Rescher N. Philosophical Fallacies: Ways of Erring in Philosophical Exposition

London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. — 132 p.This book examines the nature, sources, and implications of fallacies in philosophical reasoning. In doing so, it illustrates and evaluates various historical instances of this phenomenon. There is widespread interest in the practice and products of philosophizing, yet the important issue of fallacious reasoning in these matters has been effectively untouched. Nicholas Rescher fills this gap by presenting a systematic account of the principal ways in which philosophizing can go astray.List of Displays
Error, Mistake, and Fallacy in Philosophizing
Philosophical Error
The Rule of Reason
Error Versus Mistake
Mistakes in Versus About Philosophy
Error Versus Disagreement
Classifying Philosophical Fallacies
Fallacy
Inconsistency
Unreasonable Demand
A Survey of Philosophical Fallacies
Failure to Heed Distinctions
Contravening Common Sense
Consequence Unacceptability
Improper Possibility Elimination
Coincidence Dismissal
Obscurantism
Bias and Dogmatism
Analogy Stretching
Premiss Deficiency
Counterexample Admission
Infinite Regression
Improper Modal Transit
Category Confusion
Meaning Deficiency
Value Distortion and Misprioritization
Coda
Illustrating Philosophical Fallacies
Prioritization in Pre-Socratic Metaphysics
Self-Contradiction: The Liar
Plato and the Third Man
The Skeptical Diallelus
Buridan’s Ass
Descartes Hasty Generalization
Cartesian Certainty
Descartes’ Representative Ego
Spinoza’s Necessitarianism
Kant’s Things in Themselves
J. S. Mill’s Fallacious Desirability
Hume’s Self-Seeking
Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence
W. K. Clifford’s Absolutism
Free Will Issues
Wittgensteinean Language Sufficiency
Philosophical Questions
Logical Positivism’s Meaninglessness
Austin’s on Imprecision
Inference to the Best Explanation
Coda
The Fallacy of Respect Neglect
Respect Neglect
Simplicity
Further Examples
Perspectival Dissonance and Non-amalgamation
Problems of AnalogyFallacies Regarding Free Will
Problems of Free Will
Need Free Will Violate Causality?
Distinguishing Matters of Determination
Freedom and Deliberation
Freedom and Necessitation
Is Free Will Unnatural?
Freedom and Motivation
Is Free Will Unscientific?Totalization Fallacies
Sufficient Reason and Any/Every Issue
Is Origination Ex Nihilo Compatible with the Principle of Causality?
Ultimate Questions and Totalistic Problems
The Hume-Edwards Principle
Counterexamples
A Last-Ditch Stand
A Radical Turning
The Significance of Philosophical Fallacies
Oversimplification as a Key Source of Philosophical Fallacy
Foresight Problems
Philosophy Is No One-Size-Fits-all Endeavor: The Inevitability of Philosophical Variation and Disagreement
Not Every Philosophical Defect Is the Product of Fallacy
Linearly Inferential Versus Dialectically Cyclic Reasoning
Ampliative Versus Reductive Reasoning
Two Very Different Sorts of Acceptability: Qualified Belief
The Place of Dialectics in Philosophy
Good Philosophizing
Fallacy Need Not Prove Fatal