June 2004 Archives
The body, especially joints: noop; uvula; popliteal; paxwax; blype;
racklettes; anconeal; olecranon
The press reflects on Reagan: acolyte; talisman; nascent; hegemony;
clerisy; reaganomics; fractious
Have You Ever Met People Like
This? polymath (paradigm);
mossback; mendicant; gamin (gamine); flaneur (flaneuse; flβnerie)
(wastrel); latitudinarian; ergomaniac
(ergophile); karoshi
Terms of Illogic: amphibology/amphiboly (delphic);
equivocation; ad hominem argument; tu quoque; ipse dixit; post hoc;
false dilemma; begging the question
The body, especially joints
Back in
November I said, "I was amazed to learn, when researching this topic, how
many different words name specific familiar parts of the body. Let's look at
some of them, planning to revisit this topic from time to time."
That time has
come. We'll focus particularly, though not exclusively, on the joints.
Several of
these words are almost never used, but would be useful addition to the general
lexicon. For example, wouldn't be good to have a word for the point of your
elbow, so that you could say, "I banged my noop"?
noop Scotch: the sharp point of the elbow
[I believe
this word is used in the commercial versions of Balderdash and Trivial Pursuit.
Now you can impress your friends!]
a'body has a conscience, though it may be ill wunnin at
it. I think mine's as weel out o' the gate as maist folk's are; and yet it's
just like the noop of my elbow, it whiles gets a bit dirl on a
corner.
Sir Walter Scott, The Heart Of
uvula the thing that hangs down from the back of
the mouth (which children invariably think is a tonsil)
[an
interesting derivation: diminutive of Latin uva cluster of grapes]
popliteal pertaining to the hollow area at the back
of the knee
Practically
all uses are in the medical context. But I guaranty you will never forget the
image in this non-medical example, in which a husband, to his wife's
embarassment, is telling a story about her.
Mrs. Scott Peterson sits down on the commode, still naked
and wet from the shower, and when she's done she reaches over and hits the
commode's Flush mechanism, and in Mrs. Scott Peterson's wet slick condition,
the incredible suction starts actually pulling her down through the seat's
central hole, and apparently Mrs. Scott Peterson is just a bit to broad
abeam to get sucked down all the way but rather sticks, wedged, halfway
down in the seat's hole, and can't get out, and is of course stark naked, and
starts screeching for help; and Scott Peterson and comes rushing in and sees
what's happened to Mrs. Scott Peterson and tries to pull her out - her feet
kicking pathetically and buttocks and popliteal purpling from the
seat's adhesive pressure - but he can't pull her out, she's been wedged in too
tight by the horrific suction.
David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again : Essays
and Arguments Tag: Author of Infinite Jest
We have two
seriously obscure words today.
paxwax the neck tendon (properly, the nuchal
ligament)
This word may
have led to something more familiar. It's been claimed that in 1740's
This old man,
He plays one,
He plays knick knack on my thumb
With a knick knack paddy whack,
Give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home.
blype Scot. a thin skin or membrane, esp.
a small piece of skin
Most sources,
more limiting, specify "a piece of skin that peels off after a
sunburn". English could use a word for that!
He taks a swirlie, auld moss-oak
For some black gruesome carlin;
An' loot a winze, an' drew a stroke,
Till skin in blypes cam haurlin
Aff 's nieves that night.
Robert Burns, Halloween
[He takes a twisted, old moss-oak
For some black gruesome old woman;
And uttered a curse, and made a hit,
Till skin in shreds came hurling
Off his fists that night.]
racklettes the skin's small, thin wrinkle-lines at a
joint, as at the wrist
I've found
this word only in one source so far. But as I age, and those wrinkles begin to
develop at the shoulders, neck, and so on, I see how useful the word racklettes
would be.
A (female)
reader notes: I was
especially pleased to learn the word racklettes, as I've been obsessed
with elbow wrinkles lately, gratified that some part of my body seems to remain
a little younger-looking than others my same age, which, as of Friday, is 39.
anconeal relating to the elbow.
