Lecture XX

pp. 175-181

in: Leonard Nelson, A theory of philosophical fallacies, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

All the analysed examples show how typical the philosophical fallacy is that consists in replacing a given concept by a made-up one with the result that we seem to have proved a synthetic judgment on the strength of a purely analytic one, in fact a mere nominal definition. Kant was the first master in revealing the fallacy in his doctrine of the cosmological antinomies, which rely on falsely identifying our concept of nature and the transcendental idea of universe. Now, all the analysed examples belong to philosophers who construct arguments, even if fallacious ones. What about those who instead of arguing just give us their intuitive wisdom? It can be shown that their illusory systems also depend on the concept-swapping fallacy, albeit in a more insidious form.