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| This week: I slipped on a banana peel and took this photo. |
This is alphabetically the next entry in the Pirie text. This is not an intentional part two to my current Satire Und Theology article 'Defined out of possibility?' No agenda. I am finished with 'C' and next is 'D'. I have at times not followed the alphabetical order, but I am doing so presently.
quote:
'In cases where there is a fixed and known set of alternatives, it is legitimate to establish the superiority of one by showing all of the others to be inferior. However, in cases where the alternatives are not fixed or known, and where absolutes are not fixed or known, and where absolutes rather than comparatives are sought, it is a fallacy to suppose that we argue for one by denigrating the alternatives.' (75).
This is damning the alternatives. (75).
Example, based on the author's:
The Chucky's theories on software testing have to be correct, therefore all the others have been proven wrong.
In Pirie's example, he states '(And he may be proved wrong, tomorrow.)' (75).
Based on author's example:
Wales is a very good team, look at England and Scotland, they are terrible.
Other teams are not being taken into account that might be much better than Wales, and therefore Wales might not be 'very good'.
The fallacy leaves out alternatives.(75). Relevant material is avoided. (75). It is a fallacy of the partisan. (75). It promotes one side by demoting another side. (75-76).
Within Christian ministry in proclaiming the exclusivity if Christ and the gospel message,
it is important to rationally and academically, when necessary, explain the superiority of the position.
Two scriptural examples on the exclusivity of Christ...
John 14:6
New American Standard Bible (NASB) 6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
In regard to Jesus Christ as both God and man.
Acts 4: 12
New American Standard Bible (NASB) 12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
It is not fallacious to claim an exclusive truth. It would not be fallacious to state:
All finite, living creatures die. A mere damning of the alternatives does not suffice, based on reason.
PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.
