# Moralistic fallacy

*Also called: Reverse naturalistic fallacy*

- **Cluster:** Values and premises — Hidden value claims doing the arguing
- **Page:** https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/moralistic/
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/fallacy/moralistic.md
- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## What it is

Concluding that something is not the case because it ought not to be.

## In the wild

> It ought not be true, so it is not.

## How to answer it

Keep the description and the evaluation in separate columns.

## Origin and naming

The moralistic fallacy is the naturalistic fallacy's mirror: where one argues from 'is' to 'ought', the other argues from 'ought' to 'is'. Bernard Davis named it in its current sense in a 1978 Nature article resisting calls to restrict basic biological research on the grounds that its findings might be misused — 'knowledge cannot be ensured against misuse, and misuse cannot falsify knowledge.'

## More places it shows up

- Asked whether a trait shows any heritable component, the committee refuses to fund the study: the question 'shouldn't have an answer', so it can't.
- A manager insists the team's workload is fair because an unfair distribution would demoralize everyone — the demoralization is the evidence.
- In the comments under a crime stat, someone declares the figure must be fabricated because publishing it would harm the community's reputation.
- A parent dismisses the diagnosis because accepting it would mean their child 'was born flawed', which a loving family doesn't do.

## How to spot it

- The answer arrives before the question is investigated, and the investigation is the thing being blocked.
- Notice the grammar: 'it can't be true' where the evidence would normally sit.
- The test is what the speaker would do with contrary data — if the answer is 'it must be wrong', you have found it.

## Nearby

- [Is-ought fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/is-ought.md)
- [Wishful thinking](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/wishful-thinking.md)
- [Appeal to consequences](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/consequences.md)

## Read more

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moralistic_fallacy)

---

From fallacy.wiki — a bilingual field guide to 91 logical fallacies, published by phi holdings. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse freely with attribution to fallacy.wiki.