[This word
also has some archituctural meanings, doubtless related, but I've not
researched the connection: 1.the corner or quoin of a wall, cross-beam, or
rafter. 2. a bracket supporting a cornice; a console. ('Quion' and 'console'
seem worth defining, but we'll save that for a day when our message is less
lenghty.)]
olecranon "The large process on the upper end of
the ulna that projects behind the elbow joint and forms the point of the
elbow."
[Clear as
mud, right? If this this means simply "the bump of the elbow", then
I'll stick with noop for that purpose, thank you. Still, olecranon
is a nice metaphor for that bump, since at root olecranon means 'the
skull [cranium] of the elbow'.
The
press reflects on Reagan
As the press
reflects on Ronald Reagan and his legacy, we will present, in his memory, relevant
words taken from those press reflections.
acolyte a devoted follower or attendant (also, in
church, one who assists the celebrant in the performance of liturgical rites)
Like all consequential Presidents, Mr. Reagan influenced a
generation of followers in both political parties. In the GOP, his acolytes
were the candidates who finally took Congress in 1994.
Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2004
talisman an object as a charm to avert evil or good
fortune; figuratively, something producing apparently magical or
miraculous effects
[Does the
quotation below use this word incorrectly?]
In a recent history of the Republican Party, Lewis L.
Gould of the
David Von Drehle, The
A reader notes: [Does the quotation below use this word
incorrectly?] I think so; paradigm or archetype would seem a better fit (if
you're in need of that sort of word).
Today's
quotation gives us two words.
nascent coming into existence, or having recently
come into existence
[from root
meaning "to be born", as "Mrs. Ellen Jones, nιe Smith"]
hegemony preponderant influence or authority; leadership;
domination (usu. applied to relation of a state to its neighbors or allies)
[accent on either first or second syllable; the latter is more prevalent]
His rhetoric against nascent Middle Eastern
terrorism notwithstanding, his administration undertook to supply arms and
spare parts to
A reader
notes: It may be of interest
that hegemony is derived from Hegemone, one of the early forms of goddess who
became the Greek "Charites."
clerisy the well-educated elite class; the
intelligentsia
Instead of dreaming about creating an educated "clerisy"
... Mr. Reagan was a populist who argued that "Bedtime for Bonzo made more
sense than what they were doing in
John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2004
reaganomics the economic policies of President Reagan,
esp. those of promoting the unrestricted action of free-market forces in
commerce and reducing the taxation of earnings from investment
"Reaganomics" is now a household word
describing the policies that pulled the
George Melloan, Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2004
fractious 1. unruly; tending to make trouble 2.
quarrelsome; irritable
Patiently good-humoured, he proved to be superbly gifted
for the fractious processes of labour negotiation, and was active
in the union for 15 years.
Hugh Brogan, The Guardian, June 7, 2004
Have You
Ever Met People Like This?
Have you met
people of the sorts we'll name or describe this week?
polymath a person of great or varied learning
He seems a paradigmatic figure of the new science,
and not just because frustration comes more often than triumph. He was the
ultimate polymath when "natural philosophers" had not
yet begun to specialize. The great chemist Robert Boyle, his employer, was
famed as a moralist; Christopher Wren was better known to colleagues as an
astronomer than an architect, and
Derek Hirst, reviewing Lisa Jardie's biography of Robert Hooke, in The New
York Times. Excellent article, as published in International Herald Tribune,
June 1, 2004
Bonus
word:
paradigm something that serves as a model, example,
or pattern
Per AHD,
'paradigm' is also used to mean 'the prevailing view of things', but the
experts are evenly split over whether that use is approved. Example: The
paradigm governing international competition and competitiveness has shifted
dramatically.
mossback a very old-fashioned person, one with
ancient views or thinking; an old fogy
He had just one strategy attack, attack, attack, carry
the fight to the enemy's camp. He hammered the Republicans relentlessly, in
speeches. The 80th Congress, he said at
David McCullough, Truman
Churchill in 1912 set out to reform the Royal Navy. He eliminated the
dreadnoughts and replaced them with more mobile battleships. Then he sent into
early retirement many mossback admirals.
James C. Humes, The Wit & Wisdom of Winston Churchill
mendicant a beggar adj: begging for a living
[The word is
also used for religious orders that at one time so supported themselves. It is
most often found in a religious concext.]
