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To: Arthur McGowan
"I see that argument (b) is absurd, and therefore, argument (a), being fundamentally identical, must also be absurd."

The key word being absurd. Your previous projection of your argument that: "If the fact that abortion kills potential rapists, murderers, molesters, etc., is a justification for abortion, then you have to admit that if we killed all the kindergarteners in America, that would be justified, too, because if we did, we would also be killing lots of potential rapists, murderers, molesters, etc."

Equating the two is absurd.

73 posted on 08/02/2008 3:48:21 PM PDT by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote!)
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To: raybbr
"Equating the two is absurd" is a CLASSIC retort of those who do not comprehend a reductio ad absurdum.

What is being equated is not the SUBJECTS (babies in the womb/children in kindergarten) of the two arguments, but the FORM of the two arguments, which shows that BOTH arguments are absurd.

Objecting to "equating the two [subjects]" is fundamentally the same as objecting to "changing the subject." Making that objection is a confession that one has failed to understand the formal, logical point being made, having been distracted by the subjects of the two arguments.

I am sure there is a good Wikipedia article on reductio ad absurdum. (Since it isn't a political matter that the masters of Wikipedia would interfere with.)

78 posted on 08/02/2008 4:05:40 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: raybbr; Arthur McGowan
"Equating the two is absurd. "

No, equating the two is purely logical; equal action, equal outcome.

79 posted on 08/02/2008 4:06:47 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Jimmy Carter is the skidmark in the panties of American History)
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