Wishful thinking 177
Death, in fact, is a subject especially prone to the fallacy of
wishful thinking. Its abrupt and inconsiderate nature is softened
by the fallacy into something we would find more acceptable,
although our wishes hardly afford valid grounds for our suppo-
sition. Boswell, on a visit to the dying Hume, asked the philo-
sopher about a possible afterlife:
Would it not be agreeable to have hopes of seeing our friends again?
(He mentioned three recently deceased friends of Hume, but the
latter firmly rejected the fallacy. 'He owned it would be agreeable',
Boswell reported, 'but added that none of them entertained so
absurd a notion.')Time, like death, is a field in which our wishes replace our
ability to influence.
It can't be Friday already! I've not done nearly enough work to pass the
exam!
(Wrong about the day; right about the exam.)The problem about all wishful thinking is that if you want one
thing and the laws of the universe dictate another there is a
conflict of interests which is not going to be resolved in your
favour. This being true, you might as well spend time working
out how to deal with the outcome, instead of wishing that
something else would happen.
The bank will extend our overdraft; otherwise we just cannot survive.
(Bank managers are not interested in your survival. They care about
only two things: making money for the bank and grinding the faces
of the poor.)