The Facebook Fallacy

Logical fallacies are an important part of life as we know it. Sometimes called rationalizations they are blips in logic that we most often use to get something we want though are not entitled to. We use fallacies and rationalizations daily. How important are they? I remember a line from a movie: you can go a day without sex but try going a day without a single rationalization.

Oooh!

Logical fallacies are a part of communicating and we all use them from time to time. They’ve been around so long some have Latin names like, Tu quoque which translates as “you too” meaning a assertion is wrong because the person making the statement fails to live up to it. For instance, “Don’t cast the first stone if you are not above reproach,” is an example. Interestingly it is counterbalanced by “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Fundamentally this only works if we set ourselves as the judges of good and bad, right or wrong. Modern civilization skirts the problem by making standards to measure up to, some call them laws and norms. We have laws against murder for instance because we believe as a society that we can’t deprive anyone of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Also it’s hard to live with others if you’re constantly worried they’ll kill you.

What to do? No one on a jury was ever seriously accused of perfection. A jury simply needs…