MCS
In a world where science is biased, facts are manipulated, doctors are mislead,
industry acts to misinform, and few can be trusted, when it comes to
controversial illnesses, such as multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS),
fibromyalgia (FM), and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), patients, doctors, and
researchers must employ critical thinking skills as they are essential to finding
the truth.
Each month, this column explores methods of critical thinking necessary for
scientists and patient to sort through the bunk and get to the facts and real
truth.
Ambiguity
This month we will examine the pitfall of ambiguity. Ambiguity is defined
as being capable of being understood in two or more possible senses or
ways. Ambiguous statements do not communicate clear meaning.
Consider the following sentence:
“The law says citizens must stop drinking at midnight.”
Did you see more than one possible meaning? Does the law say that
citizens may not drink alcoholic beverages after midnight? Or does it say
that they may not drink anything at all… no water, no juice, no coffee?
Being alert to ambiguity is useful to sort through research and avoid being
duped into buying or prescribing “miracle cures”.
Ambiguous material often conflicts with itself and, therefore, requires
critical thinking skills to think through to form an opinion. Sometimes ambiguity
is intended to confuse an issue and cast doubt.
There are three types of ambiguity.
Lexical
ambiguity occurs when a word has more than one meaning. The word
“bank” may mean a financial institution or it may mean the edge of a
river.
Referential
ambiguity occurs when it is unclear what a referring expression is
referring to. The statement “everyone knows that Noni
juice can cure anything” uses referential ambiguity. It is not clear who
“everyone” is. Does “everyone” refer to every person in the world, or
every seller of Noni juice, or all doctors, or all
scientists, or some other group?
Syntactic
ambiguity occurs when a complex
expression has more than one reasonable meaning. The sentence “We will be
talking about romance on television” may be interpreted to mean we will be on
television discussing romance. It may also be interpreted as meaning we
will be discussing romance that appears on television.
Resolving ambiguous statements is referred to as disambiguation. This can
only be accomplished by clearly paying attention to what is said and expanding
our thinking to encompass all the possibilities of meaning through asking
questions.
A Practical Example
Let’s assume you are speaking with a new acquaintance and mention that you have
a chronic illness in the course of discussion as you require
accommodations. The person you are speaking with immediately says, “You
should try Noni juice. It’s a healer and will
cure you.”
You ask for more information and are told, “Noni is a
great product. It’s cured the common cold, pain, fatigue, lack of energy,
allergies, and cancer. I can set you up to sell it too so you can earn
money on this great product and buy your own supply at a great discount.”
How do you proceed? Do you try it? Do you become excited that
you’ve found this miracle cure? Not so fast!
First, let’s look back at what we learned last month. Does the person who
is sharing this information about Noni have
credibility of the evidence? Do you remember the five rules of
credibility?
Reputation.
Since you’ve just met this person, you likely know little about his reputation
and will need to do some homework.
Ability to See.
It does not sound like this person has firsthand knowledge of these
cures. Since we are uncertain of this, it is necessary to ask questions
such as:
· Is there published peer-reviewed double-blind research to
support these cures?
· Have you conducted your own experiments?
· Have you been cured of any illness by Noni
juice?
· Do you know the biological mechanism behind the disease you
claim Noni will cure?
· Why don’t doctors recommend Noni if
it’s a cure all?
Vested Interest.
Since the person is offering to “set you up to sell Noni
juice and get discounts”, the logical question is if this is multi-level
marketing. If so, this person has a vested financial interest in signing
you up and loses credibility.
Expertise.
Does this person have specialized education or knowledge about the diseases and
symptoms mentioned? Perhaps a PhD, an MD or ND, etc?
If not, the lack of expertise loses credibility.
Neutrality.
Is the person predisposed to a particular opinion about Noni
as a result of their own healing?
It does not appear that our Noni juice salesperson is
very credible. After you ask your questions, he becomes more insistent
and tells you “Everyone swears by Noni.” Having
learned about ambiguity, what do you say?
Did you catch the ambiguous inference to “everyone”? Who is
“everyone”? If everyone means all the people in the world, how come you
don’t swear by Noni? Is everyone the members of
the multi-level marketing firm who have vested interests in the sale of Noni juice? Why did the salesperson
used the term “everyone” instead of specifying exactly who swears by Noni? Could it be that he was intentionally confusing
the issue by using ambiguous terminology to coerce you into believing him?
Lastly, if Noni was such a cure all, why is it that
people still suffer from the illnesses the salesperson claimed Noni would cure? Wouldn’t word spread quickly if Noni was indeed a cure all?
How will you spend your money? Sadly, many people with chronic illnesses
are desperate for a cure and most are willing to try anything.
Unfortunately, after years of trial and error, most realize they’ve been duped
for hundreds or thousands of dollars with little or no improvement.
Precision of Language
Language should be precise to communicate exact truthful meaning. Fuzzy
or inexact vagueness should be avoided. Can you identify vagueness?
Vagueness is being used in an act of coercion when
someone says, “I can’t find any evidence showing it’s real, therefore it does
not exist.” This is a fuzzy interpretation of a logical overgenerality fallacy, as one cannot guarantee that evidence
was not intentionally or even incompetently overlooked. If evidence does
not exist to the contrary position, can any conclusions really be drawn?
Confused? Good! Because that’s exactly what people who use
vagueness want. They are hoping to confuse the issue and cast doubt where
doubt does not exist. A classic sign of vagueness is lack of proof.
Rather than presenting proof, people who employ vagueness present the lack of
proof as an argument or supposition a position without adequate proof and state
it in an authoritative fashion as though it is fact. But is it?
If you’re new to critical thinking, you likely have a headache now. Take
some time to review this again and evaluate some common conversations with
friends and family with a critical eye. Then go unwind and we’ll see you
next month for part 3 of
Copyrighted © 2008
MCS