Wishful thinking: Encyclopedia II - Wishful thinking - As a logical fallacy

Wishful thinking - As a logical fallacy

In addition to being a cognitive bias and a poor way of making decisions, wishful thinking can also be a specific logical fallacy in an argument when it is assumed that because we wish something to be true or false that it is actually true or false. This fallacy has the form "I wish that P is true/false, therefore P is true/false."^[1]

For example:

It may be that it was uncomfortable, but that does not mean that uncomfortable things should always be avoided. Wishful thinking underlies appeals to emotion, and is a red herring. Atheists argue much of theology, particularly arguments for the existence of God, is based on wishful thinking because it takes the desired outcome "God exists" and tries to prove it on the basis of a premise through reasoning which can be analysed as fallacious, but which may nevertheless be wished true in the mind of the believer.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "As a logical fallacy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki