Historians Fallacies

By David Hackett Fischer

Causes of Fallacies

“Any procedure is permissible as long as its practitioner publishes an essay from time to time, and is not convicted of a felony”

“Every man does that which is right in his own eyes”

“Errors of the sort that I was looking for were most easily found in the work of the best and brightest historians who are writing today.

Lack of method and logical thinking

Broad Categories

Inquiry

Question Framing

Factual Verification

Significance

Explanation

Generalization

Narration

Causation

Motivation

Composition

False Analogy

Argument

Semantical Distortion

Substantive Distraction

Test Question 1: What is a Practical Objective

Know everything about everything

Know something about everything

Know everything about something

Know something about something

Question Framing

The first step of any research

Key: Operational, open ended (not wide-open), flexible, analytical, precise, tested

The fallacy of many questionsHave you stopped beating your wife?

Why was American slavery the most awful the world has ever known?

The fallacy of false dichotomous questionsWhat is History – Fact or Fancy

What is your expected grade- A+ or E?

The fallacy of metaphysical questionsWas the War inevitable

The fallacy of fictional questionsFogel: How economy might have functioned if railroads had not existed

Factual Verification

The fallacy of pseudo proof“Levy on the ‘Estates Real and Personal’ of Bostonians amount to 13 shillings and six pence in the pound or 67 percent”

Pound of property at market value or from an assessed valuation of estates?

Apple has shown a growth of 6%

The fallacy of irrelevant proofWas Senator X a thief?

Senator Y was a bigger thief. Senator X was kind of poor. Senator X’ mom said that her son was not a thief. Everyone in the senate was a thief.

The fallacy of the circular proofDo gentlemen prefer blondes?

Smith, Jones and James prefer blondes

Therefore gentlemen prefer blondes

But how did we assume that Smith, Jones and James are gentlemen

Rules of ThumbCreate a relation between the proposition to be proved and the material which is offered as a proof

Present the ‘best’ evidence, closest to the event. Good is not enough

Affirmative evidence

Context of evidence is important: A won the war of 1500 should say which 1500? Moslem 1500? Or 1500 AD?

Factual Significance

The fallacy of holistA historian should select significant details from the whole thing.

A historian who swears to tell nothing but the whole truth would thereby take a vow of eternal silence

The furtive fallacyThings are never what they seem to be

The pragmatic fallacyIn a quest to make their work useful, historians select useful facts – immediately and directly useful facts – in the service of a social cause

Eric Williams attempted to give ‘National History’ to the people of Trinidad and Tobago

The quantitative fallacyThe facts that count best count most

Story of drunkard search his house keys under street light

Explanation

GeneralizationStatistical Errors, Sampling Errors

NarrationErrors in time and temporal integrity

Temporal integrity: Past and future state in addition to present Salaries of employees should never decrease

Once a student drops out of a Harvard Program, she should not be readmitted to Law program

CausationIf event B happened after event A, then B was because of A.

MotivationTrying to find flat answers to complex motivational problems

American Mind – Converting millions of Americans to one individual

CompositionElevating property of a member of group to the property of the group itself

Racial profiling

False AnalogyA resembles B in possession of X. A has Y so B must have Y.

This is just like a cold war

Argument

Semantical DistortionSave Soap and Waste Paper

Richly carved Chippendale furniture was produced by colonial craftsmen with curved legs and claw feet

Substantive DistortionOperate by shifting attention from a reasoned argument to other things which are irrelevant

Like David Donald talking about problem of encouraging ‘young scholars’.

Was Iraq War Illegal?

Is it war or act of aggression or intervention

Is it simply a question of legal and illegal?

Context of legality Is the context sufficient to prove legality? What about US/UK intervention in Kosovo?

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11953&#.UVjhjKKyBbw

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/09/kofi-annans-iraq-blunder

Drawbacks

Conceptual poverty

Stupidity of the authors

Negro historian

Bridenbaugh’s method adds something to the weight of the book but nothing to its value

..hordes of hairy graduate students who are crying up this error

BACKUP

Writing Assignment

Syllogistic

Epistemologists

Cognoscenti

Procrustean