Cohen's Law
From RationalWiki
Cohen's Law was formulated by Brian Cohen in June 2007 and states that:
| “ | Whoever resorts to the argument "whoever resorts to the argument that... has automatically lost the debate" has automatically lost the debate. | ” |
The law is an obvious reference to people dismissing arguments just because someone made a particular argument (such as with DeMyer's Law). So, anyone who can't refute a point and has to rely on declaring victory because their opponent made a silly argument is liable to be in no position to actually win a debate. Cohen's law can be extended to immense amounts, such as
| “ | Whoever resorts to the argument that "whoever resorts to the argument that ... "whoever resorts to the argument that ... "whoever resorts to the argument that ... "whoever resorts to the argument that ... "whoever resorts to the argument that ... ... has automatically lost the debate" ... has automatically lost the debate" ... has automatically lost the debate" ... has automatically lost the debate" ... has automatically lost the debate." has automatically lost the debate. | ” |
[edit] Recursive oddities
Since the law recurses infinitely, it consists of "Whoever resorts to the argument that ... has automatically lost the debate" wrapped around the law itself, and therefore can be simplified as "Whoever resorts to Cohen's Law has automatically lost the debate". But this also leads to the situation of "Whoever resorts to whoever resorts to Cohen's Law has automatically lost the debate has automatically lost the debate", such is the nature of infinite recursion...
[edit] See also
| Articles in RationalWiki related to Internet Laws | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cohen's Law - Conservapedia's Law - Danth's Law - DeMyer's Laws - Godwin's Law - Grey's Law - Jinx's Law - Law of exclamation - Poe's Law - Pommer's Law - Schlafly's Law - Scopie's Law - Skarka's Law - Skitt’s Law - Timecube Law - Zeigler's Law | ||
