Definitions by Dumu The Void

Purpose Bias

A cognitive bias where you perceive two or more things that are functionally identical, structurally similar, or practically equivalent as fundamentally different solely because their intended purposes differ. It's the mental shortcut that makes a luxury handbag feel like a "wise investment" while an identical unbranded bag is "frivolous spending." The same knife in a kitchen is a "tool" but in a pocket is a "weapon." A loud car exhaust is "performance" on a sports car but "noise pollution" on a beat-up sedan. Purpose Bias shapes how we judge, categorize, and value objects, actions, and even people based on what we believe they're for, rather than what they actually are. In daily life, it's why we excuse our own harsh words as "honest feedback" while condemning others' identical words as "verbal abuse"—same statement, different purpose, completely different judgment. The bias lies in treating purpose as a magical property that transforms the very nature of things, rather than as one attribute among many.

Example: "He called his own constant phone checking 'staying connected' but his partner's identical behavior 'addiction'—pure Purpose Bias, seeing the same action as completely different based solely on whose purpose he assumed."

Purpose Bias by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Falsifiability Fallacy

A fallacy where one insists that only claims that can be falsified (proven false through empirical testing) can be considered scientific, meaningful, or real—misapplying Karl Popper's demarcation criterion for science as a universal standard for all knowledge. The Falsifiability Fallacy treats "this claim isn't falsifiable" as equivalent to "this claim is meaningless," ignoring that many meaningful claims (historical events, mathematical truths, ethical principles, subjective experiences) aren't falsifiable in Popper's sense. It's the fallacy behind dismissing philosophical questions as "not even wrong" and treating the limits of empirical testing as the limits of reality itself—a profound confusion between a useful criterion for distinguishing science from non-science and a supposed criterion for distinguishing sense from nonsense.

Example: "He dismissed the question of whether love exists as meaningless because it wasn't falsifiable—the Falsifiability Fallacy in action, using a tool for identifying scientific claims as if it were the gatekeeper of all reality."

Falsifiability Fallacy by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Evidentialist Fallacy

A fallacy where one insists that only claims supported by scientific evidence (as narrowly defined) can be considered real, true, or worthy of belief—dismissing all other forms of knowledge, experience, and understanding as illusory or meaningless. The Evidentialist Fallacy mistakes one mode of knowing for the only mode of knowing, treating empirical evidence as the sole legitimate path to truth while ignoring that evidence itself rests on philosophical assumptions (like the reliability of perception, the uniformity of nature) that cannot be empirically proven. It's the fallacy behind "if you can't prove it in a lab, it doesn't exist"—a position that would dismiss love, justice, beauty, meaning, and most of what makes life worth living.

Example: "He claimed his friend's depression wasn't 'real' because you couldn't measure it with a blood test—pure Evidentialist Fallacy, mistaking the absence of one kind of evidence for the absence of reality itself."

Evidentialist Fallacy by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Evidence-Based Fallacy

A fallacy and metafallacy where scientific evidence is invoked to justify positions that lie outside the proper domain of evidence—particularly bigotry, prejudice, racism, xenophobia, aporophobia (hatred of the poor), and other forms of discrimination. The fallacy operates by claiming that discriminatory policies or attitudes are "supported by evidence" (about crime rates, economic impacts, cultural differences) while ignoring that evidence never dictates values, that statistical patterns don't justify moral judgments, and that using evidence to justify oppression misuses the very concept of evidence. It's a metafallacy because it weaponizes the legitimate authority of science to defend what science cannot possibly justify—treating "evidence-based" as a blank check for any position that can find a supporting statistic, regardless of the values, ethics, and human consequences involved.

Example: "He cited crime statistics to justify housing discrimination—the Evidence-Based Fallacy in full flower, using numbers to launder prejudice while pretending that evidence alone could ever justify treating humans as less than human."

Evidence-Based Fallacy by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Evidence-Based Bias

The specific bias where one treats "evidence-based" as an automatic warrant for one's position and a automatic disqualifier for others', without actually engaging the quality, relevance, or interpretation of the evidence. Evidence-Based Bias operates when someone says "the evidence supports my view" as a conversation-ender, without acknowledging that evidence is always interpreted, that different evidence can support different conclusions, that evidence alone never dictates policy or values, and that "evidence-based" is often claimed by all sides. It's the bias that turns the legitimate principle of grounding claims in evidence into a rhetorical cudgel.

Example: "He kept saying his position was 'evidence-based' as if that settled everything—pure Evidence-Based Bias, using the word 'evidence' to avoid actually discussing what the evidence showed."

Evidence-Based Bias by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Evidence-Based Biases

The collection of biases that arise from the misapplication of "evidence-based" thinking—treating evidence as a magic word rather than a practice, demanding evidence asymmetrically, mistaking certain kinds of evidence (usually quantitative) as inherently superior, ignoring the values and assumptions embedded in what counts as "evidence," and using "evidence-based" to dismiss any claim that doesn't fit narrow evidentiary standards. These biases don't reject evidence—they fetishize it, turning a valuable tool into a weapon of dismissal and a shield against genuine engagement with complexity, uncertainty, and other ways of knowing.

Example: "His Evidence-Based Biases meant he demanded randomized controlled trials for community wisdom that had worked for centuries—not because he valued evidence, but because he valued only his kind of evidence."

Evidence-Based Biases by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026

Objective Truth Fallacy

A fallacy and metafallacy where one invokes "objective truth" not as a genuine commitment to inquiry but as a rhetorical weapon to legitimize their own worldview while delegitimizing all others. The fallacy lies in claiming that one's framework simply is objective reality, that one's conclusions are truth itself, and therefore that any alternative is not just wrong but unreal. It's a metafallacy because it preemptively immunizes one's position from critique—if you claim to speak for objective truth itself, then challenging you is challenging reality. The Objective Truth Fallacy transforms the legitimate pursuit of truth into a cudgel for intellectual domination, using the concept of objectivity to shut down inquiry rather than advance it.

Example: "He didn't argue that his view was supported by evidence—he claimed it was objective truth, and that anyone who disagreed was simply denying reality. Classic Objective Truth Fallacy: using the concept of truth to avoid having to demonstrate it."

Objective Truth Fallacy by Dumu The Void March 13, 2026