Chapter 5: Logical Fallacies

“WHAT’S A FACTORY?” CANE ASKED on the carriage ride from Piedi. They had stayed one last night in the nice room and left early in the morning for the all-day trip home, their bags stuffed with bread and pastries.

“I thought you might ask that,” Mayor M. sighed. “It’s nothing good.”

“It’s something in Gemella,” Scontro said. “Not our problem.”

“I’m worried that it’s going to be our problem soon enough,” Mayor M. said.

“What is it?” Ana asked. “I’ve never heard that word before in my life before yesterday.”

Cane hadn’t thought anyone but him was listening as they were escorted from the chamber of the Mayor’s Summit, but apparently everyone else had been as well.

“Stufo-Eth said it,” Cane reminded her. “At the Council meeting.”

Mayor M. cleared her throat. “From what the mayor of Gemella told us, it’s a large building where Nemico creates its fake pottery. One factory can produce thousands of bowls and plates and vases every week. What they create isn’t very good, but there’s a lot of it. That’s why they can sell it at such low prices.”

“What do we care where they produce it?” Scontro asked.

“Because they built one of these factories just outside Gemella,” Mayor M. said. “To more easily copy their designs and steal their business. I’m worried Terralogica is next.”

“I have another question,” Cane asked. His mother shot him a look that said, stop making trouble, but he felt he needed to take advantage of this time in close quarters with Mayor M. to get to the bottom of things that had been troubling him. “Why don’t Stanca-Eth and Stufo-Eth ever say anything at the meeting? Stufo-Eth said that one thing about the factory, but otherwise they don’t say anything at all.”

“That was their condition,” said the mayor. “I asked them to serve on the council, and they agreed only if I promised they would never be called on to speak. They just want to listen.”

“Why did they even want to be on the council?” Cane asked. “If they don’t want to say anything?”

“That I don’t know,” Mayor M. said, her gaze pinned to something outside the carriage window. “I didn’t want to bother them by asking.”

It was sunset when the carriage arrived at the Rabbitleaf house. As the driver handed Ana and Cane their travel bags, Donalta called to them from the front door.

“Have you talked to Penso?” she asked. “He was looking for you.”

“Penso?” Ana asked. “How could we have talked to him? We just got back from Piedi.”

“He seemed really concerned about something. He looked like this.” Donalta shoved her hands into her pockets and furrowed her eyebrows into a deep frown. 

“For gemella’s sake,” Ana said. “Now what?”

“Something about a factory,” Donalta said, stumbling uncertainly over the new word. “I’m not sure what it means, but he said they’ve started building it outside of town, along the road to Alleata.”

The Logician’s Council held an emergency meeting the next evening. Everyone sat in their same places—Penso and Mayor M. on the meeting-hall stage, Scontro and Ana in the front row of seats. Cane sat right behind his mother. Cugina sat at the edge of her bench a few rows back, next to Grandma Lucy in her wheelchair. Stanca-Eth and Stufo-Eth a few rows behind everyone else.

“I was looking forward to sharing the good news with you,” Mayor M. said. “About the Mayor’s Summit. After quite a bit of debate, the mayors voted in favor of our proposal. That is a huge step in favor of honesty, one of our core values, and it will certainly help Terralogica as we resist the attacks from Nemico.”

Cane turned sideways to study Stanca-Eth and Stufo-Eth from the corner of his eye, searching for clues about why they were at the meeting but didn’t want to speak. Both their faces seemed intentionally blank, as if they were trying to conceal their thoughts, though Stufo-Eth’s lips were pursed tight and Stanca-Eth was biting one corner of their lip.

“But now we have another challenge to face,” Mayor M. said, “and this is our greatest challenge yet. As I explained to each of you when I invited you to tonight’s meeting, Nemico is building a factory outside our village borders. We know where this will lead, because the same thing happened in Gemella.”

How did Stufo-Eth know, Cane wondered, studying the lack of surprise in their eyes at the shocking news. Stufo-Eth met Cane’s gaze, and Cane looked quickly back to Mayor M.

“At the summit, the mayor of Gemella reported that the factory is destroying the village’s business,” Mayor M. said. “Pottery sales are less than half what they used to be. The village fund has been drained down to nothing, and some villagers have gone to work in the factory to earn Fondis for food.”

“That would never happen in Terralogica,” Scontro said. “People here have more pride than that.”

“Not me,” Cugina said. “I’d do it in a second if I didn’t have anything to eat.”

Scontro rolled his eyes.

“Sales less than half,” Ana said. “That’s just what the record-keeper predicted for us.”

“You may want to contact Gemella to get more detailed information,” Penso said. “To anticipate what might happen in Terralogica.”

“Those rats can starve in their garbage village,” Scontro said, shaking his head. “We don’t need their help.”

A look of annoyance flashed across Penso’s face as he opened his mouth to reply, and for a moment Cane thought he was about to see his teacher lose his temper for the first time. But Penso closed his mouth, swallowing whatever words had been in it.  When he opened it again to speak, his face and voice were calm and even.

