Form
It has the general argument form:
- If P, then Q.
- P is a fallacious argument.
- Therefore, Q is false.
Thus, it is a special case of denying the antecedent where the antecedent, rather than being a proposition that is false, is an entire argument that is fallacious. A fallacious argument, just as with a false antecedent, can still have a consequent that happens to be true. The fallacy is in concluding the consequent of a fallacious argument has to be false.
That the argument is fallacious only means that the argument cannot succeed in proving its consequent. But showing how one argument in a complex thesis is fallaciously reasoned does not necessarily invalidate the proof; the complete proof could still logically imply its conclusion if that conclusion is not dependent on the fallacy:
All great historical and philosophical arguments have probably been fallacious in some respect... If the argument is a single chain, and one link fails, the chain itself fails with it. But most historians' arguments are not single chains. They are rather like a kind of chain mail which can fail in some part and still retain its shape and function. —David Hackett Fischer, Historians' fallaciesRead more about this topic: Argument From Fallacy
Famous quotes containing the word form:
“Form and function are a unity, two sides of one coin. In order to enhance function, appropriate form must exist or be created.”
—Ida P. Rolf (18961979)
“At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,
A fisherman stood aghast,
To see the form of a maiden fair,
Lashed close to a drifting mast.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18091882)
“Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!
Quoth the Raven, Nevermore.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (18091845)