Invincible Ignorance = Exercise in Futility
Jul 2, 2023 11:12:44 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Jul 2, 2023 11:12:44 GMT -5
Invincible Ignorance = Exercise in Futility
Ever encounter someone who is totally impervious to all evidence, all cogent reasoning, and vehemently and stubbornly continues to defend a patently absurd concept? Now, there are three reasons why a person might do this.
1. He actually believes the absurd idea.
2. He knows he is wrong but is too stubborn to admit it.
3. He wants to annoy you.
The motives might differ but the technique is the same. This is officially called invincible ignorance, and a person who continues to present evidence to such a person, no matter how compelling that evidence might be, is totally wasting time.
So the best thing is to terminate the discussion, and if the person insists on heckling, then, of course, for the sake of tranquility, placing them out of sight and out of mind is the best policy. Below is how WIKI describes that attitude.
The invincible ignorance fallacy, also known as argument by pigheadedness, is a deductive fallacy of circularity where the person in question simply refuses to believe the argument, ignoring any evidence given. It is not so much a fallacious tactic in argument as it is a refusal to argue in the proper sense of the word.
The method used in this fallacy is either to make assertions with no consideration of objections or to simply dismiss objections by calling them excuses, conjecture, etc. or saying that they are proof of nothing, all without actually demonstrating how the objection fit these terms.
It is similar to the ad lapidem fallacy, in which the person rejects all the evidence and logic presented, without providing any evidence or logic that could lead to a different conclusion.
The method used in this fallacy is either to make assertions with no consideration of objections or to simply dismiss objections by calling them excuses, conjecture, etc. or saying that they are proof of nothing, all without actually demonstrating how the objection fit these terms.
It is similar to the ad lapidem fallacy, in which the person rejects all the evidence and logic presented, without providing any evidence or logic that could lead to a different conclusion.