Hunting Humbug 101: Episode 0001: Homeopathy - appealing to tradition

Hunting Humbug 101: Episode 0001: Homeopathy - appealing to tradition: This episode looks at the fallacy of appealing to tradition .  Reading from the book: www.skepticsfieldguide.net/p/ebook NHMRC draft ...

Cultural Origins

Other Terms and/or Related Concepts

Appeal to tradition; argument from tradition; argumentum ad antiquitatem; appeal to antiquity; appeal to customs; our way (or their way) is best.

Description

When an advocate either promotes a "way of doing things" by citing its use in a particular culture or group, or denigrates a "way of doing things" by citing its use in a particular culture or group, he or she is making an appeal to cultural origins. An appeal to cultural origins is not in itself a valid way to resolve a contentious issue. Such an appeal is a fallacy and should always be challenged by the critical thinker.

Example

Chuck A. Hissyfit is a member of the Land Use Planning Committee set up as an advisory group to the Jumtup Local Council. The committee is having its inaugural meeting. On the agenda is the election of office bearers. Chuck states his position:

I think that we should operate as a collective. We shouldn't have office bearers. This western way has failed. We should meet together as the so-called Plains Indians of North America did. They simply sat and talked. They talked until consensus was reached. Their cultural values were more humane than ours and we should follow their example.

Comment

Somewhere in Chuck's rhetoric there may be a point. But he is not making it. He is appealing to cultural origins to both denigrate one way of doing things and to promote an alternative way of doing things. Such an appeal has no merit.

There may be some value in simply "sitting and talking" with a view to reaching a consensus. But that procedure needs to be argued on its merits, rather than accepted because some group or other at some time in the past under certain circumstances are said to have used the method. (Claims such as Chuck's often prove to be false anyway under close examination.)

In the present example, and if the other members of the Land Use Planning Committee were both fair-minded and skeptical, they might ask Chuck to explain in more detail just how his proposed meeting style would work in practice. They would also subject his explanation to critical inquiry and would not let him "get away with" rhetorical assertions. They would examine his proposal in the light of the terms of reference of the committee and practical issues such as the time available to members to meet. They might even agree with a trial of his approach on selected occasions. However such trials would involve a proper evaluation and comparison with other modes of decision-making. This methodology is bound to yield the right result. It is an approach to an inquiry that can trace its roots back as far as the ancient Greeks.

The cultural origins fallacy tends to be subject to whims and fashions. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the transatlantic, industrial cultures were usually held up as positive examples for all of humanity. In the late 20th century, indigenous cultures were seen by many as worthy of emulation in all things. Critical thinkers, when confronted with a fashionable cultural origins fallacy can always "stir the pot" with counter-examples. Counter-examples are useful devices for challenging facile assumptions. For the sake of argument, consider the following rather simplistic example. An advocate suggests that people living in industrial societies should all adopt a personal totemic animal. Why? Because this was a common spiritual practice of many indigenous peoples. Skeptical participants in the discussion could then make a counter-suggestion to highlight the weakness in the advocate's proposition. They might suggest that within our cultural group, we should draw lots to determine who among us should be ritually murdered to propitiate the gods. Why? Because this was a common spiritual practice of many indigenous peoples.

In the context of the example given above, another member of the Land Use Planning Committee could suggest to Chuck that after they try the Plains Indians methods of consultation, they should give some other cultural methods a tryout during the life of the project. Perhaps Genghis Khan's approach to project management? Or a Viking approach to land acquisition? Or the Spanish Inquisition's approach to group cohesion and motivation?

WE MUST BE SENSITIVE TO ALL CULTURES

Western defenders of so-called rational thought and free expression must become more sensitive to other ways of perceiving the world. Interesting cultural equivalence example here.

Anonymous Science Curriculum Expert Pig-Ignorant About Science

I can't vouch for his sources, and I would not endorse every sentiment in his article, but Kevin Donnelly, in today's Australian identifies a very clear instance of the Cultural Origins fallacy. The extract below sets out the core of his argument:

As noted by the South Australian academic Tony Gibbons in his book On Reflection, much of Australia's school curriculum adopts a relativistic view where science, instead of being based on an objective view of reality, is considered subjective and culturally determined. The South Australian curriculum states: "Viewing experiences, ideas and phenomena through the lenses of diverse cultural sciences provide a breadth and depth of understanding that is not possible from any one cultural perspective. Every culture has its own ways of thinking and its own world views to inform its science. Western science is the most dominant form of science but it is only one form among the sciences of the world."

Donnelly does us a service in drawing attention to lame-brained statements such as "Every culture has its own ways of thinking and its own world views to inform its science". The really alarming thing about this statement is that it has apparently been made by some ignorant buffoon inhabiting the South Australian Education Department. Further, that buffoon apparently has a licence to tinker with curriculum. He or she must be hunted down and educated in the history and philosophy of science before he or she does further harm.

There is only science. Science is science. If it doesn't look like science, smell like science and taste like science it isn't science. A core feature of scientific endeavor is precisely its independence from myths, stories, literature, arts, dance, human sacrifice, exorcisms and other fun aspects of society which we might properly call culture.

Examples of Cultural Origins

The advocate makes an unwarranted claim that a particular way of doing things is best because of its cultural origins.

• Name that Fallacy - Occam's razor "debunked"
• Anonymous Science Curriculum Expert Pig-Ignorant About Science