Poisoning the well
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Poisoning the well (or attempting to poison the well) is a logical fallacy where adverse information about a target is pre-emptively presented to an audience, with the intention of discrediting or ridiculing everything that the target person is about to say. Poisoning the well is a special case of argumentum ad hominem, and the term was first used with this sense by John Henry Newman in his work Apologia Pro Vita Sua.[1]
The term originated in the Middle Ages in Europe when Christians suffering from the Bubonic Plague falsely accused Jews of poisoning their wells in order to infect them.[2] In general usage, poisoning the well is the provision of any information that may produce a biased result. For example, if a woman tells her friend, "I think I might buy this beautiful dress", then asks how it looks, she has "poisoned the well", as her previous comment could affect her friend's response.
And even simpler example of poisoning the well is by tautology and definition, or circular reasoning. This is similar to equivocation, where the use of words can, or was intended to communicate a confusing meaning (often called a subtle lie). For example, if one starts an argument with "Everything I say is correct, no matter what you say", the well is poisoned and nothing a person says (be it true or false) will matter by the initiator's definition. This fallacy is especially common in presupposition Apologetics, where the apologetic readily defines "Only if you first admit God exists, will your reasoning be considered", by this poisoned well, nothing a person says matters unless he already agrees with the (somehow unfair, possibly untrue) premises.
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[edit] Structure
A poisoned-well "argument" has the following form:
- 1. Unfavorable information (be it true or false) about person A (the target) is presented by another. ("Before you listen to my opponent, may I remind you that he has been in jail.")
- 2. Any claims person A then makes will be regarded as false, or taken less seriously.
A poisoned-well "argument" can also be in this form
- 1. Unfavorable definitions (be it true or false) which prevent disagreement (or enforce affirmative position)
- 2. Any claims without first agreeing with above definitions are automatically dismissed.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Philosophical society.com - Logical Fallacies
- ^ Novella, Steven. "SGU 5x5 #55 - January 28th, 2009." 29 January 2009. Podcast. "The Skeptics' Guide 5x5." The Skeptics Guide Archive. 30 January 2009.
