Re: [lojban] [OT]Argumentum ad elephantum

[pycyn@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/20/2002 4:45:15 AM Central Standard Time, cherlin@pacbell.net writes:

Yes, a false statement implies anything, but no conclusion can be
drawn from that fact about the implicand. That is the meaning of
"does not follow". Formally, the argument can be stated as

Hypotheses:
A implies B
Not A
Conclusion:
B

I repeat my claim: This is precisely a non sequitur. The hypotheses
are irrelevant to the conclusion.

Well, the argument you give is a non-sequitur, a variant on denial of the antecedent to be exact.  But it is not the argument given, which was (in the present terms) A therefore B.  That A is false was supplied by someone else. The effect of that claim is the claim that the argument gives no reason to accept B, even if it did in fact follow from A.  The hypothesis of the original is not irrelevant to the conclusion, nor indeed are the hypotheses of this version, though in this case they are inadequate.