Philosophy15 Episode 83: The Curative Fallacy

[@lisamadura2769]

This is great! The example that kept coming to mind was colorblindness as a solution to racial discrimination. It seems like a lot of ink would have been saved if some folks in that debate had this concept in hand. Anyway, glad to have you guys back!

[@jameslovell5721]

This is brilliant. The curative fallacy is everywhere.

[@mprater86]

Definitely a good fallacy to keep in mind, and I like how y'all applied it to the current political toxicity.

[@AustinCaroe]

Quick note on turning the other cheek from Matthew 5:38. Depending on how you read the text, it is not about love, but about defiance. Inside Christian circles, it is often taught that, in context, a slap on the right cheek would have been a backhanded slap from the right hand of a higher ranking person against a lower ranking person. By turning the other cheek, you are inviting an open forehand slap from the right hand to the left cheek, placing the slapper in a dilemma: either he is shamed for his inability to force the lower ranking person into submission, or if he slaps the left cheek he is treating the slapped person as an equal. Most English translations say: “…do not resist evil. *But* if anyone slaps you on the right cheek…” There is likely some scholarly disagreement about this, but it is likely not as simple as Dr. Talisse lays out. I really like the idea of the curative fallacy. Have you published a paper on it, or do you plan to do so?

[@ByrdNick]

So the curative fallacy is the mistake of thinking the solution to an existing problem is whatever would have prevented the problem from occurring. It’s a fallacy because this rule of thumb often doesn’t work (e.g., closing the barn door would have prevented the horse from escaping the barn but now that the horse has escaped through the open door, closing the open barn door won’t get the horse back into the barn - in fact, closing the door will make it impossible to get the horse back into the barn). Is this written somewhere we can cite? (Why We Argue?) Or is this something that’s still in progress?

[@livingsoilharvest]

Environmentalists who oppose carbon capture/sequestration policies on principle are an interesting case here. In this case the preventative (don't burn fossil fuels) is a big part of the curative, but needn't be all of it.

[@acerrubrum5749]

👍

[@eeclarkutube]

Philosophy Improv

[@user-jf3hh4xr4n]

Ok. I just discovered this. My first question. Does anyone ever occasionally come by and air out your offices? Second. So you finally get to perhaps what you were aiming at, the difficulties that our democracy is facing today. Other than chuckling about how right we are and how wrong everyone else is, well where does it go from here? Luckily, you have now ran out of time!