Quotes About Fallacy

Where simplifications fail, causing the most damage, is when something nonlinear is simplified with the linear as a substitute. That is the most common Procrustean bed.

The first of the problems of human nature that we examine in this section, the one just illustrated above, is what I call the narrative fallacy.

The narrative fallacy addresses our limited ability to look at sequences of facts without weaving an explanation into them, or, equivalently, forcing a logical link, an arrow of relationship, upon them.

the "planning fallacy," in which they try to explain the fact that projects take longer, rarely less time, using psychological factors.

I consider straw man no different from theft.

mistaking what we don't see for the nonexistent, a sibling to mistaking absence of evidence for evidence of absence.

confusing intensity with frequency.

The bias lowers our perception of the risks we incurred in the past, particularly for those of us who were lucky to have survived them. Your

major ramification of the ludic fallacy: how those whose job it is to make us aware of uncertainty fail us and divert us into bogus certainties through the back door.

This is the same error as mistaking absence of evidence for evidence of absence

mistaking absence of evidence (of harm) for evidence of absence

In a perfect world, everything would either be black or white, right or wrong and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.

The belief otherwise is sometimes called "the gambler's fallacy." In fact, if you flip a fair coin 1,000,000 times and get 1,000,000 heads in a row, the probability of getting tails on the next flip is still ½. The

No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.

It is a classic example of arguing against a caricature instead of confronting the argument actually made. While

The first edition of this book addressed the seemingly invincible fallacy that statistical disparities in socioeconomic outcomes imply either biased treatment of the less fortunate or genetic deficiencies in the less fortunate.

A superstition is a premature explanation that overstays its time.

The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded upon a fallacy. The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and we grow happier as we grow older.

True. This gluten-is-the-enemy thing is total bullshit. And don't get me started on kombucha tea, kale, anything with antioxidants in it, and the fallacy that high-fructose corn syrup is the root of all evil.

Whenever there is a simple error that most laymen fall for, there is always a slightly more sophisticated version of the same problem that experts fall for.

For every problem, there exists a simple and elegant solution which is absolutely wrong.

Perhaps the more that a person is an intellectual the more they are prone to misconceptions.

The Republican argument that raising the debt ceiling encourages additional future spending is logically irresponsible. The debt ceiling has to be raised to authorize spending already approved by Congress. Despite that fallacy, the GOP has been able to score political points with its argument.

It is not proof that I sought. I, of all men, know that proof is but a fallacy invented by man to justify to himself and his fellows his own crass lust and folly.