Fallacies in Different Cultures

[Nix_Hex]

I've recently been reading up on argumentative fallacies and I am fascinated with them. I am beginning to notice blatant fallacies in arguments I or others have used while debating random issues like politics/religion/whatever IRL or on these forums. They make sense and I cannot see why they wouldn't apply universally, but do most of them apply to all cultures? It is obvious that leaders, especially dictators, lead with fallacious laws and regulations, but are there philosophers in all cultures that share the definition of many of these same fallacies?

 

[Glen]

i'd like to think that, given the fact that cultural mores are rarely ever based on logic (take note of the term cultural mores there, i am not saying that holding the door for the eldery is illogical, simply that it is universal and i don't consider it a cultural more), things like logical fallacies transcend cultural differences.

keep in mind that we in western civilization don't abide by these rules as often as we should either so it's not like they're the pillars of our society or anything. when a dude sees a bunch of mexicans in his town and said dude gets fired from his job he's not gonna think about whether he's guilty of post hoc ergo propter hoc, he's gonna hate some fucking mexicans.

 

[Morm]

Just really pointing out that it all depends on viewpoints. There is no universal when regarding groups of humans and especially their opinions- many of them lived in ignorance of each other or their inner workings for so long. We build on each other shoulders, so if your foundation is a slight bit different the building itself is likely going to look entirely different.

 

[Staraptor Call]

Being in a different culture doesn't change whether something is fallacious or not. If something is true or untrue in one culture, it will be the same in any other culture because the rules of logic are universal. Imagine if it were not the case that what is true one place is true everywhere - nobody would be able to make any judgment on whether something was true or not. There is no clear line where one culture becomes another, so anybody would be able to argue that the normal rules didn't apply to them because they were "in a different culture." When you take into account the other part of cultural relativism, the idea that what is morally right and wrong is different in different cultures, things get even worse. Under moral relativism, it is impossible to make any ethical judgment, even an obvious one, only an acknowledgment of the differences between people's cultures. And same as before, anyone could say they were in a different culture and thus not bound by the same rules as others. Cultural relativism leads to the obviously incorrect result of moral and logical anarchy, so it cannot be true.