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5.9: Covering Up the Reasons That Favor Your Opponent

  • Page ID
    36168
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    The reasoner who is trying to be fair and seek the truth not only stays on the issue but also avoids misrepresenting the views of the opposition. In addition, the logical reasoner doesn't hide the opponent's reasons under the carpet. The reasoner who does so is guilty of a cover-up. Take this passage, for instance:

    When you are considering which kind of apartment to live in, you should prefer wooden buildings to brick buildings. Brick buildings are more dangerous during earthquakes because wood will bend during the quake, but brick will crack and crash down on you. Also, and even more important, brick has been discovered to be radioactive. If you put a sensitive Geiger Counter up to a brick, any brick, it will click; and it won't with wood. We already have enough sources of radiation in our lives without living surrounded by hundreds of brick sources. So, next time you are apartment hunting, remember to look for wood.

    Did you spot the cover-up? It sounds well-reasoned, but it is covering up the bad aspects of wood while scaring you away from bricks. Although it is true that earthquakes are more of a danger for brick apartments than for wood apartments, earthquakes are rare, while fire is a much greater danger everywhere, and bricks don't burn. Second, although it is true that bricks are radioactive, the radioactivity is so trivial that it is not worth bothering about. The danger of wood fires is far more serious. The moral is:

    Very often we all selectively use information in order to help or hurt another person. The Reverend Jesse Jackson tells this story. One cold February afternoon, the newly inaugurated Republican President of the U.S. was on the Presidential Yacht off the coast of Maine. He had some engine trouble, but nobody on board could fix it. Being in a hurry, he got out of the boat and walked across the water to get help on shore. The newspaper reporters on shore who saw him were astonished. Off they raced to compose and call in stories to their editors. All the reporters phoned in essentially the same story, but the next day’s headlines in the Republican newspapers said, “President Walks on Water.” The headlines in the Democratic newspapers said, “President Cannot Swim.” We all tend to process new evidence through the lens of what we already believe.


    This page titled 5.9: Covering Up the Reasons That Favor Your Opponent is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Bradley H. Dowden.

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