Genius Around

I like magic. I mean I know it´s not real but I find it entertaining. Yesterday I came across an interesting video where Lennart Green performs some card magic. However, the interesting part starts already in his introduction as he speaks about language that cheats. By using his logical reasoning he manages to show in a cool example that we cannot always trust logic.

Even though his argument is only an introduction to a magic trick and he keeps it at a small illustrating example I think he has a good point. How often do I hear people trying to make a point by using logic which makes things seem so obvious that it is hard to believe not a single piece of their argument has any value. Just as the card tricks following Greens introduction seem very convincing that he is an actual magician the fallacies in language use might appear as truth.

Language can be an important tool for communication and science but it is as well used in order to hide and mislead. We use concepts like “collateral damage” when we mean innocent people died and we say that someone “passed away” when we mean that person is dead. Why do we use this sort of euphemisms, do we try to hide something in our way of talking?

I think this all just shows that we are never “just saying” something but that the way we say it, the words we use and the logic we use structure our ideas. Our words and concepts are affected by manipulation as much as Lennart Green manipulates his cards.

Further resources:

Blog post on the topic of euphemisms

Video on logical fallacies

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