Barking Cat Fallacy

The barking cat fallacy is one of the many smokescreens that are used to cover the fact that the reasoning is based on one of the three fallacies of Agrippa's trilemma. Whenever a logical fallacy is committed, the fallacy has its roots in Agrippa's trilemma. All human thought (without Divine revelation) is based on one of three unhappy possibilities. These three possibilities are infinite regress, circular reasoning, or axiomatic thinking. This problem is known as Agrippa's trilemma. Some have claimed that only logic and math can be known without Divine revelation; however, that is not true. There is no reason to trust either logic or math without Divine revelation. Science is also limited to the pragmatic because of the weakness on human reasoning, which is known as Agrippa's trilemma.

The Barking Cat Fallacy occurs when a proposition is accepted except for one thing, which is inherent to the solution. This is a specific kind of fallacy of self-refutation. You can't have a cat that barks. You cannot have a follower of Christ that is a follower of Satan with all the associated sins. There are many cats that claim to bark but that do not.

Examples of the Barking Cat Fallacy

From "Free To Choose" by Milton Friedman: "I would like to have a cat provided it barked."

This example is the one that gave the fallacy its name. Milton is describing a fallacy that affects many things, but his illustration is government. People would like government if it acted differently. Milton states that the principles and forces that determine the behavior of government agencies are just as constrained as the principles and forces that cause cats to be cats. When Israel demanded a King, Samuel told them what the kings would do. People in human government always end up doing the same types of things because they are humans.

Sandy: "I wouldn't mind becoming a Christian, but I'm not going to have God telling me what to do."

Roxanne: "The truth is that the only way that anyone can ever find fulfillment is when they are directed by the Holy Spirit. For this purpose we were created."