Rökhugsun

Rökhugsun is a term used in Icelandic discourse to denote faulty or illogical thinking. It refers to forms of reasoning where conclusions do not adequately follow from premises, or where cognitive processes lead to mistaken judgments despite evidence. The notion encompasses cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and other non-rational patterns such as motivated or emotionally driven reasoning.

Etymology: The word combines rökr or rök, related to reason or logic, with hugsun meaning thought. In Icelandic, rökhugsun is commonly contrasted with well-supported, coherent, and evidence-based thinking.

In academic contexts, rökhugsun is studied in philosophy, rhetoric, and cognitive psychology as part of critical thinking. It is not simply a matter of disagreement, but of systematic flaws that undermine arguments, including errors in inference, irrelevant appeals, unsound generalizations, and failure to apply relevant evidence.

Common forms include non sequiturs, affirming the consequent, straw man arguments, ad hominem attacks, post hoc fallacies, and biased memory or selective evidence. Cognitive biases such as confirmation bias, availability, and anchoring can also produce rökhugsun by distorting evaluation of information.

Mitigation strategies emphasize critical thinking: evaluating premises, seeking counterevidence, distinguishing correlation from causation, and using formal or informal logic. Education and careful argumentation help reduce rökhugsun, though it is often reinforced by heuristics and social influences.

See also: critical thinking, logical fallacy, cognitive bias, epistemology, rationality.