So, I think I have a reasonable sense of what people mean when they say an argument, or an assertion, is politlcally incorrect. Reading this, though, I begin to suspect that I have no idea what you mean when you say an argument is politically correct.
Ordinarily, I don’t hear that term used to describe arguments at all, I hear it used to describe people who object to politically incorrect arguments… or who object to arguments on the grounds that they are politically incorrect.
Among other things, I can’t tell if you intend for “politically correct” and “politically incorrect” to be jointly exhaustive terms, or whether there’s a middle ground between them. If the latter, I think I agree with most of what you say here, though I’m not sure how many real-world arguments it applies to.
I begin to suspect that I have no idea what you mean when you say an argument is politically correct.
I mean an argument with a few characteristics:
Arguments that are politically correct are non-truth-citing arguments.
For example, they don’t take the form “It’s not true that all violent rapes in the city were perpetrated by immigrants.” They take the form “It’s insensitive to say that all violent rapes in the city were perpetrated by immigrants.”
They are a subset of arguments for conclusions that are the same as those reached by politically correct arguments.
For example, “We’ve done experiments, and the results suggest no difference in intelligence between Koreans and Chinese, controlling for other factors, there are probably no measurable differences between the groups” is not a PC argument, because it appeals to truth. “The assumption that Koreans are smarter than Chinese is racist, if you properly controlled for environmental differences, there would be no measured difference between the groups,” has a very similar conclusion, and is a PC argument. It’s not the argument’s conclusion that makes it PC or not.
Not all non-truth-citing arguments are PC ones.
For example, arguing that something is wrong because “A Muslim said it” is obviously neither truth citing nor PC. PC arguments are those that are rationalizations for a particular set of conclusions.
Truth-citing and non-truth-citing are just poles of a range. Arguments such as evolutionarydebunking arguments attempt to show a loose relationship between a proposition and the truth—loose, neither tight nor non-existent.
Unlike PC arguments, PI arguments are just those with conclusions or implicit assumptions targeted by PC arguments. Mercy said “To frame an argument as politically incorrect is to imply that all arguments against it are based on squeamishness. It’s a transparent attempt to exploit the mechanism you describe...” this is largely true. The framing corresponds to a certain degree with reality in each case.
Positions for which the best argument is “My opponent’s arguments is PC,” are weak. This weakness is because the accusation that the argument is a rationalization for a predetermined conclusion, i.e. that it is a PC argument, does not attack the conclusion directly. The accusation is a form of evolutionary debunking argument, and weakens the evidence brought for the conclusion without destroying the evdence and without attacking the conclusion. The accusation is weak in a way similar to all PC arguments.
Mercy went wrong in thinking that because calling out arguments as being PC and thus not tightly bound to truth of their conclusions does not address the conclusions either, arguments’ actual status as PC arguments is unimportant.
The reason to especially doubt arguments usually supported by the argument “This argument is rejected because it is a politically incorrect argument,” is that valid arguments with true premises and conclusions can usually do better. There is an excuse to say “This argument is rejected because it is a politically incorrect argument,” so long as one has prioritized better arguments, or if it is to explain rather than argue for something, e.g. to explain why someone was fired but not why the statement that person was fired for is true.
So, I think I have a reasonable sense of what people mean when they say an argument, or an assertion, is politlcally incorrect. Reading this, though, I begin to suspect that I have no idea what you mean when you say an argument is politically correct.
Ordinarily, I don’t hear that term used to describe arguments at all, I hear it used to describe people who object to politically incorrect arguments… or who object to arguments on the grounds that they are politically incorrect.
Among other things, I can’t tell if you intend for “politically correct” and “politically incorrect” to be jointly exhaustive terms, or whether there’s a middle ground between them. If the latter, I think I agree with most of what you say here, though I’m not sure how many real-world arguments it applies to.
I mean an argument with a few characteristics:
Arguments that are politically correct are non-truth-citing arguments.
For example, they don’t take the form “It’s not true that all violent rapes in the city were perpetrated by immigrants.” They take the form “It’s insensitive to say that all violent rapes in the city were perpetrated by immigrants.”
They are a subset of arguments for conclusions that are the same as those reached by politically correct arguments.
For example, “We’ve done experiments, and the results suggest no difference in intelligence between Koreans and Chinese, controlling for other factors, there are probably no measurable differences between the groups” is not a PC argument, because it appeals to truth. “The assumption that Koreans are smarter than Chinese is racist, if you properly controlled for environmental differences, there would be no measured difference between the groups,” has a very similar conclusion, and is a PC argument. It’s not the argument’s conclusion that makes it PC or not.
Not all non-truth-citing arguments are PC ones.
For example, arguing that something is wrong because “A Muslim said it” is obviously neither truth citing nor PC. PC arguments are those that are rationalizations for a particular set of conclusions.
Truth-citing and non-truth-citing are just poles of a range. Arguments such as evolutionary debunking arguments attempt to show a loose relationship between a proposition and the truth—loose, neither tight nor non-existent.
Unlike PC arguments, PI arguments are just those with conclusions or implicit assumptions targeted by PC arguments. Mercy said “To frame an argument as politically incorrect is to imply that all arguments against it are based on squeamishness. It’s a transparent attempt to exploit the mechanism you describe...” this is largely true. The framing corresponds to a certain degree with reality in each case.
Positions for which the best argument is “My opponent’s arguments is PC,” are weak. This weakness is because the accusation that the argument is a rationalization for a predetermined conclusion, i.e. that it is a PC argument, does not attack the conclusion directly. The accusation is a form of evolutionary debunking argument, and weakens the evidence brought for the conclusion without destroying the evdence and without attacking the conclusion. The accusation is weak in a way similar to all PC arguments.
Mercy went wrong in thinking that because calling out arguments as being PC and thus not tightly bound to truth of their conclusions does not address the conclusions either, arguments’ actual status as PC arguments is unimportant.
The reason to especially doubt arguments usually supported by the argument “This argument is rejected because it is a politically incorrect argument,” is that valid arguments with true premises and conclusions can usually do better. There is an excuse to say “This argument is rejected because it is a politically incorrect argument,” so long as one has prioritized better arguments, or if it is to explain rather than argue for something, e.g. to explain why someone was fired but not why the statement that person was fired for is true.
(nods) OK, I see what you’re getting at, at least generally. Thanks for the clarification.
One thing...
This would make significantly more sense to me if it said “incorrect.” Was that a typo, or am I confused?