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| knowledge:epistemic_fallacy [29.06.26, 19:33:30] – admin | knowledge:epistemic_fallacy [29.06.26, 20:47:31] (current) – [Epistemic reductionism] admin |
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| This way of thinking is not exclusive to the corporate world. For instance, the United States’ strategy during the [[wp>Vietnam War|Vietnam War]] was heavily focused on //quantitative measures// such as comparing the number of casualties (so-called “body counts”) and largely ignored “soft” factors such as the impact of the war on public support at home – not to mention support in third countries. This narrow perspective is sometimes referred to as the “[[wp>McNamara fallacy|McNamara fallacy]]”, named after the US Secretary of Defence at the time. | This way of thinking is not exclusive to the corporate world. For instance, the United States’ strategy during the [[wp>Vietnam War|Vietnam War]] was heavily focused on //quantitative measures// such as comparing the number of casualties (so-called “body counts”) and largely ignored “soft” factors such as the impact of the war on public support at home – not to mention support in third countries. This narrow perspective is sometimes referred to as the “[[wp>McNamara fallacy|McNamara fallacy]]”, named after the US Secretary of Defence at the time. |
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| | ===== Delimitation ===== |
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| | This epistemic fallacy specifically concerns the conflation of knowledge and existence. However, there are numerous related fallacies which, in some cases, may also overlap with this one. |
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| | The [[rhetorics:defasible_arguments:argument_from_ignorance:index|argument from ignorance]] is a form of //rhetorical fallacy// in which it is claimed that if one has no knowledge of something, then it presumably does not exist (or, more commonly, is not a concern). In many cases, the //epistemic fallacy// is likely to be the underlying misconception behind this practice. |
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| | The [[abstraction:ontological_fallacy|ontological fallacy]] is a //fallacy of abstraction// in which the existence of a term or concept is taken to imply that the phenomenon it describes must also exist. If one regards words or concepts as a possible form of expression of knowledge, it is easy to see that, at least in some cases, this overlaps with the //epistemic fallacy.// |
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| | The [[ambiguity:intensional_fallacy|intentional fallacy]], particularly in the form of the [[ambiguity:masked_man|“masked man”]], can be regarded as a subtype of the //epistemic fallacy// if one focuses on the aspect of drawing conclusions out of incomplete knowledge. |
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| | ===== Further examples ===== |
| | ==== Undiagnosable conditions in medicine ==== |
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| | One area in which the mindset that “if it cannot be measured, it does not exist” can be particularly problematic is //medicine//. For a long time, patients whose ailments could not be attributed to immediately identifiable physical causes were often not taken seriously by doctors and researchers. |
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| | Problems such as chronic pain or mental health conditions, which cannot be diagnosed by X-rays or blood tests, were (and, at least in some cases, still are) dismissed as “imaginary” or “laziness”. |
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| | The underlying attitude can be summarised as: “We cannot find a cause, so there isn’t one” – or, to put it another way: the limits of available diagnostic knowledge are equated with the limits of reality. A prime example of an //epistemic fallacy.// |
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| | Even though medicine has advanced considerably in recent decades and many of these conditions are now recognised (not least due to the growing recognition of [[wp>Psychology|psychology]] and [[wp>Psychotherapy|psychotherapy]]), we are still a long way from reaching the limits of our understanding. Moreover, naturally not every new insight has yet found its way into every GP’s practice. |
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| | And the consequences for those affected go far beyond simply not receiving treatment: people living with an unrecognised condition often find themselves battling not only the illness itself, but also a lack of understanding from those around them. On top of this, it is not uncommon for them to harbour their own doubts as to whether their symptoms “really” exist. |
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| | ===== See also ===== |
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| | * [[abstraction:ontological_fallacy|Ontological fallacy]] |
| | * [[rhetorics:defasible_arguments:argument_from_ignorance:index|Argument from ignorance]] |
| | * [[logic:formal_fallacies:denying_the_antecedent|Denying the antecedent]] |