A mendicant at a mosque in Ennore paid with
his life for making an indecent proposal to another comrade-at-alms, who,
nursing a grudge over the beggar-friend's amorous interest towards his wife,
invited him home for a drink and slashed his throat with a knife.
News Today, India, May 25, 2004 (nice pun there)
The real lesson for South Australia ... is that it needs to shake off the
culture of the mendicant state, dependent on uneconomic,
sheltered industries and large handouts from the taxpayers.
Alan Wood, Car market overheats, The Australian, May 25, 2004
Odysseus came through his own doorway as a mendicant,
humped like a bundle of rags over his stick.
The Odyessy, Bk. XVII (Fitzgerald translation)
Gamin has two different meanings depending on
whether it is used for a male or a female. Gamine, which has two
related meanings, is exclusively female.
gamin (male) boy who hangs around on the streets;
a street urchin.
The word
carries the implication of a clever, roguish child.
What boy well raised can compare with your street gamin
who has the knowledge and shrewdness of a grown-up broker.
Elbert Hubbard (18561915), American author/publisher. Hubbard wrote "A
Message to Garcia" (1899). He died on the ship
Gamine, the feminine form, has a second meaning not
pertaing to the streets:
gamine (female)
1. feminine
form of gamin above
2. a
playfully mischievous girl or woman of impish appeal. (One source adds that she
"is thin, short-haired and attractively like a young boy in appearance: Her
newly cropped hair gives her a fashionably gamine look")
Coming full
circle:
gamin (female) - a gamine in the second,
impish sense.
Most
dictionaries omit this female meaning of gamin, but examples in use are
not hard to find. I give but one reluctantly omitting more from The Happy
Hooker, Valley of the Dolls, and Robert Ludlum novels and have put a long
one below.
Kate was so beautiful, with the gamin quality
of a Meg Ryan or Goldie Hawn, a perky, carefree perfection that Charlie greatly
envied.
Shirley Rousseau Murphy, Cat Fear No Evil
I hope you
enjoy the next quotation enough to warrant its length. It as from the
first salvo of the 1952 advertising campaign for Revlon's Fire and Ice
Cosmetics, which was called the most memorable of Revlon's promotions and the
one which has made a permanent impression on the cosmetics business.
What is the American
girl made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice? Not since the days of the
Gibson Girl! There's a new American beauty . . . . She's tease and temptress, siren and gamin,
dynamic and demure. Men find her slightly, delightfully baffling. Sometimes a
little maddening. Yet they admit she's easily the most exciting woman in all
the world! She's the 1952 American beauty with a foolproof formula for melting
a male! She's the "Fire and Ice" girl. (Are you?)
Have
you ever danced with your shoes off?
Do
you ever wish on a new moon?
Do
you blush when you find yourself flirting?
When
a recipe calls for one dash of bitters, do you think it's better with two?
Do
you secretly hope the next man you meet will be a psychiatrist?
Do
you sometimes feel that other women resent you?
Have
you ever wanted to wear an ankle bracelet?
Do
sables excite you, even on other women?
Do
you face crowded parties with panic then wind up having a wonderful time?
Does
gypsy music make you sad?
Do
you think any man really understands you?
Would
you streak your hair with platinum without telling your husband?
If
tourist flights were running would you take a trip to Mars?
Do
you close your eyes when you're kissed?
Can you honestly
answer "yes" to at least eight of these questions? Then you're made
for "Fire and Ice"!
It's Father's
Day, a time when all fathers may indulge in a bit of innocent flβnerie.
flaneur (fem. flaneuse) - an aimless
idler; a loafer
[implies, but
not limited to, idle strolling. from F. flβner, to idle about, stroll]
(flβnerie:
the occupation [or lack thereof])
There is a titanic story beneath all this, where the
aspirations of postindependence African nationalism are sidetracked by personal
hubris and competing notions of art and culture. Masekela cannot fully tell it.
But he lived it, almost as a flaneur, and it keeps the
story of a wastrel somehow emblematic
Eric Weisbard, New York Times, June 11, 2004, reviewing Still Grazing: The
Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela by Hugh Masekela and D. Michael Cheers
Perhaps you are a naturally slothful person, sluggish and indolent, a dawdling flaneur,
content to waste his life spread eagled on pillows forever indulging himself in
the pleasures of the palm.
