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argument_from_incredulity
The argument from incredulity asserts that something must be false (or true) based on the speaker's personal inability to understand, imagine, or accept it. The implicit logic is: 'I cannot conceive how X could be true, therefore X is false.' This conflates the limits of personal knowledge or imagination with the limits of reality. Complex phenomena in science, mathematics, and social systems frequently exceed ordinary intuition, making personal incredulity a poor guide to truth.
I just cannot fathom how random mutations and natural selection could produce something as complex as the human eye. It is too intricate, too perfectly designed. There must be an intelligent designer behind it.
A coworker says: 'You are telling me that a few lines of code, running on a server somewhere, can generate a realistic human face that has never existed? That is simply not possible. Someone must have drawn those images — machines cannot create art.'
A juror during deliberations says: 'I cannot conceive of any reason an innocent person would refuse to testify in their own defense. If you have nothing to hide, you speak up. I do not care what the law says — it just does not make sense to me, so I am voting guilty.'
Binary (yes/no) questions an LLM must answer to identify this aspect:
Is the arguer rejecting a claim based on their personal inability to understand it?
Type: binaryIs 'I can't see how this could be true' being treated as evidence against the claim?
Type: binaryDoes the arguer have the relevant expertise to evaluate the claim?
Type: binaryIs the claim actually supported by evidence independent of its intuitive plausibility?
Type: binaryThe argument from incredulity asserts that something must be false (or true) based on the speaker's personal inability to understand, imagine, or accept it. The implicit logic is: 'I cannot conceive how X could be true, therefore X is false.' This conflates the limits of personal knowledge or imagination with the limits of reality. Complex phenomena in science, mathematics, and social systems frequently exceed ordinary intuition, making personal incredulity a poor guide to truth.
Personal understanding feels like a reliable compass for truth. When something violates our intuitions, it triggers a strong sense of wrongness. The emotional conviction of 'this cannot be right' is easily confused with a logical demonstration that it is not right.
Distinguish between 'I do not understand how X works' and 'X does not work.' Ask whether the speaker has made a genuine effort to understand the explanation. Point to other counterintuitive truths that have been confirmed (quantum mechanics, continental drift, relativity).
Arguments from incredulity appear in evolution denial, climate science skepticism, conspiracy theories ('the official story does not make sense to me'), and technology skepticism.
Use these tools to detect, analyze, or train this aspect.