The unwritten, socially negotiated rules that actually govern how arguments play out in the real world, far from the clean rooms of formal logic. These include principles like the Law of Charity (interpret others' arguments in their strongest form), the Law of Relevance (stay on topic, Karen), and the Law of Proportional Response (your counterargument should match the scale of the claim). They're not mathematically provable, but violate them and you'll find yourself talking alone in a room, wondering why no one will engage with your "perfectly logical" points.
Informal Laws of Logic "He kept demanding I prove a negative, then changed the subject every time I got close to a point. Someone get this man a pamphlet on the Informal Laws of Logic—specifically the section on 'How Not to Debate Like a Gremlin.'"
by Dumu The Void February 23, 2026
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