THINKER'S ALMANAC - March 9

How can the training of hunting dogs teach us about a powerful debate tactic?

Subject: Logical Fallacies - Ronald Reagan’s Red Herring 

Event:  Birthday of William Cobbett, 1763

It would be a very good thing if every trick could receive some short and obviously appropriate name, so that when a man used this or that particular trick, he could at once be reproved for it. —Arthur Schopenhauer

The tricks of argumentation that Schopenhauer is referring to are generally known as logical fallacies -- that is, specific examples of faulty or invalid reasoning used either accidentally or intentionally.  

One specific logical fallacy is known by the short and appropriate name red herring. It comes under the category “Fallacies of Relevance,” where one party in a debate attempts to distract the other side by appealing to something that is not relevant to the argument at hand. 

Of all days of the year, the red herring is “relevant” today, because it is the birthday of the man who gave it its name, the English journalist and Member of Parliament William Cobbett, born in 1763.

In 1807, Cobbett recounted a childhood memory where he used the pungent aroma of a fish, specifically a red herring, to distract hounds that were hunting a hare.  The purpose of Cobbett’s anecdote was to criticize the British press, which had falsely reported the defeat of Napoleon and been distracted from reporting on more relevant domestic issues: 

When I was a boy, we used, in order to draw oft' the harriers from the trail of a hare that we had set down as our own private property, get to her haunt early in the morning, and drag a red-herring, tied to a string, four or five miles over hedges and ditches, across fields and through coppices, till we got to a point, whence we were pretty sure the hunters would not return to the spot where they had thrown off; and, though I would, by no means, be understood, as comparing the editors and proprietors of the London daily press to animals half so sagacious and so faithful as hounds, I cannot help thinking, that, in the case to which we are referring, they must have been misled, at first, by some political deceiver.

A classic example of a deft use of the red herring was in the second presidential debate on October 21, 1984, between President Ronald Reagan and his Democrat challenger, Walter Mondale.  One issue in the race was 

Reagan’s age; at the time he was the oldest president to have ever served.  Age was not, however,  an issue for Mondale, Reagan’s opponent; he was 56 years old and was both an experienced legislator and former vice president, under Jimmy Carter.

About thirty minutes into the debate, Reagan fielded a question about his age:

You already are the oldest president in history. . . . I recall yet that President Kennedy had to go for days on end with very little sleep during the Cuban missile crisis. Is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances?

Reagan responded with the following answer, one of the most memorable answers given in any presidential debate:

. . . I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth, and inexperience.

Reagan’s response made everyone, including his opponent laugh, but more importantly, it allowed him to divert everyone’s attention from the issue at hand.  Rather than directly answer the question about his age and ability to perform, Reagan shifted the subject to his opponent’s “youth and inexperience.”  Reagan then added another quip by appealing to the wisdom of the ancients: 

. . . I might add that it was Seneca, or it was Cicero, I don't know which, that said, ‘If it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state.’ (2)

Reagan’s red herring ended the issue of age in the race. He went on to win the 1984 election in a landslide, carrying 49 of 50 states.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the red herring fallacy, and how did Ronald Reagan use it in his 1984 debate with Walter Mondale?

Challenge - Find A Fallacy:  Research some other logical fallacies.  Select one that you think is important for people to know.  Define the fallacy, and give some examples of how it might be used.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-March 9, 1776:  On this day, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published his magnum opus An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, a book that paved the way for modern capitalism. See THINKER’S ALMANAC - June 5.

 -March 9, 1836: Daniel Peter, an innovative and adaptive thinker, was born on this day in 1836.  Peter began his career in Switzerland as a candle-stick maker, but the invention of oil lamps decreased the demand for his candles. Being a flexible thinker, Peter decided to adapt his candle molds by filling them with chocolate rather than wax.  The problem, however, was that chocolate, at that time, was too bitter to be eaten in bar form.  The solution came in 1875 when Peter joined forces with a neighbor named Henri Nestle, who helped Peter combine his chocolate with condensed milk and sugar to create the delicious confection we know today as milk chocolate. In 1879, Nestle and Peter formed the Nestle Company, making Swiss milk chocolate an internationally popular product.  

-March 9, 2018:  In 1710, the British writer Jonathan Swift said, “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect… '' More than 300 years later a study published on this day by MIT researchers confirmed Swift’s insight by analyzing the way true and false rumors were spread online.  The researchers reported that “It took the truth about six times as long as falsehood to reach 1,500 people” (3).

Sources:

1-”The Lure of the Red Herring.”  World Wide Words

http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/herring.htm

2-Glass, Andrew. “Reagan recovers in second debate.” Politico.com  21 Oct. 2118.

3. Rauch, Jonathan. The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2021: 133.