Refuting

Cogito ergo sum Logic and rhetoric

Key articles

Logical fallacy Syllogism Argument

General logic

Continuum fallacy Your Logical Fallacy Is Wronger than wrong Envenenar o poço پاسخ کورتیر Bad faith

Bad logic

Self-refuting idea Appeal to confidence Appeal to the minority Existential assumption Overprecision Apophasis v - t - e

Refuting means to disprove or debunk an assertion, by presentation of facts and/or logical analysis.

One of our delightful IP visitors, however, thinks this:

[Refuting:] To disagree, or assert the opposite.

The original meaning was to DISPROVE something, but no one uses that anymoer

A modern example is "The Prime Minister refuted the suggestion that he was a fool, by saying that he wasn't." (sic)

Probably because they disagree with something we said. Refutation of pseudoscience and illogic is an essential part of RationalWiki's mission.

See also

• Backfire effect

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