Show HN: Aristotl – an intuitive logical fallacy lookup tool
I'm afraid that a resource like this will make internet debates even less
pleasant and productive than they already are.To my experience, calling out an internet interlocutor for committing a formal
logic fallacy only serves the purpose of shutting down conversation.After all, formal logic fallacies apply to formal logic statements- but
internet conversations are not carried out in the language of formal logic.
They are carried out in natural language (natural English, most often).
Therefore, formal logic rules do not apply. One might as well accuse an
interlocutor that they have miscalculated the gradient of their comment.We comment on the internet. We say what we think makes sense in the way we
think it makes most sense to say it. We are not infallible logical machines
that calculate the truth or falsity of logical statements by rigorous
application of a set of rules of inference. We are not little lay philosophers
trained in formal logic, engaged in rigorous debate. We sound clueless and
pretentious when we try to sound as if we were.We should learn to not take the name of logic in vain.