We talked before about logical fallacies, which stop you from sound logical thinking.. and leave you incapable of thinking, paralysed in any critical situation.. and make you take wrong decisions in your life.. losing you constantly.. here are the links to those two previous posts with their references.. in the first and second reference for anyone who wants to go back to them...
The important question is: how do you protect yourself and protect your children from logical fallacies?
The matter requires intelligence.. not intelligence in its usual sense.. it requires "emotional intelligence".. how do you control your emotions and set them aside in a logical discussion in which there is no room for emotions?
1 - Stay away from bigotry and preconceived bias.. there is no such thing as "they all do that".. nor "the others do that too".. they all lie.. they all steal.. so you should be like them? What is logical about that?
You are the one who thinks, not "them".. when you find a blind man who needs to cross the street and "they" don't help him.. you have the choice to be "like them".. or to be a good, successful human being.. and take his hand and help him across.. this is your life, not "their" life.. why and how do you just imitate?
2 - Make an effort to research and assess for yourself.. and listen to several opinions and take several opinions and search for yourself.. when you hear "the blue shark is bigger than the white shark," check the accuracy of this information.. check even if the one who told you is a marine biologist.. so that you don't fall into the mistake in point 3..
3 - Don't take news or talk from anyone as a given just because he is "important/ famous/ rich/ poor/ sick/ weak/ someone you love/ someone whose words put you at ease".. because people forget and get confused all the time, everywhere in the world...
Don't even take my words as a given.. think and check up on me always..
4 - Always know in discussions that "what counts is the common and prevalent, not the rare".. Rasputin used to drink poison and not be affected.. that does not mean poison doesn't kill..
This is a logical fallacy.. because Rasputin's case is a "rare thing" and not "prevalent"..
5 - Know the types of logical fallacies.. as much as you can.. and learn to recognise them.. when you find someone throwing unproven news at you and saying "bring something to refute it".. explain to him the fallacy he has fallen into.. he is the one required to prove the truth of the news...
You will encounter many a logical fallacy that cinema and drama have made us fall into.. sympathising with the killer for any reason.. because he is poor.. because he was raised an orphan as a child.. and because the murdered man is "rich and shouts at his daughter and refuses to let her marry the one she loves"..
Here you know there is a logical fallacy: "appealing to poverty/ pity/ emotions".. not all poor people are killers and not all of them are innocent angels.. and not everyone raised an orphan becomes a killer.. logic says: the killer is punished..
Poverty is no justification for someone to become a killer or a spy..
Among the fallacies here too is when you sigh in relief because a murderous criminal has been imprisoned or executed.. and someone says to you: "Where is your humanity"..?
As if humanity were tied to letting criminals roam among us unpunished.. rather than our punishing the criminal so that humanity can live in safety..! And as if you are relieved because you "like to see people executed".. not because humanity has been rid of the evils of one particular person...
6 - For any future action.. don't cancel out the other possibilities.. you must keep all the possibilities in view.. among the famous examples of this is the following..
No driver drove his car fast and recklessly while deep down wishing to have an accident and die.. or knowing he would have an accident and die...
If you talk to him he says: "Don't worry, I'm in control/ I know what I'm doing/ do you mean I want to die?"
He is completely cancelling out any other possibilities.. an oil slick on the road.. or a car suddenly appearing in the opposite direction...
And the result.. he drives recklessly.. you talk to him and he says "I know what I'm doing".. and he has an accident and dies...
7 - Without attacking your interlocutor personally.. answer his argument with an example that brings the idea closer to his mind.. I mean you always hear "How is he a terrorist.. he's a kid in the third year of secondary school"..
You might reply: do you see it as logical that this same accused person.. if he came to you and said: "Uncle, come on, take me into the bathroom and carry me and bring me a lollipop" you would do that, treating him as a "child" who is 18 years old?
Here you shock your interlocutor before clarifying to him the established fact that "there is a difference between a child.. and an adolescent"..
And always remember that the most correct and most logical of solutions.. is the direct, simple solution..
8 - Arrange your thoughts and don't stray from the context of the topic.. otherwise the conversation turns into silly arguing that exhausts you mentally and becomes full of logical fallacies. "I am sad about the death of Muhammad Ali Clay".. and he replies: "Why weren't you sad for those who died in Rabaa".. this is called "illogic".. because the two topics are completely different.. at that point you must stop your interlocutor.. and alert him.. otherwise this conversation will turn into sophistry and a waste of time: "But you weren't sad for our soldiers in Sinai".. and "you weren't upset about the victims of the Crimean War".. etc...
They do this mixing too when someone well-known passes away and someone says to you: "God took him because he was a supporter of Sisi"..! As if "Hassan al-Banna" were going to serve today's dish of the day...