“You’re all going to need very solid argumentation to fight this,” he said. “It’s time to learn about logical fallacies.”

Cane could feel himself begin to bounce on the wooden bench. Logical fallacies were his favorite. The idea of a factory frightened Cane, but it was almost worth it to finally get to the fun part of logic.

“Logical what?” said Grandma Lucy.

Penso walked over to the slate board and wrote the word fallacy.

“A fallacy,” he said, “is a mistake or error. And a logical fallacy is a mistake in logic. Of course there are many ways to make a mistake in logic, but some mistakes follow patterns. Logical fallacies are logic mistakes that are so common that logicians have recorded them and given them names.”

“Why do people keep making the same logic mistake?” Scontro asked.

“Because these mistakes sound persuasive,” Penso said. “For this reason, they can be used to trick people or to justify our own incorrect beliefs.”

Penso wrote three phrases on the board: false cause, hasty generalization, and double standard.

“These are the three most common and insidious logical fallacies,” Scontro said. “So for today at least, they will be our focus.”

Penso held a piece of chalk up in front of the slate board, poised to write. His sloppy handwriting didn’t bother Cane anymore; he had gotten used to it. He wondered if the other councilmembers were used to it, too, or if they still cared about everyone having perfect brushwork.

“Cane,” Penso said. “Define false cause.”

“False cause is when a speaker assumes one event caused another event, only because one event happened first,” Cane said. “Event A happened before Event B; therefore Event A caused Event B.”

Penso wrote Cane’s definition on the board.

“Ana,” Penso said. “When is the last time one of your children was ill?”

“Last winter,” Ana said. “Gatta went out without her hat, and she caught a horrible cold.”

Cane smiled to himself. He loved hearing bad logic get identified, especially when it came from his mother.

“And you believe that not wearing the hat caused the cold,” Penso said.

“Of course,” Ana said. “Everyone knows you’ll catch a cold if you don’t wear a hat in winter.”

“But lots of people don’t wear hats,” Penso said. “Do they all get colds?”

“Not always,” Ana said. “But sometimes they do.

“Does anyone ever catch a cold when they wear their hat?”

“Some people do,” Ana said.

“Then it’s possible that wearing a hat causes people to catch a cold, isn’t it?” Penso said. “After all, they wore a hat, and then they caught a cold. The hat caused the cold.”

Cane laughed triumphantly. He hated wearing a hat in winter, but his mother always forced him to. Ana shot him an angry look and he calmed his laughter.

“Here’s another example,” Penso said. “Some people bought Terralogica pottery. And then sometime later, they lost track of time. So those people believed that the pottery caused them to lose track of time. That was the whole root of Lost Time Syndrome.”

“But if it only happened after they bought the pottery,” Grandma Lucy said, “then isn’t it true?”

“It could be true,” Penso said. “But you would need to explore other factors. For example, maybe something else was making them lose track of time—such as the suggestive story in a Newspost. Maybe it was reading the fake Newspost that caused them to feel they were losing track of time, because it put the idea in their heads.”

“But if something comes first, it could cause the next thing,” Grandma Lucy said. “Couldn’t it?”

“It definitely could,” Penso said. “But it’s not logical to conclude that one thing caused another just because it happened first. There needs to be more proof.”

“That actually makes good sense,” Scontro said, in a tone that suggested he hadn’t expected it to.

“Let’s go to the next one,” Penso said. “Hasty generalization. Cane, can you tell us the definition?”

“Drawing a conclusion about a whole group of people or things based on just a few of them.”

“That’s right,” Penso said. “A generalization is an inference or judgment about a large group. Generalizations aren’t bad in themselves; we need them to function in the world. For example, I know that people in Terralogica sell pottery. I know that mayors solve village problems and write Newsposts, and I know that people carrying large fighting sticks might be dangerous and I should stay away from them. Those are all accurate generalizations. But imagine I look around this room, and I notice everyone here knows about logic and argumentation. You are all from Terralogica—that proves that people from Terralogica all know about logic.”

“That’s definitely not true,” said Cugina. “People in Terralogica are the most illogical ever.”

“Well, that’s probably also a hasty generalization,” Penso said. “Who are you basing that on?”

“My family,” Cugina said. “No offense, Grandma.”

“No, it’s true,” Grandma Lucy said, shaking her head with a disappointed click of her tongue. “Poor thinking runs in our family.”

“So you see,” Penso said. “I drew a generalization about everyone in Terralogica, based on just the people in this room. Cugina drew a generalization about everyone in Terralogica, based on people her family. Both of those are hasty generalizations. We can’t know about everyone in Terralogica based on just a few people.”

Penso wiped his hands on his pants, getting chalk all over them, then resumed writing on the slate board.  

“The last fallacy for today,” he said, “is double standard. Cane, can you define it, please?”

“Judging the same action differently depending on who does it,” Cane said. “Without a good reason for doing so.”

“Correct,” Penso said, writing the definition. “There might be good reasons to judge actions differently depending on who does them. You are allowed to use your kiln to fire pottery, but if your two-year-old child tried to use it, you would tell them it’s too dangerous for small children. That is not a double-standard fallacy.”  

