Date: 8/4/25 11:13 am From: Chuck & Lillian via groups.io <misclists...> Subject: Re: [CALBIRDS] Rufous/Allen's Hummingbird eBird mess
Good catch, Tristan!
What Tristan refers to is an excellent data-based example of the logical fallacy 'petitio principii,' aka 'petitioning the principle,' 'assuming the principal, 'circular reasoning' and formerly 'begging the question.' The last has recently degraded in common usage to mean "leaving unanswered the question.'
It boils down in logical syllogism construction to having your conclusion, or a critically important part of it, embedded, usually unnoticeably, within one or your premises. This is one of the more common logical fallacies, probably committed millions of times a day. It exists in some of the 'logical arguments for the existence of God' that have bounced around in western Christian writings for the last 500 years.
It probably happens in many, many other data-bases contexts, but I'm not sure I've heard of it before this.
Good birding! Chuck Almdale North Hills, Ca.
At 12:38 AM 8/4/2025, Tristan McKee via groups.io wrote: >The endless cycle of identifying birds by distribution and then >using that data to study bird distribution is one of the most >significant Achilles' heels in modern ornithology.
