The Argument Clinic

A Monty Python sketch features an unnamed man visiting the Argument Clinic, saying he’d like to have an argument and asks if he’s in the right place only to be informed he’d already been told that he is, to which the man responds that no he hadn’t, thereby initiating a shallow back-and-forth exchange of petty and contradictory “is/isn’t” responses until the man states he’s not getting what he paid for as they argue over whether or not they’d been arguing until the bell rings marking the end of the paid-up time which the man additionally disputes as he storms out of the clinic with an exasperated “this is futile.”

The sketch has been used as an example of how not to argue in that it contains little more than ad hominem attacks and contradictions without contributing much to critical thinking, a classical case of dialogue where two parties are unwilling to cooperate and is characterized by such flawed logic as in the way one man was attempting to argue that the other was not arguing with him. Catch-22, English humor style.

Welcome to our own argument clinic as we discuss this very short and readable field guide to bad arguments (click: Logical Fallacies). Being able to spot them is the first step to defeating them. There are seven types: the appeal to ignorance, ad hominem attacks, the slippery slope analogy, the straw man, the appeal to authority, the false dichotomy, and whataboutism. Their use does not necessarily mean the point is wrong, merely that its maker is resorting to underhand tactics to try and win.

The deep desire to win over an honest search for truth is, of course, readily observable in the public arena as with the Fox and MSNBC gladiators fighting it out in the coliseum before us spectators in the cheap seats. But the dialogue of the deaf can also seep into much of our private discourse. See if you can spot logical fallacies in the arguments with others but be open to the possibility you are, in fact, the “other.”

The exercise may reveal instances of positions strongly held yet not sufficiently thought through, perhaps ideas from someone else without even knowing how they were derived. You may relate strongly to some of the seven cited fallacies as you engage with “Jane, you ignorant slut.”

But certainly not an argument.