Logical fallacies as informational shortcuts Export

@article{citeulike:3413284, abstract = {Abstract\ \ The paper argues that the two best known formal logical fallacies, namely denying the antecedent (DA) and affirming the consequent (AC) are not just basic and simple errors, which prove human irrationality, but rather informational shortcuts, which may provide a quick and dirty way of extracting useful information from the environment. DA and AC are shown to be degraded versions of Bayes' theorem, once this is stripped of some of its probabilities. The less the probabilities count, the closer these fallacies become to a reasoning that is not only informationally useful but also logically valid.}, author = {Floridi, Luciano}, citeulike-article-id = {3413284}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-008-9410-y}, comment = {I am very, very surprised that no one has argued this before.}, doi = {10.1007/s11229-008-9410-y}, journal = {Synthese}, keywords = {bayes, epistemology, heuristics, logic, philosophy}, posted-at = {2008-12-10 00:10:31}, priority = {0}, title = {Logical fallacies as informational shortcuts}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-008-9410-y} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3413284 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3413284 N2 - Abstract  The paper argues that the two best known formal logical fallacies, namely denying the antecedent (DA) and affirming the consequent (AC) are not just basic and simple errors, which prove human irrationality, but rather informational shortcuts, which may provide a quick and dirty way of extracting useful information from the environment. DA and AC are shown to be degraded versions of Bayes’ theorem, once this is stripped of some of its probabilities. The less the probabilities count, the closer these fallacies become to a reasoning that is not only informationally useful but also logically valid. JF - Synthese TI - Logical fallacies as informational shortcuts KW - bayes KW - epistemology KW - heuristics KW - logic KW - philosophy N1 - I am very, very surprised that no one has argued this before. AU - Floridi, Luciano UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-008-9410-y ER -