(1)
Department of Radiology, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA
Abstract
In this report, I would like to delve into the treacherous and unforgiving fallas sea (pun intended), a region of analysis where all hypotheses are subject to the Draconian test of logical estimation. In the search for the presence of falseness biases are exposed and hitherto comforting propositions which seemingly cover a supposed truth are eroded away leaving gaping holes and even unbridgeable gaps in the assumption of veracity. In other words a search for fallacies can be a refreshing exercise for critics and a withering one for authors who have failed to think through their positions. In everyday activities fallacies are rife in all measures of reasoning and in fact are crucial for existing in the world without becoming suffocated by anxiety. After all, many rationalizations are really fallacies and yet belief in them can get one through the day. For example we want to believe that we were lucky when our car was totaled but we weren’t hurt even though the persons luckier than we weren’t even in the auto accident. What a relief to escape injury but your equanimity has been disrupted while others not involved nary give it a thought. We want to believe that every cloud has a silver lining, that wishing and hoping will make something good happen even though that sensibility alone will not influence external events. In that context, fallacies give us buoyancy even though they are often full of baloney.
In this report, I would like to delve into the treacherous and unforgiving fallas sea (pun intended), a region of analysis where all hypotheses are subject to the Draconian test of logical estimation. In the search for the presence of falseness biases are exposed and hitherto comforting propositions which seemingly cover a supposed truth are eroded away leaving gaping holes and even unbridgeable gaps in the assumption of veracity. In other words a search for fallacies can be a refreshing exercise for critics and a withering one for authors who have failed to think through their positions. In everyday activities fallacies are rife in all measures of reasoning and in fact are crucial for existing in the world without becoming suffocated by anxiety. After all, many rationalizations are really fallacies and yet belief in them can get one through the day. For example we want to believe that we were lucky when our car was totaled but we weren’t hurt even though the persons luckier than we weren’t even in the auto accident. What a relief to escape injury but your equanimity has been disrupted while others not involved nary give it a thought. We want to believe that every cloud has a silver lining, that wishing and hoping will make something good happen even though that sensibility alone will not influence external events. In that context, fallacies give us buoyancy even though they are often full of baloney.
In medical science as well, we wish that our suppositions will be borne out by facts congenial to our predictions, that our methodology is not flawed and our data is derived and analyzed through disinterested objectivity. Sometimes that can happen but more often than not, and especially in Radiology, where the impetus for verification is based on the force of use, fallacies intrude. And eventually the errors in our fallacious formulations will be exposed when looked at afresh by those who perhaps have not a vested interest in the conclusions we had reached. Along the way and nearly at every step a fallacious obstacle is likely to get in our way. One source lists 107 separate forms of fallacies misconceptions from incorrect reasoning or argumentation. Many of them can relate directly to radiology [1].
Consider the following examples:
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