Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

The Art of Literature Bluffing

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

In a UD post below, Salvador comments on Ken Miller and his reference to a paper in Science. Ken is a master of the art of literature bluffing, and you’ll be seeing a lot of this from Darwinists concerning Behe’s The Edge Of Evolution. It works like this: Claim that “such and so has been conclusively refuted…” or “the author ignores research that has demonstrated…” or “this issue was addressed and resolved long ago…” and then cite a publication.

Those using this tactic know that very few people will actually check out the references. However, in cases like that of hostile reviews of Behe’s new book, it would be wise to do so. You will most likely discover that the “refutations, demonstrations and resolutions” are nothing of the kind, but are fanciful storytelling, speculation, misrepresentation, or wildly imaginative extrapolation from the trivially obvious.

Behe, on his Amazon blog, makes the following comments concerning Sean Carroll’s review of The Edge:

In fact, if one takes the trouble to look up the references Carroll cites, one sees that a short amino acid motif is not enough for function in a cell.

[…]

…Carroll seems unable to separate Darwinian theory from data. He writes that “what [Behe] alleges to be beyond the limits of Darwinian evolution falls well within its demonstrated [my emphasis] powers”, and “Indeed, it has been demonstrated [my emphasis] that new protein interactions (10) and protein networks (11) can evolve fairly rapidly and are thus well within the limits of evolution.”

Yet if one looks up the papers he cites, one finds no “demonstration” at all.

It should be an illuminating enterprise to track down all the literature bluffs in upcoming reviews of Behe’s new book. What this will demonstrate is that Darwinists are desperate to discredit Behe by any means available. Alas, these critics appear to have no choice in the matter, because Behe is right and they are wrong. The facts and data speak for themselves.

