Some of our conversation today touched on the common rhetorical strategy (and logical fallacy) Lewis dubbed "Bulverism" in a 1944 essay by the same name. In short, Bulverism is Lewis’s nickname for the genetic fallacy (or the union of the genetic fallacy and begging the question); it operates by "assum[ing] that your opponent is wrong," and then "explain[ing] his error" purely by referencing one of your opponent's (allegedly discrediting) demographic features. (The fallacy is named for Ezekiel Bulver, a fictional five-year-old Lewis imagined learning the strategy while eavesdropping on an argument between his parents. Mrs. Bulver countered Mr. Bulver's claim that any two sides of a triangle are longer than the third with "you say that because you are a man.")
I regularly encounter Bulverisms of the form "You believe in ‘X’ just because you're an American." “Religion is a fairy story for those afraid of the dark” has also appeared more than once in arguments against theism. Both subtly conceal the strategy: “Assume without discussion that [your opponent] is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became so silly.”
To avoid Bulverism, Lewis maintains that "you must show *that* a man is wrong before you start explaining *why* he is wrong.” He prescribes “the same” antidote to Bulverism for “all thinking and all systems of thought.” It is foolish to try to discover which ideas are flawed “by speculating about the wishes of the thinkers.” Instead, “you must first find out on purely logical grounds which of them do, in fact, break down as arguments. Afterwards, if you like, go on and discover the psychological causes of the error.”
Some of our conversation today touched on the common rhetorical strategy (and logical fallacy) Lewis dubbed "Bulverism" in a 1944 essay by the same name. In short, Bulverism is Lewis’s nickname for the genetic fallacy (or the union of the genetic fallacy and begging the question); it operates by "assum[ing] that your opponent is wrong," and then "explain[ing] his error" purely by referencing one of your opponent's (allegedly discrediting) demographic features. (The fallacy is named for Ezekiel Bulver, a fictional five-year-old Lewis imagined learning the strategy while eavesdropping on an argument between his parents. Mrs. Bulver countered Mr. Bulver's claim that any two sides of a triangle are longer than the third with "you say that because you are a man.")
I regularly encounter Bulverisms of the form "You believe in ‘X’ just because you're an American." “Religion is a fairy story for those afraid of the dark” has also appeared more than once in arguments against theism. Both subtly conceal the strategy: “Assume without discussion that [your opponent] is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became so silly.”
To avoid Bulverism, Lewis maintains that "you must show *that* a man is wrong before you start explaining *why* he is wrong.” He prescribes “the same” antidote to Bulverism for “all thinking and all systems of thought.” It is foolish to try to discover which ideas are flawed “by speculating about the wishes of the thinkers.” Instead, “you must first find out on purely logical grounds which of them do, in fact, break down as arguments. Afterwards, if you like, go on and discover the psychological causes of the error.”
“Bulverism: or, The Foundation of 20th Century Thought” is a short essay… fitting on fewer than 10 printed letter-sized pages. For those interested in reading the whole thing, a (free) transcription appears https://matiane.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/bulverism-by-c-s-lewis/; I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but it appears to be intact based on casual skimming. An eleven-minute recorded reading is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUyNbowJGGg. It appears in print in “God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics,” edited and compiled by Walter Hooper. (Even shorter, Justin Taylor published a brief essay explaining the fallacy entitled “C. S. Lewis on the Ubiquitous Fallacy that Lies at the Foundation of Modern Thought” at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/c-s-lewis-on-the-ubiquitous-fallacy-that-lies-at-the-foundation-of-modern-thought.)