Here you must bring your interlocutor back to logic.. "Death throughout history has never been linked to supporting a particular person.. and Sisi's opponents are not immortal.. and that is not the topic.. and please don't take us out of context"
The talk must stay in its context.. and analysis comes "after the information is available".. not before it...
Analysis comes "after the information is available".. not "before it"...
Analysis comes "after the information is available".. not before it...!!
A plane crashed.. an accident happened.. someone died.. analysis.. after the information...
9 - Nuclear war will never break out at all over the idea if you tell the one you're arguing with "I'll research this point and get back to you".. and you actually research the matter and get back to him a little while later, or a day or a week later.. or "one second, I'll bring you a reference" or even "I don't know" if researching this point is beyond you...
10 - The reference is not Al Jazeera channel and social media pages and that talk.. Wikipedia can be a reference "within limits".. there is an article about this in the third reference in the margin if you'd like to go back to it..
When you bring references, your interlocutor must respond to them with references.. not "I saw" and "my aunt had that happen to her"..
Stories of "I heard" and "they told me" and "today it happened but no one saw it but me" and "a source who refused to be named" and "sources" and "a sovereign source".. the newspaper must prove what it says.. otherwise we will get into stories of "Mubarak didn't turn out to have seventy billion" and "Bashar didn't turn out to have used chemical weapons.. we're sorry".. after you have swallowed the information and acted on the basis of it...
And the lesson with references too is the prevalent, not the rare.. meaning if 1,000 studies say smoking kills.. and one study says: "No, it's lovely".. the 1,000 studies tip the scales.. because this is science, not mere opinion...
There is a widespread piece of information that says: "Psychology says if you stay up late thinking about a person, this means the same person is thinking about you".. go on then, ask for a "reference".. where is the psychology reference that said this? Where is the book?? Two days ago I was up late thinking about Einstein..
Was Einstein thinking about me???
11 - Compare values and things that actually agree with each other.. meaning Sadat's regime was military.. and Abdel Nasser was military.. therefore.. the two are the same..
This is called "backwardness".. because this is a person.. different from that one.. they agree on the point of "military" and differ on 100 other points...
A tuk-tuk or a motorcycle runs on wheels.. and a Ferrari and a McLaren run on wheels.. therefore.. a Ferrari is like a tuk-tuk??
You will often hear a phrase like "the terrorist's thought must be fought with thought".. and this is a wrong phrase...
And you hear after it a sentence: "Thought is not fought with a security solution".. and this is a very, very correct phrase..
Thought is not fought with a security solution.. correct.. I am not going to send two informants to lock up a physics professor working on Einstein's legacy.. what he is doing is "thought"...
But there is one remark .. there is no such thing as "the terrorist's thought".. if he were thinking, he would not have become a terrorist..
"Thought" means a product like what Socrates and Camus and Max Planck and Einstein and Saleh Morsi produced.. there is a book called "The Thought of Relativity" about the theory of relativity.. do you fight the terrorist the same way you criticise the theory of relativity??
Here you return labels to their origin: "terrorism is criminality" and not thought.. and criminality is fought by "security"...
Even the phrase "Sayyid Qutb's thought" I am completely against.. and if I use it, it is only figuratively so that my words reach the mind of the one I'm speaking to.. it is not called thought.. it is called "Sayyid Qutb's ravings"...
12 - Never argue about or criticise an idea, a book, a work of art, or discuss a video or a piece of news you have not looked at.. and likewise never praise it.. you must first know what you are talking about at all.. and therefore when someone says to you: "The Brotherhood doesn't support terrorism".. the logical question is: "Have you read their books and their talk"? No? Then logically.. you are not qualified to criticise or praise or affirm or deny...
This book is nice.. have you read it? No..! How is it nice then?
13 - Do not accept anything torn out of context.. in the manner of "do not approach prayer".. ask for the news or information in full.. and take your time and verify accuracy.. any news that is "impossible to prove" is a rumour.. and any news that is "impossible to deny" is a fact...
"Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is the president of Egypt".. news impossible to deny...
"Sisi died and this is a double".. news impossible to prove...
14 - Learn, when you research and find the opposite of what you believed.. to change your mind.. I believe that sharks of all kinds give birth and do not lay eggs.. what's this.. I researched and found the opposite? That's it, there's no need for stubbornness.. learn the new.. When I keep insisting on the old, that is not "steadfastness in principle".. that is called petrification and stupidity...