“So what is a double standard?” Scontro asked. “Give us an example.”

Penso bit his lip, hesitating.

“There are some that come to mind,” he said, finally. “But I’m afraid you aren’t going to like them.”

Scontro let out an uneasy grunt, and Mayor M. furrowed her eyebrows. “Oh dear,” said Grandma Lucy.

“Here’s one,” said Penso. “Terralogica claims that Gemella stole their pottery techniques, and has passed rules to punish any villager who shares pottery knowledge with someone from Gemella.”

“That’s right,” Scontro said. “Gemella’s brushwork methods come straight from Terralogica! It’s obvious.”

“But Terralogica has also stolen pottery techniques from Gemella,” said Penso. “Your color palate and sensibility was first found in Gemella.”

“My glazing teacher told us that,” Cugina said. “He was discussing preferred colors and he said, ‘These designs were modeled after ones seen in the pottery of Gemella.”

Cane remembered his glazing teacher saying something like that as well. Pottery teachers did occasionally mention techniques that came from Gemella or even from the Before-People.

“So you see, when Gemella does it, it’s stealing,” Penso said. “When Terralogica does it, it’s modeling after. That’s a double-standard.”

Cane saw his mother frowning in thought. He wondered if she was angered by Penso’s accusation. She raised her hand, nervously like a student.

“What about marriage?” she asked. “A man in Terralogica can marry a woman if they love each other and want to merge their families. But if a woman loves a woman, she is not allowed to marry her.” 

Everyone turned to look at Ana. No one could remember her speaking publically about her relationship with Donalta before.

“You want to be married?” Grandma Lucy asked.

“I didn’t say it was about me.” Ana’s face turned deep red as she tried to direct attention back to Penso. “It’s a double standard, isn’t it?”

“Absolutely,” Penso said. “Terralogica has a double-standard about which types of couples are allowed to get married.”

Scontro stomped his feet into the ground, causing the bench he sat on to screech backwards a few inches on the hard floor.

“What’s the point of all this?” he asked. “Nemico is building a factory, and we’re playing games, trying to find everything Terralogica ever did wrong. How is that going to help?”

“Identifying logical fallacies can feel like a game,” Penso said. “But it isn’t. It’s a serious practice of helping a thinker determine the truth. Until we know the truth, we can’t fight for our own cause. We often have beliefs that are illogical and wrong. We need to be brave about facing those beliefs and finding the truth, or our own position will have inconsistencies and won’t hold up under pressure. That’s why it’s important to root out our own illogical thinking before we go into battle with Nemico, especially about Gemella.”

“Gemella is the one who stole from Terralogica,” Scontro said. “Not the other way around.”

“Both of you stole from us,” said a loud, clear voice from behind everyone’s backs.

It was a voice Cane had never heard before, even though he had been meeting with the everyone in this room for several months. He turned his head, and saw Stanca-Eth sitting upright, cheeks flushed.

“Terralogica and Gemella both stole from us,” they repeated. “The methods that make your pottery unbreakable, stole those from us. But you accuse Gemella of stealing. Now you accuse Nemico, too. It’s the same thing you did to us.”

The room was silent. It sounded like everyone was holding their breath.

Cane looked up at Penso. His usually calm face looked startled and tense. He’d never seen his teacher look so flustered. Mayor M. look flustered, too, in her seat next at the edge of the stage.

“Yes!” Cugina’s face lit up with excitement; Cane had never seen her look so cheerful. “I always suspected that. Thank you for telling us.”

“I never heard anything like that,” Grandma Lucy said to her.

“Where’s the proof ?” Scontro asked. “I want to see factual evidence.”

“The evidence is the history passed down by our people,” Stanca-Eth said. “Our pottery is also unbreakable, and we were here first.”

Penso cleared his throat to silence the arguing.

“Thank you, Stanca-Eth,” he said. “Another excellent example of a double standard.”  

Cane could feel the tension in the room, simmering agitation from Scontro on his left, defiance from Stanca-Eth behind him, nervousness from Mayor M. on the stage. Only Cugina looked amused, as though finally after half a year of meetings, something had finally pleased her.  

“Let’s break there and come back to logical fallacies tomorrow night,” Penso said. “Everyone please return with one or more ideas of how we can fight against the factory.”

Cane turned his head as everyone around him began to collect their jackets and bags. Usually Stanca-Eth and Stufo-Eth waited for everyone else to leave and then followed behind, but tonight they were up and out of the door before anyone else had risen from their seats.

As he walked out with Ana, Cane thought about what Penso had said. We need to be brave about facing our illogical beliefs and finding the truth. That feeling had been growing for him ever since he’d joined the council—that Terralogica had taught him some illogical beliefs, and that he needed to find the truth. Now, after hearing Stanca-Eth speak, he knew what he had to do. He needed to speak with the Before-People, even if it went against all of his teaching as a citizen of Terralogica, even if it made his stomach sink in fear.

Chapter 4/Chapter 6