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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Walton's own pragma-dialectical framework shows slippery slope arguments are only non-fallacious when the causal chain is independently verifiable, not merely plausible.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Many sound causal chains in social/political domains resist full independent verification yet remain rationally defensible.
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    • 2.Walton himself acknowledged context-dependent standards; requiring verification for all slopes may be unnecessarily restrictive.
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    • 3.Plausibility grounded in mechanism, analogy, and expert testimony can meet rational standards without complete independent verification.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Pragma-dialectical theory demands rational persuasion, which requires evidence beyond mere plausibility to satisfy burden of proof.
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    • 2.Historical cases show slippery slopes accepted on plausibility alone (e.g., domino theory) later proved empirically false.
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    • 3.Independent verifiability distinguishes legitimate causal reasoning from rhetorical manipulation in good-faith dialogue.
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