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Introduction
NOWHERE, perhaps, can you be more easily conned than during an argument or discussion. You've taken a position on an issue, which you've thoroughly thought through. You have supporting data at your fingertips. You're a quick thinker and articulate. You unfold your argument in logical steps. Yet somehow you don't seem to be getting anywhere. The other guy keeps coming back with statements and questions that seem to be relevant, that seem to make sense. And yet somehow they're neither relevant, nor do they make sense. You become confused, frustrated, angry. What's wrong? The explanation may be simple - you're being conned.
Using con tactics to win an argument was raised to a high level of skill in Athens, in the Fifth Century, BC. It constituted the core of study at a school of philosophers called the Sophists. The school's faculty concentrated on teaching young Greeks how to win arguments and debates at any price, even if it included faulty reasoning, deception, trickery, or whatever was necessary as long as the opponent was not able to discern the difference between sound and specious argumentation.
What's happening is that your opponent is using what are commonly known as fallacies of logic.
There are lots of these fallacies. Here are just a few of them.
The con of over-generalizing
This con is common, seductive, and dangerous. Its Latin name is secundum quid, meaning "in some one respect only." It involves assigning a characteristic to an entire group on the basis of only one or two observations. For example: A politician is convicted of taking a bribe, therefore, all politicians are crooked; one malingering black person, and all black people are malingerers; one cowardly Italian, and all Italians are cowards; one drunken Irishman, and all Irishmen are drunkards; one grasping Jew, and all Jews are grasping; one welfare cheat, and everyone on welfare is a cheat; and so on.
To avoid being taken in by this con, always keep in mind that "One swallow a summer does not make."
The "thin entering wedge" con
The next con is very similar to the previous one in that it also reflects overgeneralizing. The major difference between the two is that the former deals with observations that lie in the...