Logic

What are some of the most common mistakes of reasoning or logic that you have experienced being made by non-philosophers? What are some aspects of reasoning schools should particularly focus on?

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In my experience, maybe the most common mistake in reasoning committed by non-philosophers (and certainly among the most exasperating) is the one that philosopher Paul Boghossian complains about here: "Pinning a precise philosophical position on someone, especially a non-philosopher, is always tricky, because people tend to give non-equivalent formulations of what they take to be the same view" (my italics). Boghossian's complaint in this case stems from the "defense" of moral relativism offered by the literary critic Stanley Fish: "Fish, for example, after saying that his view is that 'there can be no independent standards for determining which of many rival interpretations of an event is the true one,' which sounds appropriately relativistic, ends up claiming that all he means to defend is 'the practice of putting yourself in your adversary's shoes, not in order to wear them as your own but in order to have some understanding (far short of approval) of why someone else might want to wear them.' The latter, though, is just the recommendation of empathetic understanding and is, of course, both good counsel and perfectly consistent with the endorsement of moral absolutes" ("The Maze of Moral Relativism," NYT, 24 July 2011).

It's an exasperating move in a debate because it means that one side keeps moving the goalposts without admitting (or maybe even recognizing) that they're doing it. I think only systematic study of logic can help people reliably avoid fallacies of that kind.

Judging from the students who arrive in my first-year courses, I think that any elementary or secondary schools that focus at all on reasoning -- by teaching logic as such -- are already doing better than the average school and spending their time more wisely than most.

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