Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies

Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies ~ Untestability


Contents

  • How to Use This Guide
  • Search
  • Privacy and Security
  • Contact
  • Home Page
  • All Fallacies
  • The Fallacies

  • False Dilemma
  • Argument From Ignorance
  • Slippery Slope
  • Complex Question
  • Appeal to Force
  • Appeal to Pity
  • Appeal to Consequences
  • Prejudicial Language
  • Appeal to Popularity
  • Anonymous Authorities
  • Coincidental Correlation
  • Attacking the Person
  • Appeal to Authority
  • Converse Accident
  • Style Over Substance
  • Unrepresentative Sample
  • Hasty Generalization
  • False Analogy
  • Slothful Induction
  • Fallacy of Exclusion
  • Accident
  • Joint Effect
  • Genuine but Insignificant Cause
  • Wrong Direction
  • Complex Cause
  • Begging the Question
  • Irrelevant Conclusion
  • Straw Man
  • Equivocation
  • Amphiboly
  • Accent
  • Composition
  • Division
  • Affirming the Consequent
  • Denying the Antecedent
  • Inconsistency
  • Fallacy of Four Terms
  • Undistributed Middle
  • Illicit Major
  • Illicit Minor
  • Fallacy of Exclusive Premises
  • Drawing an Affirmative Conclusion From a Negative Premise
  • Existential Fallacy
  • Subverted Support
  • Non-Support
  • Untestability
  • Limited Scope
  • Limited Depth
  • Too Broad
  • Too Narrow
  • Untestability

    Category:

    Definition: The theory that explains cannot be tested

    Examples:

    Proof:

    The theory advanced to explain why some phenomenon occurs cannot be tested. We test a theory by means of its predictions. For example, a theory may predict that light bends under certain conditions, or that a liquid will change colour if sprayed with acid, or that a psychotic person will respond badly to particular stimuli. If the predicted event fails to occur, then this is evidence against the theory. A theory cannot be tested when it makes no predictions. It is also untestable when it predicts events which would occur whether or not the theory were true.

    Identify the theory. Show that it makes no predictions, or that the predictions it does make cannot ever be wrong, even if the theory is false. Cedarblom and Paulsen: 161


    Created by Stephen Downes, Copyright 2024 CC By-NC-SA