Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

no true scotsman fallacy

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.83 in modern English

Syllables
no true s-cots-man- -fal-la-cy
IPA
33
Scrabble Score
21
Letters
7
Syllables
13
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

An informal fallacy in which one attempts to defend or protect an a posteriori claim from a falsifying counterexample by covertly modifying the initial claim, especially transforming it into a tautology by saying that any counterexamples are ipso facto not valid members of the class being described.

Etymology

Attributed to the English philosopher Antony Flew, from his 1966 book God & Philosophy: :In this ungracious move a brash generalization, such as No Scotsmen put sugar on their porridge, when faced with falsifying facts, is transformed while you wait into an impotent tautology: if ostensible Scotsmen put sugar on their porridge, then this is by itself sufficient to prove them not true Scotsmen.

Inflected Forms

no true Scotsman fallacies (plural)

Questions

What does no true scotsman fallacy mean?
An informal fallacy in which one attempts to defend or protect an a posteriori claim from a falsifying counterexample by covertly modifying the initial claim, especially transforming it into a tautology by saying that any counterexamples are ipso facto not valid members of the class being described.
Where does no true scotsman fallacy come from?
Attributed to the English philosopher Antony Flew, from his 1966 book God & Philosophy: :In this ungracious move a brash generalization, such as No Scotsmen put sugar on their porridge, when faced with falsifying facts, is transformed while you wait into an impotent tautology: if ostensible Scotsmen put sugar on their porridge, then this is by itself sufficient to prove them not true Scotsmen.

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