Michael Hurley - Pointless rhetorical tour of some literary logical flaws

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Welcome to Second Thought for the Day. In this
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episode, we dissect a thought for the day from
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BBC Radio 4 to expose in it all that is not factual
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and not reasonable. This Second Thought podcast
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is in response to the BBC's Thought for the Day
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from the 19th of April 2025. It was by Professor
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Michael Hurley. Our professor has the Literature
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and Theology Chair at the University of Cambridge.
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Logically... there is almost nothing wrong with
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this care has been taken to avoid the making
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of claims that are not or cannot be supported
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there are no factual errors and there are no
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instances of any fact being misrepresented or
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a belief being presented as fact here's a taste
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of his broadcast today the day before easter
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goes even further in that direction there are
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no liturgies at all this is indeed the only day
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in the entire year when no mass is celebrated
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But tonight, churches will hold Easter vigils,
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when, gradually, light, scripture, song and words
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return to their services, culminating in a proclamation
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of Christ having risen from the dead. And with
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that news comes the triumphant reprise of the
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word Alleluia, literally, praise the Lord, after
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it had been dropped entirely from worship throughout
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Lent. It's an eruption of joy after 40 days of
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penitence. We'll come back to that eruption of
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joy for now. Michael's deference to fact and
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logic are to be applauded. There are several
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regular presenters of Thought for the Day who
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demonstrate what is more akin to allergy than
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deference. Of course, if they weren't, this project
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wouldn't exist. Hurley does take a dip into the
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waters of rosy retrospection, indulging in a
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view that the past was a nicer place, but even
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here, the many common logical errors that this
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fallacy usually attracts are avoided. In our
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busy, busy, information -overloaded modern world,
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it may be salutary for all of us, occasionally,
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to pause, to learn patience and to imagine how
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silence itself may sometimes be eloquent. For
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2 .6 billion Christians around the world, however,
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this is especially true today. It's an occasion
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for silent reflection on the belief that the
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rest is not silence, that death is not the final
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curtain. Hurley there does make a claim. that
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is unsupported his claim that our world is overloaded
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with information it is no doubt true that many
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inhabitants of our world today believe they are
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overloaded with information but this has been
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true of people in our world since the advent
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of books at around the beginning of the first
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millennium even if an argument could be made
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that inhabitants generally of the world were
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overloaded with information it would remain inaccurate
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to suggest this was anyway a new phenomenon Hurley
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uses our world, but it could have been today's
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world and so on. This is a subject for its own
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series of podcasts, but briefly, every new technology,
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books, printing, the telegraph, the pamphlet,
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TV, newspapers, email, mobile phones, the internet,
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smartphones, every new technology stokes a chorus
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of caution and concern with regard to information
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overload. It turns out we inevitably somehow
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cope. Again, and again, and again, which rather
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gives light to the notion that there's any overloading.
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It seems that some also forget, between the ages
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of 5 and 16, by rule of law, we force -feed how
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young citizens information in vastly higher volumes
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than tend to be the subject of the headline complaints.
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For the most part, we generally consider this
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loading of information into children to be a
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very good thing. None of these considerations,
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of course, has much effect on the standard bearers
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for caution and concern because of information
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overload. For them, technology is just a constant
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source of fuel for their doom -laden headlines
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and loud hailers. To focus on Michael for making
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this transgression would, though, be harsh, given
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other contributors for Thought for the Day who
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cannot help but anchor themselves to the fallacious
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ice flow of information overload. In terms of
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facts and logic, That's about it for Hurley.
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Apart from a coy flirtation with the logical
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fallacies of making appeals to fiction and to
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authority. Two logical errors in one swoop. He's
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certainly efficient. So let's take a look at
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that flirting. Hurley fills much of his broadcast
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with a prelude. In fact, over half of his broadcast
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is the prelude. On poignancy, Shakespeare, silence,
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death and afterlife. Hurley notes that Hamlet's
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last words, the rest is silence, suggest he felt
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that there was nothing beyond his death. Then
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he quotes Hamlet's friend, Horatio, who says,
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and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
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And this is presented as evidence that perhaps
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the opposite is true. So when he says, the rest
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is silence, he may be acknowledging that his
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time is up. And that's all there is. Only the
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hush of the audience remains. In his agonising
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musing, to be or not to be, he speculates about
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an afterlife, but perhaps the prospect of his
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own death has given him fresh clarity, to see
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that there is in fact nothing beyond. Maybe,
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but the opposite might also be true. What if
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the rest is silence is instead a final expression
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of faith in the form of letting go, that is,
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of finding calm in the peace of heaven? His friend
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Horatio's parting words certainly seem to chime
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with this possibility. And flights of angels
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sing thee to thy rest, he says. Hurley spends
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270 words, as nearly 60 % of his broadcast, musing
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on the potential meaning of Hamlet's The Rest
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is Silence. As pointless speculation goes, this
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is impressively pointless, which I believe is
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something of a theme with this broadcast. There
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is a case to be heard that Hurley isn't seeking
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to convince anyone of anything, and that his
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exploration of whether Hamlet believed there
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was life after death is merely a bridge between
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his literary introduction and his theatrical
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closing. That being the case, why waste everyone's
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time with his irrelevant nonsense? It seems either
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we have a failure of coherence, or it was that
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efficient combination of reasoning errors. Either
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way, it seems like an unacceptable fall from
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quality. We suspect Michael did intend the listener
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to be left with a view that one or both of Hamlet
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on ratio held a belief in an afterlife, and that
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this was to be conflated with his comments made
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later on the Christian belief that death is not
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the final curtain. So let's explore the fallacies
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a little. What these characters say on life after
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death is quite clearly evidence of nothing, or
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nothing other than what Shakespeare wanted them
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to say. If you were to cite their words as support
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for something beyond the circumstances of their
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invention, you would be making an appeal to fiction.
