Chris Coad
Chris Coad
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I think the Wiki articled makes clear that the observation always entailed a judgment about the value of the analogy. [...]
I got just the opposite, viz., that the law entails no judgment: it "only asserts that the likelihood of such a reference or comparison arising increases as the discussion progresses, irrespective of whether it's appropriate or not."
I would argue that the very concept, and precisely as described here, is a judgmental one. The analogy appears inevitably for all the reasons it is a bad one.I recognize, however, that, in saying this, I am begging the question and making an unfalsibiable assertion. So I quote Godwin, from farther down, as a back up:
"Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics, its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about the Holocaust," Godwin has written
On a pedantic side note, this is the first correct usage of the term "begging the question" on the entire internet in the year 2012. Congratulations!