Excellent Guidelines For Decent Discussion And Debate

[Mitch Cronin]

I found the following elsewhere, posted as "10 commandments of logic". I think they stand for themselves without labelling.

1. Thou shall not attack the person’s character, but the argument. (Ad hominem)

2. Thou shall not misrepresent or exaggerate a person’s argument in order to make them easier to attack. (Straw man fallacy)

3. Thou shall not use small numbers to represent the whole. (Hasty generalization)

4. Thou shall not argue thy position by assuming one of its premises is true. (Begging the question)

5. Thou shall not claim that because something occurred before, it must be the cause. (Post Hoc/False cause)

6. Thou shall not reduce the argument down to two possibilities. (False dichotomy)

7. Thou shall not argue that because of our ignorance, claim must be true or false. (Ad ignorantum)

8. Thou shall not lay the burden of proof onto him that is questioning the claim. (Burden of proof reversal)

9. Thou shall not assume “this” follows “that” when it has no logical connection. (Non sequitur)

10. Thou shall not claim that because a premise is popular, therefore it must be true. (Bandwagon fallacy)

[Seeker]

number 11. would be, he who posts these rules promises to follow them.

I think the rule is that anyone who comments on them has to follow them.

PS, my post doesn't count because I'm commenting on your post not on the rules!

[Mizar]

I have no doubt that the posters above have always followed those rules over the years.