No True Scotsman: Changing Definitions to Suit the Narrative [#FallacyFridays]
Welcome to #FallacyFridays! Another Friday, another opportunity to learn about which kinds of arguments we should avoid making. But no matter which day of the week you read this, I trust it’ll be beneficial to your thought life. Today’s logical fallacy is called the No True Scotsman fallacy. It’s pretty common so chances are, you’ve used it before. Read all the way to the end to learn how it works so you can take the free quiz to test your understanding of the fallacy. 🤓
But before we get started, I want you to know about a tool that may help you understand this and other fallacies. I know that some people learn better by writing or typing. If that is you, download this FREE digital copy of “#FallacyFridays: The Workbook.” It was designed to follow alongside #FallacyFridays lessons in order for you to better understand logical fallacies.
A Brief History behind the “No True Scotsman” Fallacy.
When I learned about the No True Scotsman fallacy many years ago, I learned about how it originated from a philosopher who created a fictional conversation between two people. It went like something like this:
Person 1: No Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge.
Person 2: Well, my uncle is a Scotsman and he puts sugar in his porridge.
Person 1: Well, no true Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge.
So what happened here? There was an already accepted definition of what a Scotsman is: a man from Scotland. But when Person asserted the behavior of a Scotsman and Person 2 challenged it, Person 1 refused to accept defeat. Instead of accepting that his claim that “No Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge” is wrong, he then shifted the goalposts on the definition of a Scotsman, saying that no true Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge.
So what is the No True Scotsman fallacy?
As we just saw in that porridge conversation, Person 1 was trying to shield their claim from responses that would successfully challenge it. And that is precisely how the No True Scotsman fallacy works.
The No True Scotsman fallacy occurs when someone attempts to change the definition of a generally accepted term once they are given a counterexample.
Some popular examples of the No True Scotsman fallacy
I often see the No true Scotsman fallacy at work when looking at ideological divides, especially between people who recently left some sort of ideology or life philosophy. When former vegans share their “why I am no longer vegan stories,” a number of current vegans exclaim, “Well, they weren’t a real vegan anyway,” meaning that no real vegan will leave veganism.
But the definition of veganism is the lifestyle of abstaining from doing harm to animals as much as possible. And that includes not eating or purchasing animal products. The definition does not include that if one leaves veganism, then they were not actually vegan.
This mind set isn’t just exclusive to vegans. I’ve seen this among Christians, atheists, Democrats, Republicans, and more. Once someone leaves any group, some of the current members are quick to say their allegiance to that way of life was not real. Their very existence challenges the ideologies they hold and so in their mind, they couldn’t have been the real deal in the first place.
Someone leaving a religious faith, political party, ideology, or way of life does not necessarily mean that their allegiance to that lifestyle was not real. That's a fallacious way of thinking. Click To TweetPro-Tip: Generally speaking, we are most likely to commit the No True Scotsman fallacy when it comes to the lifestyle we are currently living or are invested in. Think twice before criticizing people who used to align with your way of life who no longer do so.
Quiz Time!
Now that you’ve learned what the special pleading fallacy is, here’s a quiz to test your understanding. Which one of the following answer choices contains the Not true Scotsman fallacy?
A. Ramon: “Real Lakers fans only sit in the Lakers side of the court.”
Yvette: “She’s not a real Lakers fan. I saw her sneaking in with a Raptors jersey. She changed into a Lakers’ jersey in the bathroom just so she would blend in with the Lakers fans. Her boyfriend and her friends are all Lakers and are sitting on the Lakers’ side.”
B. “He’s a disciplined dude. But he’d do much better as a performer than a doctor. That’s where his calling is.”
C. “That girl’s Fendi bag is fake. Here, let me show you this site that exposes fake ones.”
D. “My sister keeps telling me that romantics have a desire to spoil their partners. But I’m poor, though I want so badly to spoil my girl. Then my sister said that I can’t be a real romantic since I’m poor.
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