Comments
scordova, I have read your post on equivocation and am unconvinced. For example, you criticize the term "naturally occuring" in the following claim: "there are many naturally-occurring tools available to build simple computational processes." The tools in question are quantum mechanics and various features of biology and chemistry. The computational processes are designed, but the authors never said otherwise. Further, I think you're wrong to focus on the subtitle "Natural Computing Series" in the citation. The point is that quantum mechanical phenomena, an natural "tool," can be used to create a computational process. That's all. There's no equivocation along the lines of your feather example in the passage.Hermagoras
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
12:20 PM
12
12
20
PM
PDT
Bibliographic search engines such as PubMed make it easy for literature bluffers to compile long lists of citations. The literature bluffer, however, rarely explains the arguments or evidence contained in the publications on the list. That would defeat the bluffer’s purpose, which is not really to address the merits of the case, but rather to overwhelm the reader with the apparent weight of scientific authority. The reader is then left with the work of actually studying the publications and assessing their relevance.
Exactly! What I learned however, is bluffing via materials not available online. When we deal with materials that require subscription or a book that is out of print or really expensive. It becomes cumbersome to combat the literature bluff. And honestly, how many are willing to spend the time and money? The critics count on the fact that you'll read the entire book or article and realize it was irrelevant. But that is VERY HARD to demonstrate irrelevance. And by that time, the discussion is out of the public eye. They successfully used a stalling tactic to make a quick getaway from the debate.... They can leave the audience with the illusion that maybe it was relevant and addressed the issue. After all the audience must take your word against theirs. Now, of course, in the case of Ken Miller and Sean Carrol, they so badly bungled the bluff, we didn't even have to go through too much trouble. It was an amateurish bluff.scordova
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
12:11 PM
12
12
11
PM
PDT
I would have to say Elsberry and Shallit were the best as their bluffed articles are not very accessible. Sometimes they reference books that are nearly out of print and cost over $100. In contrast, Miller was so careless that he bluffed with citations that Behe has already publicly commented on (available for free online even) or even had mentioned excplicitly in his book! Miller didn't connect the fact Behe's mention of "A Requiem for Chloroquine" on page 45 was exactly the same as Miller's "Science 298, 74–75; 2002". They are the same article, but Behe uses the common title and Miller the formal reference. Miller furthermore accused Behe of not following an article Behe clearly commnented on. Miller refers to it as "Science 312, 97–101; 2006)" but Behe refers to it as " Bridgham et al (2006) published in the April 7 issue of Science". They are the same article, and Miller's bait and switch is easily exposed. Then Miller compounds his faux pas by mis-citing volume 37 in 2005 when it was 2004. The net result is he looks like a bit of a bungler. Man, what an amateur. He used to be such a pro, but I guess he's feeling so confident these days he thinks he can be this sloppy with his bluffs. Elsberry and Shallit are still king of the hill when it comes to disingenous bluffing. That had to be some of the most ingenious equivocations I'd ever seen. Their critique of Dembski is a masterful encyclopedia of unwholesome rhetorical gimmics couched in the language of math and science. Every critic of ID who has no inhibition about using unethical debate tactics should study the rhetorical form of Elsberry and Shallit and emulate it to the fullest.scordova
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
12:00 PM
12
12
00
PM
PDT
Gil, If the facts speak for themselves, why does Behe need to write a book-length argument to make their case? Whatever facts he cites, they do not speak for themselves; rather, Behe is their spokesman, their lawyer, their agent, their mouthpiece.Hermagoras
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:52 AM
11
11
52
AM
PDT
Sal, Thanks for the links. Check out: http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&program=CSC%20-%20Scientific%20Research%20and%20Scholarship%20-%20Science%20-%20MainPage&id=2228
Literature bluffing is the indiscriminate citation of scientific papers and articles whose titles or abstracts may seem germane to the problem at hand, but which on careful reading prove not to settle the issue, or even not to have any relevance to it. Like a squid spewing out ink to confuse a pursuer, or a fighter jet dispensing chaff to deflect incoming missiles, a literature bluffer floods the discussion with citations to distract attention from the real issues. Bibliographic search engines such as PubMed make it easy for literature bluffers to compile long lists of citations. The literature bluffer, however, rarely explains the arguments or evidence contained in the publications on the list. That would defeat the bluffer's purpose, which is not really to address the merits of the case, but rather to overwhelm the reader with the apparent weight of scientific authority. The reader is then left with the work of actually studying the publications and assessing their relevance.
GilDodgen
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:51 AM
11
11
51
AM
PDT
Jehu, Following on the previous. Let me explain what I meant when I wrote that the post exhibited the very thing it critiques. (As I pointed out, I was unaware of the ID community's idiosyncratic use of the term "literature bluff." I'm not sure why I should be expected to be aware of this.) Here's what I meant. GilDodgen writes:
It works like this: Claim that “such and so has been conclusively refuted…” or “the author ignores research that has demonstrated…” or “this issue was addressed and resolved long ago…” and then cite a publication.
In the rhetoric of science (see Bruno Latour's Science in Action), statements are characteristically modalized -- that is, moved in the direction of fact or artifact by being nested in another statement in future papers. So Duesberg makes a claim (cancer evolves by chromosomal chaos rather than genetic mutation). Call this claim X. Someone else might write Duesberg has argued that X. That doesn't do much to the claim. Someone else might move the claim in the direction of fact: Duesberg has shown that X. But someone else might say, Although Duesberg says X, really Y. And someone else might say Duesberg's theory of X is a challenge to Darwinism. I might say Duesberg's theory of X is probably wrong, and even if it's right it's not a challenge to Darwinism. And so forth. All of these sentences enact what Latour and others call positive and negative modalities on the claim X. Now, unfair modalities are propagated all the time. What Gil calls "literature bluffing" seems to be a kind of citation that moves a claim toward fact status without sufficient warrant. But then Gil goes on to claim that Behe is "right," with the further claim that this is obvious because "the facts speak for themselves." (That the facts do not speak for themselves, despite the use of res ipsa loquitor as a cultural commonplace, is a basic assumption of rhetoric.) As I saw it, Gil was talking about overclaiming from the evidence. But then he did precisely that, in dramatic fashion.Hermagoras
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:47 AM
11
11
47
AM
PDT
The basic form is
1. Make a strawman misrepresentation, 2. Knock the strawman down by using something of the form: “it’s hard to fathom he did not even read.... [a long list of articles]” 3. Then list a whole bunch of articles, relevant or not, preferably in really obscure and tough to read technical jargon
