Theos-Talk Archives (February 2004 Message tt00192)

Dear Steve,

Here's a link giving details on this fallacy (which I suspect 
contains nothing new to you but might be of interest to others):
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/special-pleading.html

You wrote:

> Excellent post. One thing I might add is that special pleading 
> always leads to some form of conscious or unconscious intellectual 
> dishonesty. If the case is a valid one this is not only not 
> becessary but sullies the cause the pleader is trying to promote.

In Merrell-Wolff's case, I suspect that he would have no trouble 
seeing through C.S. Lewis's use of the false dilemma fallacy as 
applied to Jesus. His argument about Theosophy and HPB is indeed 
intellectually dishonest, unconsciously I would think, and special 
pleading is the cause. What happens in such instances, presumably, 
is that an emotional attachment to a person or idea renders one 
incapable of applying the same standards to her/him/it as to other 
cases. 

Paul