Back Geen ware Skot Afrikaans مغالطة الإسكتلندي غير الحقيقي Arabic Cap escocès veritable Catalan No true Scotsman Danish Kein wahrer Schotte German Ουδείς αληθινός Σκώτος Greek Neniu vera skoto Esperanto Ningún escocés verdadero Spanish اسکاتلندی واقعی Persian Yksikään todellinen skotti Finnish
No true Scotsman or appeal to purity is an informal fallacy in which one attempts to protect an a posteriori claim from a falsifying counterexample by covertly modifying the initial claim.[1][2][3] Rather than admitting error or providing evidence that would disqualify the falsifying counterexample, the claim is modified into an a priori claim in order to definitionally exclude the undesirable counterexample.[4] The modification is signalled by the use of non-substantive rhetoric such as "true", "pure", "genuine", "authentic", "real", etc.[2]
Philosophy professor Bradley Dowden explains the fallacy as an "ad hoc rescue" of a refuted generalization attempt.[1] The following is a simplified rendition of the fallacy:[5]
Person A: "No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."
Person B: "But my uncle Angus is a Scotsman and he puts sugar on his porridge."
Person A: "But no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge."
- ^ a b "Fallacies". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
- ^ a b Curtis, Gary N. "The No-True-Scotsman Fallacy". Fallacy Files. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ^ Antony Flew, God & Philosophy, p. 104, Hutchinson, 1966.
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