Catmull: Although historians consider themselves to be social scientists, Support different historians never arrive at the same conclusions about specific events of the past. ████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ███████████ █████████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████ ██████
Catmull concludes that historians never determine what actually happened in the past. Why? Because different historians always arrive at different conclusions when studying the same events.
Catmull claims that, because historians disagree, they never arrive at the truth. The flaw in his reasoning is that some historians may still have arrived at the truth, even if not all of them have. The fact that they disagree shows that not all of them can be right, but it doesn’t show that all of them are wrong.
The reasoning in Catmull's argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
draws a conclusion ████ ██████ ████████ █ █████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ██████████
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of circular reasoning; it doesn’t apply here. Catmull’s conclusion is an unwarranted leap from his premise, not a restatement of it.
concludes, solely on ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████ █████████ ███████████ █████ █ ██████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██ ████
Catmull assumes that, because historians disagree about the past, none of their conclusions can be true. He overlooks the possibility that some historians may have accurately determined what happened, even without universal agreement.
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ██████ ███████████ ███████████ ███ ███████████ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
Catmull likens historians’ conclusions to fiction, but he doesn’t suggest that this means they have no value whatsoever.
bases its conclusion ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ █████
Catmull’s premises don’t contradict either, so this isn’t the flaw.
mistakes a necessary █████████ ███ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ███████████ ███████████ ███ █ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███ █████████ █████ ██ █████ ███████████
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of confusing sufficiency and necessity; it isn’t applicable here because Catmull isn’t using conditional logic.
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