Informal-Logic-and-Fallacies.md

@@ -314,7 +314,7 @@ If someone answers "yes" it implies that they used to lie to the IRS and have no
 
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-<p><i>I can prove that you have a soul using the following argument. Premise 1: I have a machine that can decompose you to your atomic elements and then rebuild you perfectly from those elements. Premise 2: Of course, while you're dematerialized you'll be dead. Premise 3: But don't worry, the machine will bring you back to life, perfectly the same as you are now. Premise 4: If I ask you if you want to try it, you will say no. Premise 5: If I ask why you refuse, you will say that it is too easy to imagine the same machine creating a perfect copy of you from elements found in nature (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, etc) such that there are now two versions of you. But the copied you is not really you. In fact, you could see me doing this and in a few minutes you would be talking to the copied you, sitting right here. Since there is now a great deal of uncertainty about whether the rebuilt you (from you own atomic elements) would really be you or just a perfect imitation, you don't want to go through the procedure. You might die and no one would ever know (except you). Conclusion: You believe in dualism, that there is something other than your physical body. For lack of a better word we will call it a soul.</i></p>
+<p><i>I can prove that you have a soul using the following argument. Premise 1: I have a machine that can decompose you to your atomic elements and then rebuild you perfectly from those elements. It scans you first and a giant computer stores the exact configuration of atoms in your body. Premise 2: Of course, while you're dematerialized you'll be dead. Premise 3: But don't worry, the machine will bring you back to life, perfectly the same as you are now. Premise 4: The machine can also scan you to learn the exact composition and configuration of elements in your body, mine those elements elsewhere, and create a perfect copy of you. Premise 5: If I ask you if you want to try being decomposed and rebuilt, you will say no. Premise 6: If I ask why you refuse, you will say that the machine can create an exact copy of you from a pool of elements that is not really you. In fact, you could see me doing this and in a few minutes you would be talking to the copied you, sitting right here. Since this now introduces a great deal of uncertainty about whether the rebuilt you (from you own atomic elements) would really be you or just a perfect imitation, you don't want to go through the procedure. You might die and no one would ever know (except you). Conclusion: You believe in dualism, that there is something other than your physical body. For lack of a better word we will call it a soul.</i></p>
 
 <p>Analysis: This argument (and its many variants) is actually used in debates between dualists and monists (or physicalists). What is going on here? It might be true that most people will refuse to undergo the dematerialization procedure. It might even be true that most people intuit that they have a "soul". But that doesn't really prove dualism, it only proves that most people would react with some trepidation at being brought back from the dead using this process. This argument commits the straw man fallacy. It constructs a distorted and subjective version of reality and gets the subject to accept that. It also commits the appeal to unqualified authority fallacy with its implication that most people would refuse the procedure. Just because most people believe something doesn't mean its true. And it is an appeal to ignorance and false dichotomy. Since we can get the subject to be uncertain about monism, we will conclude that dualism is the result. 
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