Dave Kinkead

The Philosopher’s Fallacy

I noticed today that there is one very important informal fallacy missing from wikipedia’s list of fallacies.  I call it the philosopher’s fallacy:

The philosopher’s fallacy is an error of reasoning whereby adequate knowledge of pertinent facts held by all parties coupled with a sound argument is believed sufficient to engender social change.

Sadly, evidence and reason is neither necessary nor sufficient to convince the demos :(

Moral & Political Philosophy Reading Group #3

uqphilosophy:

This month we’ll be looking at Bernard Williams’ ‘Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy’.  We are planning to cover CH6 - ‘Theory & Prejudice’.

There are a few copies left at the SSH Library & Michael has a PDF copy if the DRM on the electronic copies drives you to despair.

Friday 3pm in the Miche level 5 conference room (just outside the lifts).

Conservative ideology is the critical pathway from low intelligence to racism

A new study shows that conservatives really do have lower cognitive abilities.

Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit under appreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models.

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/2/187

17th Century Philsophy Smack Down

For it is scare credible that in a discourse where he pretends to confute the erroneous principle of man’s natural freedom, he should do it by a bare supposition of Adam’s authority, without offering any proof for that authority.

John Locke, The First Treatise of Government