The intellectuals and people in power of the Tanzanian society should not forget that they have an obligation not only to take care of themselves and their immediate families, but also to protect the Tanzanians of the future.
By Jackson Juma Coy
We live in an era of post truths where alternative facts are misrepresented as facts. In the words of Chuck Todd “alternative facts are not facts, they are false hoods.
We are aware that most of the crimes that people are punished for are those that are against statutory laws of their respective countries. In the world of logic however, there is also what could constitute the equivalence of a ‘crime’.
This ‘crime’ is sometimes called errors in reasoning or logical fallacies where non facts are misrepresented as facts and non-truth as truth.
Quite often, the agents of what Kellyanne Conway calls ‘alternative truths’ go unpunished because crime against logic does not qualify as crime in statutory laws.
There are many logical fallacies that are made intentionally or because of ignorance or lack of knowledge on the basics of critical thinking.
The inexcusable ‘crimes’ against logic occur when influential people purposely twists arguments in order to conceal the truth for purposes of manipulating the society and gain undue advantage or for benefiting from public resources.
When this practice continues unquestioned, it eventually becomes socially accepted and is thus easily transmissible from one generation to the next.
In the long run, it creates a culture whereby it is difficult to make a distinction between truths and non-truths.
Truth stands on its own right. We cannot create a truth. We can however have the moral courage and determination to discover and protect it if we so care. Although our laws are evidence-based, we should remember that what is legal is not necessarily true or ethical.
Given that laws are outcomes of legislative processes, a law could be enacted to protect certain interests of a particular group in the society.
Such laws may fail to meet ethical standards and could as well be logically unsound. A sound argument is founded on its logical validity which must be based on true premises.
This explains the difference between the power of argument and the arguments of the powerful people.
While both have power, the foundations of their powers are fundamentally different.
One is morally based, while the other is based on status. Arguments from powerful people are not necessarily powerful arguments as social status does not add truth value to an argument.
The strength of an argument is not only based on its structural presentation or the eloquence with which it is articulated, it is primarily based on the truth soundness of the argument.
As Tanzanians, our concern of protection for the future generation should also include the obligation to protect truth as an independent and indispensable value.
We should immediately start protecting our current generation from accepting warped logic as statements of truths and facts.
We must realize that dereliction of our duty in this regard may lead to a generation that does not have a sense of moral truth.
This obviously calls for investment on critical thinking skills in our educational systems. ‘Crimes’ against logic or alternative truth are often committed by people who lack or are lazy to subscribe to the principles of critical thinking.
For example, there is a trend nowadays by some Tanzanians to draw conclusion from fallacious argument by appealing to an inappropriate authority (argumentum ad verecundium).
There are instances in which individuals defend their arguments by using as reference, people who have no intellectual or moral authority on the argument in question.
On the other hand, there are cases whereby a counter-argument is strategically designed to attack someone’s personality, instead of focusing on the truth value of the argument itself. This often occurs when someone decides to focus on an opponent’s political or religious affiliation or even on devaluing one’s identity or character.
Therefore, fallacy against person or argumentum ad hominem is another familiar ‘crime’ against logic that is commonly experienced in Tanzanian public discourses.
It is surprising that most Tanzanians that commit ‘crime’ against logic are those who hold political and religious influence.
They abuse this precious social capital when they continue to subtly yet systematically misrepresent and thus distort the meaning of a reality in their public practices and communications.
This not only constitutes ‘crime’ against logic but it is also an epistemic injustice. They are adept at methodically using persuasion (pathos) to push through their warped arguments which often don’t appeal to reason (logos) and the situation worsens when they even lack the moral and intellectual credibility (ethos) on the subject matter.
The quality of truth is not determined by the quantity or numbers of people supporting it.
Truth value remains even when it is supported by minority. Conversely, majoritarian lie does not amount to truth. A majority of one is sufficient enough to sustain truth.
It is unfortunate that there are a significant number of prominent Tanzanians including intellectuals who may know the truth about controversial matters in the society and yet are not ready to stand up for it.
The intellectuals and people in power of the Tanzanian society should not forget that they have an obligation not only to take care of themselves and their immediate families, but also to protect the Tanzanians of the future.
Unesco Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, article 16, advocates on “protecting future generations” and the protection of truth is an integral part of this value.
The important question that this article raises is whether “we have obligations of truth to the future generation?”
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Jackson J. Coy, is in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam