Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
I wanted to start off by sharing a quick message that I received from a listener this past week. She said: “I am loving this podcast! I am a Mom to son age 15 and daughter age 11, and a Youth Minister's wife. This podcast is exactly what our society needs! I finally caught up this week with all the episodes and purchased the ebook which is a HUGE help. (I was trying to take handwritten notes on each episode to put onto flashcards....and it became overwhelming.) This podcast will definitely be required "listening" for my son this summer. Thank you for this great educational gift! And I love the joy in your voice.” Wendi
Wendi, thank you so much!! Thank you for listening and thank you for taking a minute to write in! I am so grateful when I get to hear from my listeners - seriously, you guys absolutely rock and
And, I want to give a quick plug for my e-book, which is quite boringly named ‘Logical Fallacies’. One of the things I get asked frequently is if I have a place with all the fallacies written out so that people can easily review at home. And the answer is Yes! I have an e-book, well, actually it’s just a pdf, but it sounds more fancy to call it an ebook, lol…where I give each fallacy I cover here in the podcast, the definition, a short example and the question to ask yourself. It’s super simple to print out, put in a binder and have a really simple way to review the fallacies at home! I have lots of families using it in their homeschool or with their families to easily review. It’s a one-time purchase and you’ll have access to it forever, including all the updates that I’ll be doing. I’m getting ready to release another update this week, and there will be more in the future b/c I’m still doing episodes on new fallacies. If you’re interested, you can click the link in the show notes to purchase the Logical Fallacies e-book.
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Alright, let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, Bulverism. Bulverism happens when someone assumes a speaker's argument is invalid or false and then explains why the speaker came to make that mistake or to be so silly (even if the opponent's claim is actually right) by attacking the speaker or the speaker's motive. And if this definition sounds a little familiar, good catch! Bulverism is a type of Ad Hominem that happens when someone combines Circular Reasoning with the Genetic Fallacy and sprinkle on a little bit of condescension. And I know, you may be thinking, What?! Now we have to worry about combining fallacies?? Hehe…don’t worry, it’s not that complicated, and as I always tell you, it’s ok if you don’t remember all the nuances & details, just learning about the different thinking errors is helping you become a better thinking - I promise!
A simple example of Bulverism would be if Lucy says that the most recent Spiderman is the best one ever made and her brother Luke says, “Oh, you just like it because you have a crush on Tom Holland.” In this example, you can see the 2 aspects of the Bulverism fallacy: 1. The Assumption that the person is wrong and 2. Explaining away their error by attacking their motives, character or identity. The classic signal that someone is committing the fallacy of Bulverism is if you hear them say something along the lines of: “You’re only saying that because you’re a _____ (man/woman/Democrat/Republican/Christian/atheist/etc.).” They’re dismissing the argument and explaining away their argument by attacking something about the person.
Here’s what this could sound like: “Of course you’re against immigration, you’re a bigoted Republican.”
“Of course you voted for more government control, you’re a psychopathic Democrat.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton…after all, you’re a woman!”
“Of course you don’t think all white people are racist…you’re white.”
“You’re only an atheist because you’re mad at God.”
The problem behind Bulverism is that instead of showing why someone is wrong, the person committing the fallacy attributes their objections to something having to do with the person’s identity and feels justified in dismissing them. They’re avoiding or missing the actual argument itself. Ok…can you see how, even though it’s a nuanced fallacy, the point is still the same…did the person address the real argument or not? That’s why I tell you not to get overwhelmed by all the different versions of fallacies that seem really similar…each time you listen, you’re getting a little more review of the problem behind the fallacies, which is the real issue to begin with.
Bulverism is another fallacy that was named by one of my favorite authors, CS Lewis. In 1941, he actually wrote an essay about it titled, wait for it…Bulverism. Yeah, deep, huh? Anyways, you can find this essay online if you want to read it, but I thought I would just share a short excerpt with you here where he explains the fallacy and then talks about how he’s going to write a little fictional story about Bulverism..it’s kind of cute. Lewis says”
“You must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. The modern method is to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became so silly.
In the course of the last fifteen years I have found this vice so common that I have had to invent a name for it. I call it “Bulverism.” Some day I am going to write the biography of its imaginary inventor, Ezekiel Bulver, whose destiny was determined at the age of five when he heard his mother say to his father — who had been maintaining that two sides of a triangle were together greater than a third — “Oh you say that because you are a man.” “At that moment,” E. Bulver assures us, “there flashed across my opening mind the great truth that refutation is no necessary part of argument. Assume that your opponent is wrong, and explain his error, and the world will be at your feet. Attempt to prove that he is wrong or (worse still) try to find out whether he is wrong or right, and the national dynamism of our age will thrust you to the wall.”
Ok, this makes me chuckle. I think CS Lewis was very clever in trying to come up with a humorous story to teach people about a really common thinking error!
Question to ask yourself if you think you may be facing Bulverism is this: “Are they even addressing the real argument?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
