The Boring Fallacy

So, So Boring

Jostling for preeminence among the common daily fallacies that corrupt our thinking and lead our actions astray, the pernicious boring fallacy takes the trophy. The boring fallacy is an inference from the self-evident premise I am bored by x to the unjustified conclusion x is boring. In fact, it is really just a species of non sequitur that gains false plausibility from the systematically misleading nature of two expressions: “this is boring” and “I am bored.”¹

The grammatical structure of “this is boring” implies that “this” possesses some quality of boringness or is performing the action of boring while, conversely, “I am bored” implies that “I,” as the grammatical subject of a passive verb, am receiving the action of another (hence, the expression can be converted into the active phrase, “this is boring me” without altering the sense). In reality, however, there is no existing objective quality of boringness in things, nor an action of boring another, as much as you might think I’m doing it to you now. The only reality that corresponds to the expressions “is boring” and “am bored” is a subjective mental or spiritual state of the one who thinks or utters the phrase (it is tempting to say there is only a subjective state of “being bored” but that falls right back into the trap of the passive voice).

To beat this horse dead,² “this is boring” is inversely analogous to another systematically misleading expression: “I am popular” (not just factually incorrect, but also grammatically misleading). It looks like I’m talking about myself, but I’m really talking about all the people who like me. Popularity doesn’t exist as a property of the one called “popular,” it has to exist as the feeling, liking so-and-so, that is present in another.³ Similarly, it looks like we’re talking about “this” being boring when we’re really talking about ourselves.

It would be beneficial if we could change the language to eradicate this particular systematically misleading expression; if, instead of saying “I am bored” we said, “I am shallow,” “lack resourcefulness,” “am neglectful of duty,” or “am powwowing with the noonday devil.” Barring this extraordinary feat, we could at least think retroactively to ourselves, this is a boring fallacy.

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1. The locus classicus for systematically misleading expressions is Gilbert Ryle, “Systematically Misleading Expressions” (published somewhere and findable through google). It’s a fun philosophy paper that everyone (who isn’t boring) should read (even though Ryle narrows the scope of Philosophy further than he should).

2. But not to beat a dead horse. I’ll kill the horse, but then I’ll leave it alone.

3. I owe this example to Dr. Michael Gorman.