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Now, in quoting Shakespeare, Hurley can also
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be accused of making an argument from authority,
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rooted in the cultural and intellectual legacy
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of Will's playwriting. I suggest it was no accident
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he chose Hamlet and not Batman. Arguments from
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authorities seek to support a position by drawing
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on some other supposed expert or leader, typically
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one who may have favour with a particular audience
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but who doesn't have expertise in the field under
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discussion. My priest told me that vaccines are
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dangerous so my children aren't going to have
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any. Tom Cruise says we've got global warming
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all wrong and we don't have to worry about carbon
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emissions. Or perhaps that Shakespeare told me
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through the medium of Horatio that belief in
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an afterlife was reasonable. Important to note
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those first two are invented examples. No shade
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is here being thrown at Tom, and for once on
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this podcast, no shade is being thrown at priests.
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Whatever your views on celebrity Scientologists
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or clergy, neither can generally be considered
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expert in either immunisation or climate change.
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Even when the authority is an expert, caution
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is still required. The motto of the venerable
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scientific institution, the Royal Society is,
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on nobody's word. Or, as Carl Sagan said, mistrust
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arguments from authority. Authorities must prove
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their contentions like everyone else. Let's return
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our attention for a second to the making of arguments
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from fiction. If someone were to claim that children,
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when unsupervised by adults, perhaps on a desert
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island, will decline to savagery and then support
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this contention. using William Golding's Lord
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of the Flies, that someone was guilty of an appeal
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to fiction. The actual evidence of what children
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do when they're unsupervised by adults, including
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an example of when they were stranded on a desert
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island, suggests that survival instincts in prepubescent
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children is strong, leading to effective cooperation,
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appointment and assumption of appropriate leadership,
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and the protection of mutual interests. Now,
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if William Golding were writing up real events,
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we'd have something of evidential merit. But
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he wasn't. It's pure fiction. And it entertains
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a conjecture that children would behave in such
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a way. The irony here is that Golding was influenced
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by a story in which children behaved in a way
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Golding felt was too shaped by colonial propaganda.
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They behaved too Christian. And he began considering
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how children would actually behave. Perhaps influenced
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by his crowd control experience as a teacher.
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He was wrong. But his motive was well -founded,
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and it made great literature. Hurley's appeal
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to fiction is in his exploration of support for
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the Christian idea of an afterlife. In the play
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Hamlet, this is fine as long as the boundaries
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are respected, and there's no implication of
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any general relevance of the thoughts of the
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characters outside the play. Hurley fails to
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respect these boundaries, at least he does in
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our contention. The context of his story is Easter,
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a story of life after death, one that he clearly
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believes to be true. That being the case, the
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listener is owed precision from Hurley, so the
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lines between fiction, belief and fact are unblurred.
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Such is the pervasiveness of Shakespeare in modern
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English, and the esteem in which his works are
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rightly held. He provides a quote mine for anyone
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hoping that a dash of literary genius will rub
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off on their own work, simply by quoting. Hurley
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perfectly illustrates the ease with which you
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can lean on the works of great minds to support
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almost anything. Should, though, we choose to
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ignore the appeal to fiction itself or reach
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the conclusion that it's not quite what Hurley
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was attempting to do, it still apparently doesn't
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cross Hurley's mind that Hamlet and Horatio could
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simultaneously have held very different views
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on the afterlife. For this, we have a second
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clear. Reasoning error. Given Michael Hurley's
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erudition, I suspect that it did cross his mind,
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and if that were the case, the quotes were deliberately
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employed to manipulate the listener, which is
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much more interesting. Perhaps all Hurley was
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doing was seeking to add some contemporary relevance
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to the supernatural tales of the Gospels. When
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your subject is the birth of a Judean proto -religion,
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Shakespeare is comfortably in the realms of both
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the contemporary and, perhaps more conveniently,
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the credible. There is structure in this broadcast.
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It's been written with care. It does, though,
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seem strangely pointless, more an exercise in
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rhetoric than any attempt to put rhetoric to
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work. Right at the end, for instance, he talks
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of the calm before the holy storm. Today is a
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moment of intense, overbrimming, dramatic suspense.
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The quiet before the holy storm. Holy storm?
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What is this storm? The return of the word hallelujah
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to the church services? Or is it the eruption
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of joy following the penitence of Lent? Hardly
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a holy storm. Or is it a reference to the apocalypse
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of the second coming of Christ? Each of those
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possibilities seems to us to be, well... More
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than faintly ridiculous. Perhaps though this
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is evidence of experience. Experience for Mr
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Hurley, Professor Hurley, that it is less unpleasant
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to be accused of imprecision than for some logic
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troll on the internet to be given an easy target.
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Thank you for listening. If you'd like to learn
00:13:07.379 --> 00:13:10.899
more about what we do and why, or to read show
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notes,