15 - Keep completely away from discussions of personal attacks.. "why you".. "you are such and such and the son of such and such".. and keep away from loaded words like "so-and-so son of so-and-so".. and clichés like "the marginalised" and "freedom" and "repression" and "what have you seen of God that makes you hate His law".. you are speaking with logic, not slogans...
Always draw your interlocutor's attention to the logical fallacies he falls into, without arrogance or haughtiness.. for if he insists on them, then he knows very well that he is committing a fallacy.. leave him and walk away from him...
Your mind is more precious than to exhaust and tire it with someone who believes that what is in Libya is a "spring".. or that Gabriel descended at the Rabaa al-Adawiya intersection in Nasr City and was defeated by the Central Security Forces...
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So how do you teach your son to think logically?
- Your teenage son is not stupid, not backward, not ill-mannered, and not "badly raised".. and "teenager" is not an insult.. teenager means he is on the threshold of maturity and advancing one step at a time.. he is just faster than you and more impulsive and loves adventure and loves to have his own opinion.. and loves to be unique, with no one like him.. and that is neither a fault nor a mistake.. you, over time, have become like a heavy tank wading into the battle of life, fortified with armour and weapons.. he is like a racing car.. very fast.. faster than you.. but not qualified for battles.. and in need of armour and weapons.. you must understand this and help him arm himself...
Make him understand how to direct his abilities properly.. watch him and see what he is good at.. he loves the noise of festivals.. gently make him understand that this is not music.. and that no successful, refined person listens to it.. and don't tell him "listen to Umm Kulthum" if he doesn't like her.. because he is not like you yet.. tell him "Amr Diab" for example.. one day he will listen to Umm Kulthum on his own...
He loves adventures.. direct his energy so that he goes out on a trip by the shore and goes on safari and pitches a tent.. let him play a sport he loves.. instead of his adventures being experimenting with drugs.. make him understand that there are shocks, that if they strike his health and his life.. they will stay with him for the rest of his life..
Make him understand calmly that there is a difference between courage and foolishness.. as a teenager he is always walking on the dividing line between a virtue and its opposite.. courage/ foolishness.. generosity/ extravagance.. relaxation/ laziness.. always gently nudge him towards the side that holds the virtue.. and when he falls and fails, don't blame him and humiliate him.. make him understand that we fall so that we learn to rise stronger...
Load responsibility onto him slowly.. responsibility for some things in the house.. let him help you with no reward.. because "this is his home".. and so that he learns the meaning of responsibility.. and because he learns in order to become better.. study and learn so that you know more and become successful in your life.. not "study so you pass without resits"...
Always play the game of choices with him.. give him two options.. and let him choose.. and afterwards tell him, all right, come let's look at the pros and cons of each choice.. and when he falls in love, don't mock him.. at this age he must fall in love.. make him understand that his path to success in his emotional life is to succeed personally..
Converse with him logically so that he learns logic..
If you find his talk "illogical".. make him understand.. sometimes you will hear from your son "but Uncle Gamal smokes and he's fine".. ask him to research and bring you percentages and statistics and then tell you: what is the probability that he will end up like Uncle Gamal? And the probability that they will remove a lung for him...
A small child.. don't just bring him a doll and a teddy bear and throw them at him and leave him to go to hell.. sometimes bring him, along with those, toys that he assembles and puts together like puzzles and "Meccano".. toys like the ones in this picture that a baby plays with.. and when he breaks a toy or takes it apart, ask him to fix it.. and fix it with him and show him the steps.. bring him clay to make shapes from, and books to colour in, and coloured paper to cut into animal shapes and geometric shapes.. teach him how to think "logical" thinking so that he knows how to make something nice or enjoy a new game..
Bring him chess instead of "backgammon".. read in front of him and watch National Geographic and Discovery and be generous, calm and kind and treat people as you would like them to treat you and don't lie.. because he imitates you to the letter and you don't even notice..
You are shaping the personality that will stay with him for the rest of his life...
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References:
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1- https://goo.gl/q3g51b
2 - https://goo.gl/WExuPI
3 - https://goo.gl/XxI3Bz
4 - https://goo.gl/lB6iId
5 - https://goo.gl/fodXw8
6 - مرجع بالعربية: http://www.syr-res.com/article/1288.html
7 - مرجع بالعربية: http://mnteq.com/logical-fallacies/
8 - كتاب مصور عن المحاورة بالحيلة: المغالطات المنطقية - ترجمة صادق النمر: https://goo.gl/06Yzj1
10 - Thouless, Robert H (1953). Straight and Crooked Thinking: http://goo.gl/Zg19zI
11 - Hamblin, C. L. (2004). Fallacies. Methuen & Co.
12 - Paul, Richard; Elder, Linda (2006). Thinker's Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery: https://goo.gl/CY0SEr