Anti-Agitprop: REDUCTIO AD HITLERUM

Techniques of Propaganda Generation: Reductio ad Hitlerum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum

The term reductio ad Hitlerum (sometimes rendered reductio ad Hitlerem; whimsical Latin for "reduction to Hitler") was originally coined by University of Chicago professor and ethicist Leo Strauss. The phrase comes from the more well-known logical argument reductio ad absurdum. It is a variety of association fallacy and may also be described as argumentum ad nazium, though some distinguish the latter as referring to Nazi actions or beliefs with reductio ad Hitlerum being reserved for arguments involving Hitler himself. The relatively frequent occurrence of such absurd lines of reasoning in Usenet discussions led to the formulation of Godwin's Law in 1990.

The reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy is of the form "Adolf Hitler (or the Nazi party) supported X; therefore X must be evil". This fallacy is often effective due to the near-instant condemnation of anything to do with Hitler or the Nazis.

It is important to understand that those policies advocated by Hitler and his party that <,cite>are generally considered evil, are all condemned by themselves, not because Hitler supported them. In other words: they are not evil because Hitler advocated them, but rather Hitler was evil because he advocated them.

The fallacious nature of Reductio ad Hitlerum is best illustrated by identifying X as something that Adolf Hitler or his supporters did promote but which is not considered evil — for example, X = "building expressways", X = "painting watercolors", X = "owning dogs", X = "vegetarianism", or X = "believing in evolution". It may also be refuted through counterexamples:

●Dwight Eisenhower, who despised Hitler's criminality, admired his Autobahnen and promoted the Interstate Highway System in the United States.
●Hitler's arch-enemy Sir Winston Churchill also painted.
●U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who asked Congress for a Declaration of War, and his successor Harry Truman, who continued to prosecute the war against Germany, also owned dogs.
●German-American scientist Albert Einstein was also a vegetarian.
●Many people today believe in evolution.

The argument being fallacious, however, does not prove X, or its supporters, not being evil (assuming that would be another fallacy, namely affirming the consequent). Moreover, recall that the argument is fallacious in itself, no matter whether X is actually good or evil. So, "Hitler killed human beings, therefore killing is wrong", is nonetheless a fallacy, however truthful premise and conclusion may be, because there is no logical connection between the two of them. It would be akin to "I wear trousers, therefore tomorrow it will rain". This sentence is logically faulty, even if I do wear trousers, and tomorrow does turn out rainy.

The phrase Reductio ad Hitlerum first appeared in Leo Strauss's writings in his 1950 book, Natural Right and History, Chapter II:

In following this movement towards its end we shall inevitably reach a point beyond which the scene is darkened by the shadow of Hitler. Unfortunately, it does not go without saying that in our examination we must avoid the fallacy that in the last decades has frequently been used as a substitute for the reductio ad absurdum: the reductio ad Hitlerum. A view is not refuted by the fact that it happens to have been shared by Hitler.

Sundry criminals, religious and political cranks, and tyrants other than Hitler could be used for the same purposes. For example, a reductio ad Stalinum could assert that corporal punishment of wayward children is necessary because Josef Stalin enacted its abolition, or that atheism is a dangerous philosophy because Stalin was an atheist. Similarly, a reductio ad Cromwellium would equate enjoying chamber music with hating the Irish. Yet, it would make as much sense as saying that men with moustaches are evil because Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein all had moustaches.

Reductio ad Binladenum can be seen in the following quote by Diogo Freitas do Amaral "The agreement to start talks with Turkey [about EU accession] will probably displease Mr Osama bin Laden, who has done everything to prevent this moment arriving." Essentially it is saying: bin Laden opposes Turkish EU membership, therefore Turkey should join the EU.

See also

●Ad hominem
●Godwin's Law
●Reductio ad absurdum