History Main / CircularReasoning

-->- About 6 minutes into [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/cr/ff/32594-episode-58-my-little-pony-retrospective-g4 this]] ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic MLP:FIM]]'' retrospective from ''[[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses TGWTG]].'' [[hottip:*:On the criticisms that Rainbow Dash represented the "lesbian tomboy" stereotype.]]

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* In ''{{Fallout 3}}'' it's possible to take down [[spoiler:President Eden by convincing it that it is using circular reasoning when it declares that it is infallible because it was programmed to be. This initiates a LogicBomb that allows the player to convince Eden to self-destruct.]]

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* On the ''ZeroPunctuation'' review of ''WorldOfWarcraft: Cataclysm'', Yahtzee asked another player why he raids. The raider's reason is that it gets stuff. Why does he want stuff? To raid with.

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* On ''Webcomic/OrderOfTheStick'': Though she ultimately turns out to be right, Elan points out that Haley is using circular logic against Tarquin: She won't tell him that lives are at stake concerning the information she wants because she doesn't trust him, and she doesn't trust him because he's withholding information when lives are at stake. Haley is ''not'' pleased at having been out-logicked by TheDitz.

* At the end of MassEffect3 [[spoiler: The Catalyst uses circular logic to justify creating the Reapers]]. [[spoiler: It states that synthetics will always destroy their organic creators, so it creates the Reapers, who are synthetics, to wipe out organics every 50,000 years so they won't be destroyed by their own synthetics.]] You don't even have the option to call him on this.

* In Fallout3 it's possible to take down [[spoiler:President Eden by convincing it that it is using circular reasoning when it declares that it is infallible because it was programmed to be. This initiates a LogicBomb that allows the player to convince Eden to self-destruct.]]

* In ''Fallout3'' it's possible to take down [[spoiler:President Eden by convincing it that it is using circular reasoning when it declares that it is infallible because it was programmed to be. This initiates a LogicBomb that allows the player to convince Eden to self-destruct.]]

* RudyardKipling nodded at it in a darkly humorous way in "The Sleepy Sentinel" (''[[http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_epitaphs.htm Epitaphs of the War]]''):

* At the end of {{Mass Effect 3}} [[spoiler: The Catalyst uses circular logic to justify creating the Reapers]]. [[spoiler: It states that synthetics will always destroy their organic creators, so it creates the Reapers, who are synthetics, to wipe out organics every 50,000 years so they won't be destroyed by their own synthetics.]] You don't even have the option to call him on this.

* According to IsaacAsimov, this was used in [[TheDungAges the Middle Ages]] as an excuse not to educate women; all intelligent people know Latin, but women don't know Latin so they must be stupid, which means that there's no point in teaching them Latin (or anything else). This is also the fallacy of confusing knowledge with intelligence, which [[InsultFriendlyFire also]] underpins large parts of so-called "[[YouFailTheIQTest intelligence tests]]".

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--> I sleep because I am slain. They slew me because I slept.

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--> Therefore, any homosexual employed by the Secret Service would lose his job if he were found out.
--> Therefore, any homosexual employed by the Secret Service would do anything to avoid being found out.
--> Therefore, homosexual employees of the Secret Service are more open to blackmail than non-homosexual employees.

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--> '''Yossarian:''' Ok, let me see if I've got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore, and I have to keep flying.

* On the ''ZeroPunctuation'' review of ''WorldOfWarcraft: Cataclysm'', Yahtzee asked another player why he raids. The raider's reason is that it gets stuff. Why does he want stuff? To raid with.

* [[spoiler: The Catalyst uses circular logic to justify creating the Reapers]] at the end of {{Mass Effect 3}}. [[spoiler: It states that synthetics will always destroy their organic creators, so it creates the Reapers, who are synthetics, to wipe out organics every 50,000 years so they won't be destroyed by their own synthetics.]] You don't even have the option to call him on this.

* Used in an argument in GirlGenius [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081231 here.]]

* According to IsaacAsimov, this was used in the Middle Ages as an excuse not to educate women; all intelligent people know Latin, but women don't know Latin so they must be stupid, which means that there's no point in teaching them Latin (or anything else). This is also the fallacy of confusing knowledge with intelligence, which underpins large parts of so-called "[[YouFailTheIQTest intelligence tests]]".

* In ''[[NomesTrilogy Wings]]'' (about a certain almost insignificant subset of living things of Florida):

* Used in an argument [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20081231 here.]]

* [[spoiler: The Catalyst uses circular logic to justify creating the Reapers at the end of]] {{Mass Effect 3}}. [[spoiler: It states that synthetics will always destroy their organic creators, so it creates the Reapers, who are synthetics, to wipe out organics every 50,000 years so they won't be destroyed by their own synthetics.]] You don't even have the option to call him on this.

* When Trawn of ''Webcomic/ElectricWonderland'' had to take a shortcut through 4chan's domain in order to reach her HomeBase more quickly, she learns from passers-by that everyone there keeps repeating certain {{Catch Phrase}}s because they're humorous, those Catch Phrases are humorous because everyone there keeps repeating them, and everyone there keeps repeating them because they're humorous.

* This fallacy is often used by fundamentalists as "proof" that the TheBible is correct and error free:

* When Trawn of ''Webcomic/ElectricWonderland'' had to take a shortcut through 4chan's domain in order to reach her HomeBase more quickly, she learns from passers-by that everyone there keeps repeating certain {{CatchPhrase}}s because they're humorous, those Catch Phrases are humorous because everyone there keeps repeating them, and everyone keeps repeating them because they're humorous.

* One definition of a monarchy is "a nation ruled by a monarch". What with {{Hereditary Republic}}s, [[ElectiveMonarchy Elective Monarchies]], and Presidents-For-Life, that's about the clearest definition there is.

* One definition of a monarchy is "a nation ruled by a monarch". What with {{Hereditary Republic}}s, [[ElectiveMonarcy ElectiveMonarchies]], and Presidents-For-Life, that's about the clearest definition there is.

* One definition of a monarchy is "a nation ruled by a monarch". What with HereditaryRepublics, ElectiveMonarchies, and Presidents-For-Life, that's about the clearest definition there is.