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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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“I’m entitled to my opinion”, “you’re entitled to your opinion”. Both of these expressions come up frequently in debates but what do people mean by them and are they of any relevance in a debate?

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Open Mind: A mind open to new ideas, lacking in prejudice, not dogmatic.

John Jackson © 2004.

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It is very common for people who are putting forward a claim to say something like, “you must consider this with an open mind“, or if their claim is rejected they will say something like, “well of course you don’t believe it, you’re closed-minded“.

There are many ways that this ‘appeal to open mindedness’ manifests itself, so let’s have a look at why it is not usually a valid argument: (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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This fallacy is committed when a claim is believed to be true because it has not been proved false, or vice versa.

The general form is:

1. A states that claim X is true.
2. B states that claim X is not accepted as true.
3. A states that claim X is potentially true as B has not proved it false (wrongly shifting the burden of proof to B). (more…)

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Errors in skeptical debates: Argumentum ad Derren Browniam.

John Jackson © 2008

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OK, this is not a serious attempt to introduce a newly named logical fallacy! However, I would like to address the usage of the argument whereby people, and often skeptics, try to convince others that what psychics do isn’t real because Derren Brown can do the same things. I jokingly refer to this as the ‘Argumentum ad Derren Browniam’. (more…)