Episode of The League of Gentlemen, broadcast 25 Jan 1999; titled Nightmare
in Royston Vasey
Note: flaneur is a pejorative
term, but (despite this quote) not a sexual one.
Bonus
word:
wastrel - 1. a spendthrift; one who squanders money
2. An idler; a loafer; a good-for-nothing
latitudinarian adj: broadminded; permissive;
undogmatic noun: a person of such attitude.
[pertains
particularly to religious matters, but not always. see quotes below]
Holmes was exacting in construing a statute and latitudinarian
in construing powers under the Constitution. He often said that there was
nothing in the Constitution that prevented the country from going to hell if it
chose to.
Max Lerner, The Mind and Faith of Justice Holmes (1954)
[On U.S. senators of adjacent states, each claiming their own state originated
baseball: ] [Senator] Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey wants June 19 declared
"National Baseball Day." His resolution originally was supported by
New York's Pat Moynihan, who at that point was somewhat of a latitudinarian
regarding baseball's provenance. Moynihan has since defected to the D'Amato
insurgency."
George Will, Hard Feelings along the Lower Hudson River, June 2, 1996,
in his book Bunts
Mr. Newdow seeks through this lawsuit to force all public schools to
banish any statement that might be construed as a reference to religious
values, no mater how benign, latitudinarian, or important
that expression may be to the inculcation of civic virtue.
Brief to U.S. Supreme Court, in case on whether school may require children
to recite a daily pledge that includes reference to "God" (2003)
Here are
three gradations of the antonym of our flβnerie of Father's Day.
ergophile one who loves work
ergomaniac a workaholic
karoshi death caused by overwork or job-related
exhaustion.
[This is a
Japanese term, but it is coming into English and is now listed in OED. Karoshi
is a major cause of death in Japan.]
Terms of
Illogic
A few months
ago we did a theme on Terms of Logic. As a natural counterpart, let's look at
terms of illogic.
amphibology;
amphiboly an ambiguity
which results from ambiguous grammar
An
amphibology is often so obvious that it humorous rather than misleading.
"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas
I'll never know." Groucho Marx, in the movie Animal Crackers)
But the
ambiguity can mislead the hearer to an illogical conclusion. When King Croesus
consulted the Oracle at Delphi about his military plans, the response was,
"If Croesus crosses the Halys, a great power will be destroyed."
Croesus took this as predicting victory for him. In the fact, when he
crossed the River Halys into Persia, a great army was indeed destroyed; but
unhappily for him, the army annihilated was his own.
The oracle
gave us our bonus word:
delphic obscurely prophetic; also,
ambiguous; mysterious
A post on our
board has asked, "Is amphibology [yesterday's word] usually an ambiguous
statement because of grammar...or could it just be an ambigous statement?"
Technically,
amphibology is an abiguity of grammar. In contrast,
equivocation the type of ambiguity which occurs when a
single word or phrase is ambiguous; this ambiguity is not grammatical but
lexical. [Obviously, 'equivocation' has other and more familiar meanings.]
Equivocation,
like amphibology, can often be humorous, as in the Who's on First comedy
routine (text or hilarious audio), and it is often the basis
of humorous headlines. Among the bloopers in Headlines That You
Just Have to Hang On To, by Bob Levy of the Washington Post,
you'll find such examples as
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over."
"Key Witness Takes Fifth in Liquor Probe."
"Marijuana Issue Sent to Joint Committee."
But
equivocation, like amphibology, can also mislead the hearer.
... humanity has a right not to be killed, at least.
Without laying out all the evidence here, it is fair to conclude from medicine
that the humanity of the life growing in a mother's womb is undeniable and, in
itself, a powerful reason for treating the unborn with respect.
Helen M. Alvarι, The Abortion Controversy (Greenhaven, 1995)
The
equivocation lies between two meanings of "human": 1. a person
as a whole ("human being"), which has a right not to be killed, and 2.
a part of a person ("the human hand"), which though undeniably human
has no such right. Alvarι is confuting the two senses. Her fallacy would be
would be obvious if the passage read, "Humanity has a right not to be
killed, and the humanity of the human hand is undeniable." Of course,
Alvarι makes perfect sense if you assume that a fetus is a human being, but
that would almost be assuming the desired conclusion.
