Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Point by point debunking of Powell's February go-to-war speech

ctembreull · 08-10-2003, 10:12 PM

I've said this before, but this is an appropriate topic for a restatement.

Formal logic states that nobody can prove a negative; an argument which claims a theorem to be true simply because nobody can prove it wrong is a fallacy. It has been stated that Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction because he has not proven that he does not. This is a logical fallacy, and a piss-poor justification for war to boot. The hawks out there can scream until they're blue in the face about how Saddam has to prove it; this doesn't change the cold, hard fact that the entire basis for the war rested upon a logical fallacy that a first-year college student should know to avoid.

08-10-2003, 10:12 PM	#4 (permalink)
ctembreull Crazy Location: Silicon Valley, CA, USA, Earth	I've said this before, but this is an appropriate topic for a restatement. Formal logic states that nobody can prove a negative; an argument which claims a theorem to be true simply because nobody can prove it wrong is a fallacy. It has been stated that Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction because he has not proven that he does not. This is a logical fallacy, and a piss-poor justification for war to boot. The hawks out there can scream until they're blue in the face about how Saddam has to prove it; this doesn't change the cold, hard fact that the entire basis for the war rested upon a logical fallacy that a first-year college student should know to avoid. __________________ Mac "If it's nae Scottish, it's crap!