Good examples of tautologies presented as scientific discoveries?

Question

Tautology is not scientifically valid, yet I see examples of tautological argumentation nearly every day in my field's scientific journals.

Here is an abstracted example to help you think this out:

Scientist has some evidence to suggest that most As are also Bs. C is invented as a way to describe an attribute of A. Scientist then concludes that most having condition C are also B, so condition C becomes a way to diagnose B and spurious, oftentimes ideological connections are assumed to exist between all three.

Answer 1

Well I'm certainly not qualified to render an informed answer on this one, but I imagine that most of our commercial product is merely the result of the imagination of someone in industry applying scientific breakthroughs.

I met the East German scientist who may have been the first to successfully laze light. If I remember, it took 20,000 volts of charge and a large actual ruby to project a not-so coherent light beam 70 feet across a laboratory onto the far wall.

This was performed in what we used to call "East Germany", the scientist, now living in the West, was Heinz Tummel. Of course, he didn't receive credit from us in the West because, after all, he was a commie. I met Heinz and can assure you that while he lived under a communist dictatorship he was no more a supporter of that regime than I am of the pathetic group of incompetents we currently suffer in Washington.

I imagine that there are few, indeed, commercial offerings that do not owe their existence to some nameless scientist somewhere who neither received financial reward nor recognition for his/ her efforts.

That's my opinion and I'm stickin to her!

lol I should have read your entire piece instead of the e mail spot.

I see tautologies in reasoning constantly, even among people who should know better. It appears to slip just above the head of people making a statement with faulty assumptions and setting about, without hesitation, making outrageous conclusions based upon their original misassumption.

I believe some all it religion, others call it Republican mantra.

Whatever we call it, it ends up being mostly poppycock!