You put up a Q & you are accused of doing the very thing you asked about. Isn't that a dishonest,illogical A?

Question

It is dishonest because, the Answerer who does this rarely answers the Q asked in a meaningful truthful way. It is illogical because it makes your A sound monsensical or illogical or both and no Q is ever asked with that intent by a sane person. Example you ask a Q about pornography and the Answerer accuses you of being a pornographer. More generally you ask about X and that results in an accusation that you do X otherwise you would not have asked about X. You ask a Q about racism and you are accused, ipso facto ,of beind a racist. You ask a Q about illegal immigrants and automatically you are one or you love one etcetera, etcetera.

Plato & his teacher Socrates saw through this fallacious form of reasoning the one that clever sophists and lawyers use to put down all who simply ask Q' s seeking **meaningful, logical ,nonfallacious, sound and valid Answers.**

My q is not based on the answerer misunderstanding the Q, but on intentional misuse of logic to avoid answering the Q. For example, couldn't I in response to the answerer who brought up the pont about misunderstanding the Q, reply it accusing the answerer of defending themselves against criticism that they probably frequently use the tactic themselves otherwise why defend against it.

Does anyone get the point I am making?, BTW, I'm not accusing the answerer of anything. I just want to illustrate once again, what is in my opinion, the dishonesty and illogical aspect of the rhetorical technique. by many who employ it. Some do it out of ignorance, but more do so maliciously.

Please note that this Q was asked in the philosophy category. This is not about how to Q's or simple statements in the form of a Q, its about the inquiry into ideas especially philosophical ideas which my examples did not illustrate to avoid any digression into specifics. Hence the algebraic generality of my examples of how the Q's are reversed on the asker but also on the answerer for that matter. This Q is about the use of a logical fallacy. It is not about the persons that use except to point out when it is used. It is unclear if it is used because of ignorance, stupidity or malice. That would be a good topic for another Q in the poll and survey category. But I hear the problem there is worse than here in the philosophy category.

Sometimes a Q is just a Q: and even the asker doesn't really know why they asked the Q until they asked it. But that is another issue for another Q. It is not a part of my Q.

This Q is not about the motives for asking the Q which is inferred but is really unknown to us. Some people ask Q's just to bait and irritate us. We call them trolls. I can assure you that I am not one of them. My Q&A activities are evidence to the contrary and my goal is to improve my Q&A's through correct reasoning and proper use of the language both grammar and syntax.l

Answer 1

I personally don't find such responses too surprising... it has a lot to do with how people use language. Any language.

Take a look at questions. Many questions are not meant to be answered at all - they are really statements ("You're pretty late today, aren't you?") or requests for a service ("Can you turn the lights on?").

Because this medium lacks a lot of the body language and sound ques that would usually distinguish one kind of question from another, some people are going to think you're doing something you aren't. Yahoo!Answers may actually ENCOURAGE this, because if you want to get the best answer, you may have to get inside the user's head and figure out what they are REALLY looking for, no matter what they might have said.

Your point about rhetoric is a good one - Plato points out in "the Republic" that it is the exact opposite of reason, in that it tries to pretend to be reason but actually detracts from it. I can only agree with him. And if someone uses unreason as his first tool, it is probably a bit much to expect reason to be his next one. At least they will have exposed themselves so you know who NOT to pay attention to.

Peace.

Answer 2

John 11:35

Answer 3

I agree with you on this question. Once I ask about how I could help a very confused friend. The answers were directed at me and what I needed to do. Some answers were rather insulting. I guess that sometimes we don't make our questions clear enough. You are dealing with all kinds of people here. Sift out the good and don't let the negative get to you. :)

Answer 4

ask yahoo to hire a phd in library research and an english degree to correct language,spelling,examine abuse complaints before deleting qs & as,,yahoo has little to do with pluto & soccer tease.yahoo is free pr for them

Answer 5

We have to learn to live with paradoxes (paradoxi?) because the world doesn't always fit into nice neat little packages.

Plato's forms are cool but they have little to do with reality. We have to live in both the ideal world of thought and the real world of blood, sweat and tears.

Lets all sing together now: "you make me so, so very happy, I'm so glad you came into my life..."