Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[David Alan Beck <dabeck AT iupui.edu>]

Ken,
I agree. What I was referring to was how you could have a valid argument
(i.e. deduction) and it can be false. "All cows are purple; Elsie is a
cow; ergo, Elsie is purple." As far as the slipper slope reference, I was
just pointing out that someone can argue that if A happens B will follow
and not have a "valid" argument, but it still can be true (or, better yet,
turn out to be true--i.e. the abortion argument).
 Most of my postings are written too hastily and lack clarity. My fault.
-David
 

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Ken Armstrong wrote:

> At 09:28 PM 9/21/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> 
> >  Some may say that I'm presenting a slippery slope argument, but just
> >because an argument is fallacious, doesn't mean that it is untrue. For
> >example, some argued (fallaciously) that if we permit a woman to abort her
> >child (due to incest or rape), we open the door for abortion as a way of
> >birth control (and that is what happened--last I heard was that 96% of
> >abortions had nothing to do with incest or rape).
> 
>   David,
> 
>   Though I get farther and farther away from my grad school philosophy 
> minor, I'm sure hoping that if an argument (not it's conclusion) is 
> fallacious, it is not "true."  Off the top  of my head, I can't speak to 
> the example you give because I don't know what made the original argument 
> fallacious. But it seems to me that if the argument is faulty (any 
> argument), it is not a good argument. It doesn't stand. Period. If the 
> conclusion, illogic of the argument notwithstanding,  is true, it is true 
> because it is the legitimate conclusion to a different, if unstated, good 
> argument. Emotionally charged issues, I think, attract bad arguments. Which 
> is not to imply anything except the necessity for caution in analyzing 
> them, as ends never justify means, etc.
> 
>   Ken A
> 
>    
> 
> --
> 
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> 
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> 
> 
> 


David Beck