Post by ashliy on Feb 3, 2017 16:22:14 GMT
Moving the Goalpost, or Raising the Bar, is a common informal logical fallacy in which the arguer, when presented with evidence against one of his claims, redefines his claim without acknowledging the validity of the evidence and counterargument. In other words, the arguer doesn't like what he hears so he simply changes what would satisfy the argument. In doing so, it can make any claim at all vacuously true and invulnerable to reasoned disproof.
This is Part 9 in a series about Logical Fallacies. We are going through one fallacy at a time. There are many types of fallacious arguments. I’m going to try to explain them with examples then find ways to help you refute those arguments when they occur. Please comment or email if there’s a particular fallacy you want me to tackle, or if you have success with refuting an argument using a good technique you can share.
Example:
Antagonist: "Evolution is clearly impossible; no life form can change"
Protagonist: "Um, livestock breeders do it all the time. Where do you think hybrid roses come from?"
Antagonist: "Well, that's just microevolution. You breed a new rose, it's still a rose. What you can't do is breed a new species."
Protagonist: "Actually, we can and have. There's lots of examples of observed speciation.
Antagonist: "Yes, but you still just get another variation of the same kind; you never get a completely new type of animal. You can't breed a dog and get a chicken."
The key to understand this fallacy is to understand what a claim under discussion actually means. In most cases, the actual "claim" is a relatively broad and perhaps ill-defined one. In most cases, the person making such a claim will have an intuitive, informal idea of what he really means, but cannot necessarily articulate the exact evidence upon which he bases his idea. Some concepts are hard to articulate and even harder to demonstrate, but it may nevertheless be real.
On the other hand, "moving the goalposts" can also be a sign that the claimant has made up his mind and is impervious to evidence. If he is convinced, for example, that a pattern exists, any single counterexample can be dismissed as unrepresentative.
heavingdeadcats.blogspot.com/2009/10/logical-fallacy-9-moving-goalpost.html
This is Part 9 in a series about Logical Fallacies. We are going through one fallacy at a time. There are many types of fallacious arguments. I’m going to try to explain them with examples then find ways to help you refute those arguments when they occur. Please comment or email if there’s a particular fallacy you want me to tackle, or if you have success with refuting an argument using a good technique you can share.
Example:
Antagonist: "Evolution is clearly impossible; no life form can change"
Protagonist: "Um, livestock breeders do it all the time. Where do you think hybrid roses come from?"
Antagonist: "Well, that's just microevolution. You breed a new rose, it's still a rose. What you can't do is breed a new species."
Protagonist: "Actually, we can and have. There's lots of examples of observed speciation.
Antagonist: "Yes, but you still just get another variation of the same kind; you never get a completely new type of animal. You can't breed a dog and get a chicken."
The key to understand this fallacy is to understand what a claim under discussion actually means. In most cases, the actual "claim" is a relatively broad and perhaps ill-defined one. In most cases, the person making such a claim will have an intuitive, informal idea of what he really means, but cannot necessarily articulate the exact evidence upon which he bases his idea. Some concepts are hard to articulate and even harder to demonstrate, but it may nevertheless be real.
On the other hand, "moving the goalposts" can also be a sign that the claimant has made up his mind and is impervious to evidence. If he is convinced, for example, that a pattern exists, any single counterexample can be dismissed as unrepresentative.
heavingdeadcats.blogspot.com/2009/10/logical-fallacy-9-moving-goalpost.html