Irrelevant conclusion
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates An irrelevant conclusion,<ref>Bishop Whately, cited by John Stuart Mill: A System of Logic. London Colchester 1959 (first: 1843), pp. 542.</ref> also known as Template:Langnf or missing the point, is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument whose conclusion fails to address the issue in question. It falls into the broad class of relevance fallacies.<ref name="Hurley2011"/>
The irrelevant conclusion should not be confused with formal fallacy, an argument whose conclusion does not follow from its premises; instead, it is that despite its formal consistency it is not relevant to the subject being talked about.
OverviewEdit
Ignoratio elenchi is one of the fallacies identified by Aristotle in his Organon. In a broader sense he asserted that all fallacies are a form of ignoratio elenchi.<ref name="Owen 1878">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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Arthur Ernest Davies{{#if:"Fallacies" in A Text-Book of Logic|{{#if:|}}
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● Example 1: A and B are debating as to whether criticizing indirectly has any merit in general. Template:Block indent Template:Block indent Template:Block indent
Template:Not a typo attempts to support their position with an argument that politics ought not to be criticized on social media because the message is not directly being heard by the head of state; this would make them guilty of ignoratio elenchi, as people such as B may be criticizing politics because they have a strong message for their peers, or because they wish to bring attention to political matters, rather than ever intending that their views would be directly read by the president.
● Example 2: A and B are debating about the law. Template:Block indent Template:Block indent
B missed the point. The question was not if B's neighbor believes that law should allow, but rather if the law does allow it or not.
Samuel Johnson's unique "refutation" of Bishop Berkeley's immaterialism, his claim that matter did not actually exist but only seemed to exist,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> has been described as ignoratio elenchi:<ref>Bagnall, Nicholas. Books: Paperbacks, The Sunday Telegraph 3 March 1996</ref> during a conversation with Boswell, Johnson powerfully kicked a nearby stone and proclaimed of Berkeley's theory, "I refute it thus!"<ref name="Boswell p. 122">Template:Harvnb</ref> (See also argumentum ad lapidem.)
A related concept is that of the red herring, which is a deliberate attempt to divert a process of enquiry by changing the subject.<ref name="Hurley2011">Template:Cite book</ref> Ignoratio elenchi is sometimes confused with straw man argument.<ref name="Hurley2011"/>
EtymologyEdit
The phrase ignoratio elenchi is Template:Ety. Here elenchi is the genitive singular of the Latin noun elenchus, which is Template:Ety.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The translation in English of the Latin expression has varied somewhat. Hamblin proposed "misconception of refutation" or "ignorance of refutation" as a literal translation,<ref name="Fallacies"/> John Arthur Oesterle preferred "ignoring the issue", and<ref name="Fallacies"/> Irving Copi, Christopher Tindale and others used "irrelevant conclusion".<ref name="Fallacies">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Tindale2007">Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Ad hominem
- Begging the question
- Chewbacca defense
- Enthymeme
- Evasion (ethics)
- Genetic fallacy
- List of fallacies
- Non sequitur (logic)
- Sophism
- Tone policing