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Historians Fallacies

Historians Fallacies. By David Hackett Fischer. Causes of Fallacies. “Any procedure is permissible as long as its practitioner publishes an essay from time to time, and is not convicted of a felony” “Every man does that which is right in his own eyes”

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Historians Fallacies

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  1. Historians Fallacies By David Hackett Fischer

  2. Causes of Fallacies • “Any procedure is permissible as long as its practitioner publishes an essay from time to time, and is not convicted of a felony” • “Every man does that which is right in his own eyes” • “Errors of the sort that I was looking for were most easily found in the work of the best and brightest historians who are writing today. • Lack of method and logical thinking

  3. BroadCategories • Inquiry • Question Framing • Factual • Verification • Significance • Explanation • Generalization • Narration • Causation • Motivation • Composition • False Analogy • Argument • Semantical Distortion • Substantive Distraction

  4. Test Question 1: What is a Practical Objective • Know everything about everything • Know something about everything • Know everything about something • Know something about something

  5. Question Framing • The first step of any research • Key: Operational, open ended (not wide-open), flexible, analytical, precise, tested • The fallacy of many questions • Have you stopped beating your wife? • Why was American slavery the most awful the world has ever known? • The fallacy of false dichotomous questions • What is History – Fact or Fancy • What is your expected grade- A+ or E? • The fallacy of metaphysical questions • Was the War inevitable • The fallacy of fictional questions • Fogel: How economy might have functioned if railroads had not existed

  6. Factual Verification • The fallacy of pseudo proof • “Levy on the ‘Estates Real and Personal’ of Bostonians amount to 13 shillings and six pence in the pound or 67 percent” • Pound of property at market value or from an assessed valuation of estates? • Apple has shown a growth of 6% • The fallacy of irrelevant proof • Was Senator X a thief? • Senator Y was a bigger thief. Senator X was kind of poor. Senator X’ mom said that her son was not a thief. Everyone in the senate was a thief. • The fallacy of the circular proof • Do gentlemen prefer blondes? • Smith, Jones and James prefer blondes • Therefore gentlemen prefer blondes • But how did we assume that Smith, Jones and James are gentlemen • Rules of Thumb • Create a relation between the proposition to be proved and the material which is offered as a proof • Present the ‘best’ evidence, closest to the event. Good is not enough • Affirmative evidence • Context of evidence is important: A won the war of 1500 should say which 1500? Moslem 1500? Or 1500 AD?

  7. Factual Significance • The fallacy of holist • A historian should select significant details from the whole thing. • A historian who swears to tell nothing but the whole truth would thereby take a vow of eternal silence • The furtive fallacy • Things are never what they seem to be • The pragmatic fallacy • In a quest to make their work useful, historians select useful facts – immediately and directly useful facts – in the service of a social cause • Eric Williams attempted to give ‘National History’ to the people of Trinidad and Tobago • The quantitative fallacy • The facts that count best count most • Story of drunkard search his house keys under street light

  8. Explanation • Generalization • Statistical Errors, Sampling Errors • Narration • Errors in time and temporal integrity • Temporal integrity: Past and future state in addition to present • Salaries of employees should never decrease • Once a student drops out of a Harvard Program, she should not be readmitted to Law program • Causation • If event B happened after event A, then B was because of A. • Motivation • Trying to find flat answers to complex motivational problems • American Mind – Converting millions of Americans to one individual • Composition • Elevating property of a member of group to the property of the group itself • Racial profiling • False Analogy • A resembles B in possession of X. A has Y so B must have Y. • This is just like a cold war

  9. Argument • Semantical Distortion • Save Soap and Waste Paper • Richly carved Chippendale furniture was produced by colonial craftsmen with curved legs and claw feet • Substantive Distortion • Operate by shifting attention from a reasoned argument to other things which are irrelevant • Like David Donald talking about problem of encouraging ‘young scholars’.

  10. Was Iraq War Illegal? • Is it war or act of aggression or intervention • Is it simply a question of legal and illegal? • Context of legality • Is the context sufficient to prove legality? What about US/UK intervention in Kosovo? http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11953&#.UVjhjKKyBbw http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/09/kofi-annans-iraq-blunder

  11. Drawbacks • Conceptual poverty • Stupidity of the authors • Negro historian • Bridenbaugh’s method adds something to the weight of the book but nothing to its value • ..hordes of hairy graduate students who are crying up this error

  12. BACKUP

  13. Writing Assignment • Syllogistic • Epistemologists • Cognoscenti • Procrustean

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