What Is a Fallacy?

Very often, we humans need to convince other people of something in order to get what we want.

A salesperson, for example, praises the product they are selling and tries to draw the buyer’s attention to its advantages. If the customer notices a flaw, the salesperson may try to shift their attention away from it and toward something else.

The goal is simple: to make the sale.

We have all bought something and later regretted it. We may then realize how skillfully the salesperson influenced us.

And perhaps we ourselves have done the same thing to others.

The key is to make someone believe something positive about a product—something they may later discover was not true.

After such an unpleasant experience, we learn not to go back to that salesperson. Or, if we do go back, we become more careful.

We learn to examine the product for ourselves instead of allowing the salesperson’s clever words to guide our judgment. Little by little, we learn which things a salesperson says are worth paying attention to and which are not.

In short, we learn how to protect ourselves from a salesperson’s fallacies.

Sometimes, however, we humans are selling something whose flaws must never become clear to the buyer.

Why?

Because if the buyer discovers those flaws and stops coming to us, we may lose our job or suffer serious harm to our interests.

So it is no longer enough simply to distract the buyer for a few minutes. We need to keep their attention away from those flaws for as long as possible. We may act in ways that prevent them from ever noticing the problems in what we are selling.

Suppose, for example, that I am a private tutor with limited knowledge. I know that I do not know enough to do my job properly.

One day, a student asks me a question that I should know the answer to—but I do not.

What should I do?

I may respond in a way that prevents the student from realizing how little I know. I want them to continue believing that I am knowledgeable.

If they lose that belief, I may lose things that are important to me—things I certainly do not want to lose.

What are those things?

One is my job. I earn my living from it, and my livelihood depends on it.

Another is my reputation.

My reputation matters not only among my students but also among other people to whom they may tell the story.

If I know that failing to answer a question may cause people to think, “He doesn’t know much,” I may make a serious effort to find the answer beforehand. I might study more. I might spend more time learning. I might even spend money to gain the knowledge I need.

Why would I do all this?

Because I do not want my standing in other people’s eyes to fall.

Even if I am a retired teacher and knowing the answer brings me no financial benefit at all, I would still prefer to know it when someone asks me a question.

In other words, reputation itself is something we value.

It is a non-material benefit. In many situations, it can be just as important to us as material benefits.

Reputation is the good position we have in the minds of other people.

And sometimes people are willing to pay an enormous price to protect or improve that position. They may sacrifice their wealth, their own lives, or even the lives of those they love.

Consider an extreme example.

A father may hear something about his daughter that he believes has damaged the family’s honor. Without properly investigating what actually happened, he may kill his own daughter in an attempt to remove what he sees as a stain on the family’s reputation.

He may then be punished for the murder himself.

What has happened here?

The father believes that his position in the minds of people around him has fallen. He thinks that they now look down on him and see him as inferior to themselves.

To restore his social standing, he takes his daughter’s life.

In doing so, he may also ruin his own life and the lives of other members of his family.

And what does he gain?

Only this: the people around him may once again see him as a man who defended his honor. In other words, they raise him again to a higher position in their minds.

In such a case, if the father is a Muslim, the murder is not motivated by money or even by religion.

According to Islamic rules, the daughter’s act would have had to be proven by a specified number of witnesses and under particular conditions. The father has not followed that process.

He has acted to protect his reputation and social standing.

So far, we have seen three things that people may strongly desire:

wealth, power, and reputation.

The desire for these things may lead us, consciously or unconsciously, to influence other people’s minds.

We may try to create certain beliefs in them. We may then try to keep those beliefs alive because doing so helps us obtain or protect the things we want.

But there is another important point.

We may not even realize that we are doing this.

We may sincerely believe that what we are trying to convince others of is the absolute truth.

We may believe that our method is perfect logic.

We may even believe that our words provide conclusive proof.

In short, we may have no bad intentions at all.

In such a case, our direct goal is not wealth, power, or reputation.

Instead, because of our bias, our goal is to stubbornly protect our own beliefs.

But what is bias?