Argument
The argument relies on a deterministic system (such as of the Stoics). It runs as such: why should we bother making decisions if the outcome is already fixed? For instance, when we feel sick, why should we call the doctor or do anything at all? The outcome is already fated. We will either recover or die and in a deterministic system one of these options has already been "chosen." We can subsequently conclude that we ought not do anything. For, whether we act in one way or another will do little to undermine the force of fate.
Read more about this topic: Lazy Argument
Famous quotes containing the word argument:
“The wonder of light is your familiar tale,
Pert wench, down to the nineteenth century:
Mr. Rimbaud the Frenchman’s apostasy
Asserts the argument that you are stale,
Flat and unprofitable, importunate but pale,
Lithe Corpse!”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Our argument ... will result, not upon logic by itself—though without logic we should never have got to this point—but upon the fortunate contingent fact that people who would take this logically possible view, after they had really imagined themselves in the other man’s position, are extremely rare.”
—Richard M. Hare (b. 1919)
“The argument ad feminam, all the old knives
that have rusted in my back, I drive in yours,
ma semblable, ma soeur!”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)