Conspiracy Theories and Circular Logic
- I'm fairly certain that the indulgence in conspiracy theories requires the employment of circular logic to maintain.
- At the least, it requires dubious truth claims and inferences (thus compounding the error in the logic) in order to make each successive leap.
- It requires motivation, intent, and what could have happened, since the truth is, by definition, inaccessible.
- Once you've accepted one of the premises, you're now on the circular logic merry-go-round!
- How to combat this?
- Separate each truth claim and examine it individually. Don't relate it to other truth claims. Establish the veracity of a single, well-defined question.
- Make sure each claim is well-defined and causally linked. Don't settle for vague assertions or possibilities. Either a thing is true or it is not true.
- Claims must be falsifiable!
- You don't have to resort to:
- Trust/mistrust of the "wisdom of the crowds"
- You should liberally apply Occam's Razor - simpler explanations are by definition better.
- Surprising explanations bear more burden of proof.
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Conspiracy Theories and Circular Logic