Re: How the Leopard...? (was Brian Goodwin on the web)

John W. Burgeson (73531.1501@compuserve.com)
09 Apr 96 11:20:48 EDT

Chuck writes: "but isn't this a classic case of the genetic
fallacy? Seems to me that time would be better spent responding to content,
rather than arguing that the critic has no right to criticize. Besides,
much of the criticism has to do not with science, but with *logic*, which,
I assume, is available equally to all.

I'm a CPA; can I therefore point out only those logical errors or
inconsistencies attributable to other CPA's?"

Chuck's point is well taken. Being a "scientist," after all, is
more a matter of degree than anything else. And I don't mean "Ph-D" here!
We all use the methods of science (& logic) sometimes, and not other times.

To claim only "scientists" are qualified to speak is to establish an elite
group of "experts" who will find, in time, they are speaking only to themselves.

My CPA may do my tax return better than I can (if he cannot, I would not
hire him), but that does not relieve me from my responsibility to check over the

final product, ask questions, and even make suggestions.

My expertise is market research; if you take what I hand you without
probing what it means, how the data was gathered, etc. etc., I will
sooner or later be able to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn.

As Chuck says, all of us can use the tools of logic. And we should.
Or quietly steal away to read our National Inquirers in solitude.

Burgy