Critical thinking

False premise A false premise is a mistaken starting assumption. You can build a long chain of reasoning where every step is logically correct, yet the argument is still unsound—because it inherits that original mistake. Example (false premise): “For any two people, the one who talks more during a conversation is more knowledgeable about the topic.” Follow it logically and you get: the most talkative person is the expert → measure airtime to find experts → you don’t need to check facts → a stopwatch could replace interviews. The logic is consistent, but the result is ridiculous because the premise confuses confidence with competence. In everyday life, we stack reasonable-sounding inferenc...