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Edited by Faust IXV: 1/21/2016 8:00:59 PM
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Perfect is the Enemy of Good

"Perfect is the enemy of good." Is a phrase as old as it gets and has become an English aphorism since Voltaire popularized the term. What this means is that in striving for perfect you will never achieve your goal. It's a term meant to call people back to reality that idealism isn't plausible, and never will be. It reminds me of a Mencken quote that went something along the lines of, "An idealist, upon realizing that roses smell better than cabbage, comes to the conclusion that it would make a better soup." But back on the original quote, it reminds me of a fallacy that is normally used to counter this idea known as the Nirvana Fallacy. What this fallacy does is it uses another fallacy known as a false dichotomy to pin up the ideal solution and pit it up against any other solution and by nitpicking the other solution simply because it isn't perfect. They fail to acknowledge that we live in the real world and are more or less divorced from reality. I see this fallacy pop up in innumerable debates, but most commonly when it is socialism vs. capitalism. More often than not I see socialists argue that because capitalism doesn't directly help the poor, then it is imperfect and therefore not a good solution to a problem. As though there is always a definitive answer to everything. This has been a thought tickling my mind as of late and would like some discussion on the topic. Whether it pertains to my specific example or another, anything that you may have to add to the discussion on the topic is appreciated.

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  • Edited by K1tty Head: 1/22/2016 1:40:33 AM
    Two fallacies I noticed in your argument. The fallacy fallacy, caddying an argument is wrong based on the fact that it was argued poorly or it contained a fallacy. The second was that you begged the question, towards the end, "As if there is a definitive answer to everything." That's assuming that there isn't one, but we don't know whether or not there is one.

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