As a philosopher, i try not to rush into an argument so as not to commit fallacy. Fallacies are regarded as errors in reasoning.
As philosophers, we try as much as possible to eliminate fallacious statements from our arguments.
Although no matter how we try, those who review our works or those we have reviewed their works often run into fallacies unknown to them.
These are things reviewers point out when evaluating the argument put forward. It explains how thought consuming and brain tasking it is to be a philosopher.
As a young boy, i often hear people say honey is sweet. This statement even finds it way into our day to day expression.
A typical African man or woman believes no one puts honey in the mouth and spit it out.
This is well believed by them and it is well founded on their idea that honey is sweet for all.
The statement goes on to be a part of prayer. They make reference to it when praying to say no one will hate you because no one hates honey.
It begs the question of whether it is universally true. That is, is it the case that honey is always sweet for everybody? Does it mean whoever puts honey in his/her mouth must feel its sweetness irrespective of who?
An argument by a Skeptics, Protagoras of Abdera simply reject that claim. For him, he claims it is not always sweet for everybody.
He simply says 'that honey is sweet, i refuse to assert. But that it appears sweet, i fully granted'. His argument was premised on the idea that it is based on who is tasting it and the response the person got from putting it in his/her mouth to make such claim.
Little did my people know that honey is not always sweet for everybody. In fact, it is not sweet in itself to argue that it must be sweet always.
For the record, some people hate honey. It's purely tasteless to them. When they put it in their mouth, they do not get the feeling of sweetness nor bitterness.
We simply call such argument that honey is sweet for all, a fallacy of ignorantiam. Just because you've not seen someone who says otherwise to anything does not mean that thing is true for all.
Honey is sweet, yes but for some. It is not true for all. Just as many people love snail, some hate it. Many are allergic to many seafoods but others just eat anything they see.
Don't use your own yardstick or the fact that something appears to be true for the majority to now conclude for all. It will simply land you into trouble of committing fallacies.
Thanks for your time.
