paralogism
Americannoun
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argument violating principles of valid reasoning.
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a conclusion reached through such argument.
noun
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logic psychol an argument that is unintentionally invalid Compare sophism
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any invalid argument or conclusion
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of paralogism
1555–65; < Late Latin paralogismus < Greek paralogismós. See para- 1, logo-, -ism
Explanation
A paralogism is an unintentionally misleading argument. Even if your friend has convinced himself it's true, you'll still be frustrated by his paralogism, "I never wash my hands because germs are actually good for you!" The Greek root of paralogism is paralogismos, "reason falsely," and it's where people end up when they base a belief or statement on false reasoning. It's mainly used in rhetoric and philosophy for a fallacy the speaker believes is true, rather than one deliberately meant to deceive someone. It's a paralogism to conclude that because your plane flight went smoothly when you wore your lucky socks, you won't be safe on airplanes without them.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Malebranche eluded the question, and could not assign the paralogism, after which Mairan so earnestly sought: ‘It is not that the paralogism is in such or such places of the Ethique, it is everywhere.’
From A Theodicy, or, Vindication of the Divine Glory by Albert Taylor Bledsoe
But even that pleasing paralogism did not suffice for the appetite of tariffism in the way of fallacy.
From Essays in Liberalism Being the Lectures and Papers Which Were Delivered at the Liberal Summer School at Oxford, 1922 by Various
I certainly agree to all the rest with you, but Aristotle's law I think involves a paralogism, for by this argument the heavens should be immobile since they are in a place fitting their nature.
From The gradual acceptance of the Copernican theory of the universe by Dorothy Stimson
This is the fundamental paralogism of that school of reformers who find the cure of industrial maladies in the humanisation of the private employer.
From The Evolution of Modern Capitalism A Study of Machine Production by J. A. (John Atkinson) Hobson
On this dualistic basis, the ontological argument becomes a manifest paralogism, and lies open to all the objections that Kant brought against it.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 4 "Carnegie Andrew" to "Casus Belli" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
