Irrelevant conclusion
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates An irrelevant conclusion,<ref>Bishop Whately, cited by John Stuart Mill: A System of Logic. London Colchester 1959 (first: 1843), pp. 542.</ref> also known as Template:Langnf or missing the point, is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument whose conclusion fails to address the issue in question. It falls into the broad class of relevance fallacies.<ref name="Hurley2011"/>
The irrelevant conclusion should not be confused with formal fallacy, an argument whose conclusion does not follow from its premises; instead, it is that despite its formal consistency it is not relevant to the subject being talked about.
Overview
Ignoratio elenchi is one of the fallacies identified by Aristotle in his Organon. In a broader sense he asserted that all fallacies are a form of ignoratio elenchi.<ref name="Owen 1878">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Samuel Johnson's unique "refutation" of Bishop Berkeley's immaterialism, his claim that matter did not actually exist but only seemed to exist,<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> has been described as ignoratio elenchi:<ref>Bagnall, Nicholas. Books: Paperbacks, The Sunday Telegraph 3 March 1996</ref> during a conversation with Boswell, Johnson powerfully kicked a nearby stone and proclaimed of Berkeley's theory, "I refute it thus!"<ref name="Boswell p. 122">Template:Harvnb</ref> (See also argumentum ad lapidem.)
A related concept is that of the red herring, which is a deliberate attempt to divert a process of enquiry by changing the subject.<ref name="Hurley2011">Template:Cite book</ref> Ignoratio elenchi is sometimes confused with straw man argument.<ref name="Hurley2011"/>
Etymology
The phrase ignoratio elenchi is Template:Ety. Here elenchi is the genitive singular of the Latin noun elenchus, which is Template:Ety.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The translation in English of the Latin expression has varied somewhat. Hamblin proposed "misconception of refutation" or "ignorance of refutation" as a literal translation,<ref name="Fallacies"/> John Arthur Oesterle preferred "ignoring the issue", and<ref name="Fallacies"/> Irving Copi, Christopher Tindale and others used "irrelevant conclusion".<ref name="Fallacies">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Tindale2007">Template:Cite book</ref>
See also
- Ad hominem
- Begging the question
- Chewbacca defense
- Enthymeme
- Evasion (ethics)
- Genetic fallacy
- List of fallacies
- Non sequitur (logic)
- Sophism
- Tone policing