Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies is extremely helpful for identifying, categorizing, and exemplifying all kinds of bad reasoning in logical, historical, and hermeneutical contexts. It’s possible, however, for someone to get hold of the wrong end of the stick and assume that something is a fallacy when, in fact, it’s not. I’ll call it the Fallacy Fallacy.
A fallacy in this linguistic sense is not a falsehood; it is “an often plausible argument” based on an “invalid inference” (Webster). It is coming to a conclusion (sometimes maybe even a correct conclusion) via an illegitimate line of reasoning.
But fallacies are like loaded guns; they have to be handled carefully or they’ll go off when they’re not supposed to.
Source: The Fallacy Fallacy | Theology in 3D
Helpful remarks from Layton Tabert
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