What is a non sequitur?

Brief philosophy.

https://twitter.com/rachelvmckinnon/status/1132976462800121856

Remember, McKinnon teaches philosophy.

What does the poster communicate? “A person of a type claimed to be a potential threat was here at this toilet and nothing bad happened.” What does McKinnon want us to think it communicates? “A person of a type claimed to be a potential threat was here at this toilet and nothing bad happened, therefore nothing bad ever will happen when any person of that type is at any toilet anywhere.” I think that makes the problem reasonably clear? You can’t get from “this one incident involving one person at one place” to “all incidents involving all similar people at all places.”

It’s the so far so good fallacy – no that’s not a real fallacy, I just made it up. It’s not a good way to do risk assessment, or indeed prediction of any kind. It’s cloudy at the moment, so it will always be cloudy? No. The stock market didn’t crash today, so it never will? No. Banks didn’t fail today, so they never will? No.

The claim is not that all trans women will assault women in toilets every time there is a woman present to assault. The claim is that some men assault women when the conditions are right, and shared restrooms could present such conditions. The fact that one trans person used a toilet without harming anyone does nothing to address that claim. Nothing.

And yet McKinnon teaches philosophy.

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