Volume 6 · The Unfinished Syllabus · Essay 61

Davos Fallacy

A fallacy is a shortcut with a pothole in it. Davos Fallacy is one of the busier potholes on the road of reasoning.

The error is seductive because it imitates a virtue. It sounds like loyalty, or confidence, or common sense. But follow it home and you find it lives in a house with no foundation.

The old NCERT textbook, boring cover and all, has outlived a hundred motivational posters. Clarity is the only pedagogy that never goes out of fashion.

Learning is the one wealth that survives every partition of fortune. Keep the name. Use the pause it gives you. That is the entire homework.