Let's take a moment to talk about truth. After all, the whole idea behind this logic stuff is to discover the truth, right?Something to keep in mind is that there is SUBJECTIVE TRUTH and OBJECTIVE TRUTH.
SUBJECTIVE TRUTH is true for the subject. In other words, your subjective truth is true for you, but your mom or your best friend might have a different truth. Subjective truth has to do with feelings, perspectives, hopes and desires.
That song is terrible.
I love that song.
This movie is great.
This movie was boring.
Playing baseball makes life worthwhile.
Music makes life worthwhile.
However, OBJECTIVE TRUTH is what it is, regardless of your thoughts, feelings or beliefs about it.
There are 5,280 feet in one mile.
2 + 2 = 4
Mount Vernon was the home of George Washington, located on the banks of the Potomac River.
Logical fallacies often often arise when subjective truth -- emotion, fear, belief, preference -- is taken as fact, reality, or objective truth. But that doesn't mean subjective truth is always bad, and objective truth is always good. People's feelings, beliefs and opinions are very important to them. Even if you can prove them wrong with logic, you may not be right.
Santa Claus is real. Everyone knows that. If you don't believe in Santa, you won't get any presents, and then you'll be sorry.
That's appeal to popularity, appeal to consequences, and appeal to emotion. That doesn't prove there's a Santa Claus.
I don't need to prove it. I get presents from Santa every Christmas. You're mean, and a know-it-all. I don't want to be your friend anymore.
It's important to know when to apply logic -- such as when you are making business decisions, choosing between political candidates, watching an advertisement, writing a scientific paper, etc. -- and when logic is not appropriate -- such as when you might upset your friends. Highly emotional topics like religion, love, death, etc., do not respond well to logic.
It's also important to know that logic can be applied to something and still come up with two completely different, sound and valid, conclusions.
They only spent $2,000 making that movie.
There were no experienced actors in it.
The script was written by high school students.
Therefore, I didn't enjoy it.
The movie made me laugh.
It was unusual.
The actors and writers are my friends.
Therefore, I liked it.