[I thank The Fallacy Files for much of the
matter in the last two days, and expect to use it further this week.]
argument ad
hominem countering an opponent's argument by attacking the opponent,
rather than the argument he makes.
[In effect,
an attempt to change the subject from the matter at hand, and focus instead on
the opponent personally. This is a failure of logic, in that the validity of an
argument does not depend on the person making it.]
An ad
hominem argument may be either 'abusive' or 'circumstantial':
abusive
ad hominem
attacking the opponent's character or other personal qualities:
"I once asked a long-haired maggot-infested FM-type
environmentalist wacko who he thought was threatening the owl." Rush Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be
circumstantial
ad hominem
attacking the opponent's personal circumstances:
"When Attorney General Lisa Madigan gave a legal
opinion that the proposal would be unconstitutional, the Governor remarked that
she did so because of her father's (the Speaker of the Illinois House, Michael
Madigan) influence. [Governor] Blagojevich's comment was an unfair, ad hominem
attack." The Illinois Leader, June 8, 2004
Apparently
John Locke coined the term 'ad hominem' (An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, 1690), and Schopenhauer was the first to distinguish the
abusive fallacy from other forms (The Art of Controversy).
Some
dictionaries have definitions which I suggest are incorrect:
M-W online: 1.
appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect. [But
"appeal to emotion" is a separate fallacy, and it need not be
directed at the opponent personally. Conversely, an ad hominem argument
focuses on the opponent but need not play upon emotions, although it of course
often does so.]
same:
2. marked by an attack on an opponent's character. [But only the abusive
form of 'ad hominem' deals with 'character'.]
AHD: appealing to personal
considerations rather than to logic or reason. [That definition encompasses
an appeal to interest, such as, "Support me, because I'll pay you for
it." But the 'personal consideration' in an ad hominem are those of
about opposing opponent, not those about the audience.]
tu quoque [Latin for "you too," or more
loosely, "So's your old man."] a retort charging an adversary with
being or doing what he criticizes in others
In ad
hominem argument the accused hurls a charge against his accuser. Tu
quoque is a type of ad hominem, in which he hurls back the very
charge of which he stands accused. Logically, this is irrelevant to whether the
accused is himself guilty. But tu quoque can be very effective, by
putting the accuser on the defensive.
"I say, what HAS happened since I saw you last,
Sally?" Philip began.
"Nothing that I know of."
"I believe you've been putting on weight."
"I'm sure you haven't," she retorted. "You're a perfect
skeleton."
Philip reddened.
"That's a tu quoque, Sally," cried her father.
"You will be fined one golden hair of your head. Jane, fetch the
shears."
"Well, he is thin, father," remonstrated Sally. "He's just skin
and bone."
"That's not the question, child. He is at perfect liberty to be thin, but
your obesity is contrary to decorum."
W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage,, ch. CI
In a 1997 CNN
interview, Osama Bin Laden was asked "Do you sponsor terrorism?" He
gave a long response but you'll notice that he never addressed the question; he
simply made that very same terrorism accusation against the US. Tu quoque. (Full text here; appears about 40%
of the way down in the full interview.
)
REPORTER: Now, the United States government
says that you are still funding military training camps here in Afganistan for
militant, Islamic fighters and that you are a sponsor of international
terrorism; but others describe you as the new hero of the Arab-Islamic world.
Are these accusations true? How do you
describe yourself?
he simply makes that very same accusation against the US.: After the collapse of the Soviet Union in which
the U.S. has no mentionable role, but rather the credit goes to God, Praise and
Glory be to Him, and the Mujahidin in Afghanistan, this collapse made the US
more haughty and arrogant and it has started to look at itself as a Master of
this world and established what it calls the new world order. It wanted to
delude people that it can do whatever it wants, but it can't do this. It
leveled against me and others as many accusations as it desired and wished. It
is these (accusations) that you mentioned. The US today as a result of the
arrogant atmosphere has set a double standard, calling whoever goes against its
injustice a terrorist. It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources,
impose on us agents to rule us based not on what God has revealed and wants us
to agree on all these. If we refuse to do so, it will say you are terrorists.