The straw man part involves lots of creativity, usually in the form of an Equivocation. I pointed out some beautiful examples by Shallit and Elsberry here: SSDD: Shallit and Elsberry’s Equivocations and Bluffs The took a variation on the classic equivocation :
feather is light. What is light cannot be dark. Therefore, a feather cannot be dark.
And applied it to the notion of the word “natural”. I highly encourage you to read my rhetorical analysis of Elsberry and Shallit. They create one of the most classic examples of literature bluffs I've ever seen. Ingenious and dastardly indeed.scordova
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:40 AM
11
11
40
AM
PDT
No, the fact never speak for themselves.
Never? In many cases they certainly do, otherwise science in general would be on a very fragile footing. If you'll read Behe's book you'll discover that this is one of those cases. Up until recently the creative powers of random processes and natural selection have been a matter of speculation. The data are in. I'm not attempting a bluff, literary or otherwise.GilDodgen
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:38 AM
11
11
38
AM
PDT
Hermagoras, Welcome to our weblog. I very much like rhetoric scholars and appreciate them. The term "literature bluff" follows a particular rhetorical form. Roughly it is: 1. Make a strawman misrepresentation, 2. Knock the strawman down by using something of the form: "it's hard to fathom he did not even read this long list of article" 3. Then list a whole bunch of articles, relevant or not, preferably in really obscure and tough to read technical jargon That is the form of a literature bluff. Thankfully, unlike math and physics, biology is a bit more accessible. regards, Salvadorscordova
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:33 AM
11
11
33
AM
PDT
What worked for the Darwinists in the pre-World-Wide-Web era will not work so well today. It was a piece of cake to show Miller was bluffing (check that, he was comprehensionally challenged). In the past, one could simply pull these theatrical stunts, and count on the fact most counter attacks would fail since it would take 6 months to get the subscriptions and papers through proper channels, and most would not be able to launch the counter attack in a timely manner, when it would have the most effect. Nowadays, with the net, it isn't as easy to pull off, and it can be embarrassing to the perpetrator to be exposed in a matter of hours after his hoax is published in a major scientific journal (like what happened with honest Ken Miller in his screed against Behe). Bill Dembski foresaw this in : Darwinism, Myth of Victory Past
(3) The myth of victory past. A scene in the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup illustrates this myth. Groucho Marx, president of Freedonia, presides over a meeting of the cabinet. The following exchange ensues between Groucho and one of Freedonia’s ministers: Groucho: “And now, members of the Cabinet, we’ll take up old business.” Minister: “I wish to discuss the Tariff!” Groucho: “Sit down, that’s new business! No old business? Very well—then we’ll take up new business” Minister: “Now about that Tariff...” Groucho: “Too late—that’s old business already!” This exchange epitomizes Darwinism’s handling of criticism. When a valid criticism of Darwinism is first proposed, it is dismissed without an adequate response, either on some technicality or with some irrelevancy or by simply being ignored. As time passes, people forget that Darwinists never adequately met the criticism. But Darwinism is still calling the shots. Since the criticism failed to dislodge Darwinism, the criticism itself must have been discredited or refuted somewhere. Thereafter the criticism becomes known as “that discredited criticism that was refuted a long time ago.” And, after that, even to raise the criticism betrays an outdated conception of evolutionary theory. In this way, the criticism, though entirely valid, simply vanishes into oblivion. (At least that’s how things have been in the past. That’s now changing with the internet
Miller needs to cite obscure journals in other languages inaccessible to online readers. Otherwise, the relentless online community will have a field day with Miller's bluffs...scordova
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:23 AM
11
11
23
AM
PDT
Jehu, I'm a Ph.D.-holding college writing teacher, the director of a university writing program, and a published scholar in the rhetoric of science. The term "literature bluffing" was invented, as far as I can tell, by the Discovery Institute here. It is not found in rhetoric generally or the rhetoric of science specifically. I apologize for not being well versed in the charming argot of the Discovery Institute. I had assumed it was something GilDodgen invented. Not quite: the fact remains, however, that the term "literature bluff" was invented, and is used, almost exclusively by the ID community.Hermagoras
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:21 AM
11
11
21
AM
PDT
Heramgoras, I really enjoyed your post.
As a writing teacher and a rhetoric scholar, I might suggest that this post exhibits the very bluffing it critiques.
LOL! The post is not about "bluffing" it is about "literature bluffing." My guess is that you are a high school English teacher and do not know what "literature bluffing" is. You probably think it is when people bluff in literature.
Consider: Alas, these critics appear to have no choice in the matter, because Behe is right and they are wrong. The facts and data speak for themselves. No, the fact never speak for themselves. That’s why scientists write papers.
Ho ho! Have you never heard the phrase res ipsa loquitur? At any rate, a figure of speech is not the same as a bluff much less a literature bluff.
Also, a little symmetrical evaluation of who’s bluffing and who’s puffing would be good. Consider looking for a puffery-indicating phrase like, say, “death throes” on this site using a simple google search. Nope, no puffery here.
LOL! Once again a colorful adjective has nothing to do with the concept of a literature bluff.Jehu
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
11:09 AM
11
11
09
AM
PDT
Thanks for the link to Behe's Amazon blog. I wasn't aware that was posted. He has replies to Sean, Coyne, and Ruse in that blog. His replies are very good although he doesn't delve into much detail. It appears the critics are all attempting to side step the issues Behe raises instead of addressing them head on.Jehu
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
10:58 AM
10
10
58
AM
PDT
/pasted from one Darwinist to the next
Just like Judge Jones in Dover.scordova
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
10:10 AM
10
10
10
AM
PDT
"You will most likely discover that the “refutations, demonstrations and resolutions” are nothing of the kind, but are fanciful storytelling, speculation, misrepresentation, or wildly imaginative extrapolation from the trivially obvious." That's all we ever see these days! Yet it is ubiquitously copy/pasted from one Darwinist to the next - a genuine meme if ever there was one.Borne
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
10:08 AM
10
10
08
AM
PDT
As a writing teacher and a rhetoric scholar, I might suggest that this post exhibits the very bluffing it critiques. Consider:
Alas, these critics appear to have no choice in the matter, because Behe is right and they are wrong. The facts and data speak for themselves.
No, the fact never speak for themselves. That's why scientists write papers. Also, a little symmetrical evaluation of who's bluffing and who's puffing would be good. Consider looking for a puffery-indicating phrase like, say, "death throes" on this site using a simple google search. Nope, no puffery here.Hermagoras
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
10:04 AM
10
10
04
AM
PDT
Thanks Gil, I catalogued some of the most clever examples of literature bluffs and unwholesome rhetorical tricks here: Becoming a Jedi Master in the online ID Warsscordova
June 28, 2007
June
06
Jun
28
28
2007
09:18 AM
9
09
18
AM
PDT
1 2

Leave a Reply