7.29.2003
The illogical leap from "is" to "ought" is called the "natural fallacy,"... Just because something is the case does not mean that it ought to be so. You can't get there from here.
Richard Cohen of The Washington Post argues that President Bush seems to base much of his decision-making on a weirdly inverted form of this fallacy -- the idea that "Because it ought to be, it is."
While equally illogical, the effect is startlingly different. Perpetrators of the natural fallacy see the world as it is, and from this draw unreasonable conclusions about how the world ought to be. Their perception of the world itself remains accurate, but their perception of justice and morality is a fantasy. Bush, Cohen argues, begins with his perception of justice and morality -- which may or may not be valid -- and reconstructs the world to fit this vision. Thus his perception of the world as it is becomes a fallacious fantasy.
Time magazine's Joe Klein, like Cohen, engages in some speculative psycho- and metaphysical-analysis of the president.
We can allow these columnists a bit of leeway for their speculation because the president himself refuses to answer questions about what he is thinking. And when he says something like this -- "And we gave [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power ..." -- it is clear that speculation will be required to try to figure out what on earth the president is thinking and how it relates, even tangentially, to the reality the rest of the world is living in.
... I would find it much more reassuring if we could be sure that President Bush was simply a liar.
via Slacktivist