With a simple look at the US behaviors, we find that it judges the behavior of
the poor Palestinian children whose country was occupied: if they throw stones
against the Israeli occupation, it says they are terrorists whereas when the
Israeli pilots bombed the United Nations building in Qana, Lebanon while
was full of children and women, the US stopped any plan to condemn Israel. At
the time that they condemn any Muslim who calls for his right, they receive the
highest top official of the Irish Republican Army (Gerry Adams) at the White
House as a political leader, while woe, all woe is the Muslims if they cry out
for their rights. Wherever we look, we find the US as the leader of terrorism
and crime in the world. The US does not consider it a terrorist act to throw
atomic bombs at nations thousands of miles away, when it would not be possible
for those bombs to hit military troops only. These bombs were rather thrown at
entire nations, including women, children and elderly people and up to this day
the traces of those bombs remain in Japan. The US does not consider it
terrorism when hundreds of thousands of our sons and brothers in Iraq died for
lack of food or medicine. So, there is no base for what the US says and this
saying does not affect us, because we, by the grace of God, are dependent on
Him, Praise and Glory be to Him, getting help from Him against the US. As for
the last part of your question, we are fulfilling a duty which God, Praise and
Glory be to Him, decreed for us. We look upon those heroes, those men who
undertook to kill the American occupiers in Riyadh and Khobar (Dhahran). We
describe those as heroes and describe them as men. They have pulled down the
disgrace and submissiveness off the forehead of their nation. We ask Allah,
Praise and Glory be to Him, to accept them as martyrs.
ipse dixit [typical use] an unsupported dogmatic
assertion
ipse dixit [broader usage] argument from supposedly
conclusive authority, rather than from reasoned evidence.
Also called appeal
to authority or argumentum ad verecundiam.. May be
used to prove [As in the old medieval view "Aristotle says" was
conclusive proof] or to refute ["Eugenics? The Nazis were the first to
practice eugenics."].
The broader
concept is familiar to anyone who has heard a teenager say, "Janet's
parents let her go to R-rated movies. Tim's parents let him go to R-rated
movies; even Margaret is allowed to go to R-rated movies, and you know how
strict her parents are! Why can't I go?" (Henriette A. Klauser, Writing
on Both Sides of the Brain)
For the more
typical usage, here are a recent example and an older one.
Judge have no special competence, qualifications, or
mandate to decide between equally compelling moral claims (as in the abortion
controversy) or equally compelling political clams (counting ballots by hand or
stopping the recount because the standard is ambiguous. ... these are precisely
the sorts of issues that should be left to the rough-and-tumble of politics
rather than the ipse dixit of five justices.
Alan M. Dershowitz, Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked
Election 2000
Judge Douglas recurs again, as he did upon one or two other occasions, to
the enormity of Lincoln insignificant individual like Lincoln upon his ipse
dixit charging a conspiracy upon a large number of members of Congress,
the Supreme Court and two Presidents, to nationalize slavery. I want to say
that, in the first place, I have made no charge of this sort upon my ipse
dixit. I have only arrayed the evidence tending to prove it, and
presented it to the understanding of others, saying what I think it proves, but
giving you the means of judging whether it proves it or not. This is precisely
what I have done. I have not placed it upon my ipse dixit at all.
Abraham Lincoln, in debate with Steven Douglas (Second Debate, Freeport,
Illinois), August 27 (28?), 1858
post hoc the logical fallacy of concluding that if
one thing happens after another, the first must is the cause of the second.
[Short for
Latin post hoc, ergo propter hoc "After this, therefore because of
this." The term is also used where one draws such a conclusion when two
events coincide]
If A and B
occur together, A might cause B. But perhaps B causes A; or they have a
separate common cause; or they coincide by mere coincidence.
It is easy to
find comic examples ("Wind is caused by the trees waving violently,
stirring up the air"), but let's start with a serious one.
What might happen if an entire
nation got a flu vaccine? By chance alone, tens of thousands of people would
come down with some illness and some would die. After all, tens of thousands of
people get sick and many die every day. But what would a jury say if confronted
with a child who began having severe epileptic seizures within hours of being
immunized against swine flu? How sympathetic might a jury be to a large company
that argued that the epilepsy was coincidental when they saw the tearful
parents?
It was simply not worth taking the
chance, the [vaccine] companies reasoned. [An independent authority's letter to
the New York Times] explained that if Americans have flu shots in the numbers
predicted, many as 2,300 will have strokes and 7,000 will have hearts attacks
within two days of being immunized. "Why? Because that is the number
statistically expected, flu shots or no flu shots," he wrote. "Yet
can one expect a person who received a flu shot at noon and who that same night
had a stroke not to associate somehow the two in his mind? Post hoc, ergo
propter hoc. It is one thing to see matters objectively in light
of statistical expectations. It is quite another when it affects one
personally. Who can blame someone for assuming the events are linked."
Gina Bari Kolata, Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918
(Ch. 6: A Litigation Nightmare) quote simplified for brevity
post hoc, ergo propter hoc Latin for "It happened after,
so it was caused by" (e.g., Jaime Cardinal Sit, Archbishop of Manila: "I
know of
a 26-year old who looks 60 because she takes [contraceptive]
pills."
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark
(Ch 12: The Fine Art of Baloney Detection)
"Near-perfect correlations exist between the death rate in Hyderabad,
India, from 1911 to 1919, and variations in the membership of the International
Association of Machinists during the same period. Nobody seriously believes
that there is anything more than a coincidence in that odd and insignificant
fact."
David Hackett Fischer, Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical
Thought (as quoted in Fallacy Files)
false
dilemma two alternatives
set up as if they were the only options, when there are in fact middle-ground
or other options. [also known as bifurcation, black-and-white fallacy,
either/or fallacy] Pithy sloganeering often uses the false dilemma (e.g.,
"America: Love it or leave it"), ignoring possible middle grounds.
It's useful
to contrast contrary with contradictory. If
I say, "It's hot today," you contradict me if you simply deny,
and say, "It's not hot" (one or the other of us is right). But to
assert the contrary is to take the opposite position, "It's
cold" (we each may be wrong). The "love it or leave it" slogan
treats two contrary alternatives as if they were contradictory, with no other
choice.
[Several] e-mail messages from readers asked: "Would
you rather fight them over there or over here?" Whether they knew it or
not, these readers were setting up what is known as a "false dilemma,"
providing a limited number of options (usually two), when there are actually
more than that, in this case dozens, perhaps hundreds more. Another famous
example of a false dilemma is President Bush's statement "You're either
with us or with the terrorists." Again, many more possibilities exist here
than the "either/or" option put forward by Bush.
Bruce Mulkey, Asheville (North Carolina) Citizen-Times, June 11, 2004, whose
very headline critiques a false dilemma, saying, "There is absolutely
nothing patriotic about meekly going along with anything our president
wants."
Wordcrafter
notes:
- I'm not
suggesting that "false dilemmas" come only or principally from only
one side of the political aisle.
- Here is the
full context of Bush's remark, beyond what Mulkey quotes: "Every nation,
in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are
with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor
or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile
regime."
A half-decade of mounting political scandals have [sic]
turned Connecticut into a punchline of political backwardness. ... said
Gian-Carlo Peressutti, ... "It begs the question of why does
a state that has so much wealth and intelligence and talent continue to produce
public servants who continue to let those that they serve down. I think that's
a fair question."
Avi Salzman, The New York Times, June 27, 2004
Peressutti
uses "beg the question" to mean "raises or leads inevitably to
the question". That's the common usage but not the original meaning, and
the authorities disagree over whether that newer usage is proper. The original
meaning referred to a certain logical fallacy.
begging
the question argument by
taking for granted, and uses as a premise, the very conclusion to be proved.
[The Latin phrase is petitio principii, which I understand to
mean 'pleading for the principle'. Can Latin scholars confirm or correct?] One
web-author gives this example:
When
a student accuses me of grading him unfairly because no matter how
"excellent" his papers are, I never give them above a C, he is basing
his argument that I grade unfairly on the unproven premise that his essays are
excellent. (You'd be surprised at how often teachers hear just such arguments.
On second thought, maybe you wouldn't be surprised at all.)
One can see
how the phrases 'begging the question ' might be understood in the newer way.
But why would the word 'begging' be used for this sort of logical fallacy? What
do our readers think?
A reader
notes: Michael Quinion's World Wide Words site has another
of his excellent articles on this subject.