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Articles

Rigorous Reasoning

Peter Cave spots a few fallacies.

Reasoning is pervasive, but rigour is resisted; rigour is rare.

A mother, according to a recent Independent on Sunday report, sought to reject her daughter’s animal rights concerns by referring to the natural and widespread character of meat-eating, the implication being that meat-eating is not wrong because it is so widespread and natural. Although other issues arise – what we understand by ‘natural’, whether a newspaper extract provides a fair summary of the discussion – the present purpose is one of illustration, the illustration of poor reasoning and of the need for good.

If someone seeks to defend rape or unfair discrimination or earthquakes – or even the common cold – by saying that such things have always been around and are ‘perfectly natural’, we should be unimpressed. Just because suffering and injustice are natural and widespread it does not follow that it is wrong to oppose them.

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