… Cases of exactly what? "I am only giving the Senate," he said, "cases in which it is clear there is a definite Communist connection…persons whom I consider to be Communists in the State Department." … Of Case 40, he said, "I do not have much information on this except the general statement of the agency…that there is nothing in the files to disprove his Communist connections."

Fallacies

THANK YOU!

By Chloe Villazor and Justin McWilliams

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