6 – Some sources of making illogical arguments

Some sources of making illogical arguments are:

Being permanently skeptical, refusing to consider any evidence. NEVER CLOSE COMPLETELY.

Evasive agnosticism, saying that you can’t know if what you want is even possible. POSSIBILITY IS ALWAYS A MYSTERY

Blind Optimism, kind of living in a positive thinking/law of attraction mindset and refusing to acknowledge reality. THINK.

Narrow-mindedness, perhaps becoming bitter and giving up—kind of an incel mentality. KEEP TRYIING.

Emotional argument, feeling a certain way (unlovable) and basing reasoning on this feeling rather than logic. DON’T MIX FEELING AND THINKING.

So these are some dangers to watch out for because they essentially stop the process of reasoning before it even starts. Think about “reasoning” and what it means. To think through all your arguments, to make sure they are ‘reasonable’, i.e., all the premises you base your life on have reasons, and are linked to an actual thing in the world. If you say, “All women hate me,” is it “reasonable”? Do you know all women? Do you have a single memory of one who didn’t? Does trans or intersex count as women? Do they hate you when they’re not thinking about you? Do women who are asleep hate you?

Illogical thinking is a bit like a sickness. There are millions of ways to be sick, ill, unwell, and die. There are rare genetic diseases that haven’t been categorized yet. There are viruses that are evolving and changing. There is also Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, where people just drop dead every now and again and no one knows the cause. However, when you go to the doctor, they will check for some broad symptoms, link them together, and diagnose a disease pretty quickly. Now you could have some rare, genetic thing that will go on for years after being misdiagnosed, but most times, you turn up, it’s minor, is diagnosed and medicated straight away.

So the sources of being illogical are like diseases; there are millions of variations, but really you boil them down to just a few, twenty or so common ones, and if you know those, and learn to spot them as they are happening, both in the world (seeing other people’s bull****) and in your own mind (seeing your own bull****), then you are largely covered. True, every now and again there might be a repeating argument you get stuck on; in other words, you notice some unhappy part of your mind that keeps recurring, and underlying this is essentially a deeply held belief, and it is perhaps complex, an intertwining of many arguments, and you are going to need to write this down and pull the strands apart and really work on it, so get to work. But most day-to-day things are much simpler. Like going to the doctor. Every now and again they’ll need to consult the pharmacopeia, medical books, call a consultant, and do loads of tests, but mostly just looking at you is enough.

Scroll to top