Erroneous reasoning based solely on numeric metrics
Not to be confused with McNamara's folly.
The McNamara fallacy (also known as the quantitative fallacy),[1] named for Robert McNamara, the US Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968, involves making a decision based solely on quantitative observations (or metrics) and ignoring all others. The reason given is often that these other observations cannot be proven.
But when the McNamara discipline is applied too literally, the first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. The second step is to disregard that which can't easily be measured or given a quantitative value. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily really isn't important. The fo[u]rth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide.
— Daniel Yankelovich, "Interpreting the New Life Styles", Sales Management (1971)[2]
The quote originally referred to McNamara's ideology during the two months that he was president of Ford Motor Company, but has since been interpreted to refer to his attitudes during the Vietnam War.
^Fischer, D. H. (June 1970). Historians' fallacies: toward a logic of historical thought. Harper torchbooks (first ed.). New York: HarperCollins. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-06-131545-9. OCLC 185446787.
^Yankelovich, Daniel (November 15, 1971). "Interpreting the New Life Styles". Sales Management, the Marketing Magazine. Dartnell Corporation. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
The McNamarafallacy (also known as the quantitative fallacy), named for Robert McNamara, the US Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968, involves making...
contain fallacies. Because of their variety, fallacies are challenging to classify. They can be classified by their structure (formal fallacies) or content...
Robert McNamara". CNN. Archived from the original on June 14, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2010. Blight, James G.; Lang, Janet M. (2007). "Robert Mcnamara: Then...
An etymological fallacy is an argument of equivocation, arguing that a word is defined by its etymology, and that its customary usage is therefore incorrect...
Argument from fallacy is the formal fallacy of analyzing an argument and inferring that, since it contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false. It...
up verisimilitude in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Imagination McNamarafallacy Truthiness "Truthlikeness, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Retrieved...
A straw man fallacy (sometimes written as strawman) is the informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion,...
argument from consensus authority of the many bandwagon fallacy common belief fallacy democratic fallacy mob appeal[citation needed] truth by association consensus...
The regression (or regressive) fallacy is an informal fallacy. It assumes that something has returned to normal because of corrective actions taken while...
fallacy of the single cause, also known as complex cause, causal oversimplification, causal reductionism, root cause fallacy, and reduction fallacy,...
The conjunction fallacy (also known as the Linda problem) is an inference that a conjoint set of two or more specific conclusions is likelier than any...
The Texas sharpshooter fallacy is an informal fallacy which is committed when differences in data are ignored, but similarities are overemphasized. From...
The fallacy of composition is an informal fallacy that arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some...
In philosophical ethics, the naturalistic fallacy is the claim that it is possible to define good in terms of natural entities, or properties such as...
No true Scotsman or appeal to purity is an informal fallacy in which one attempts to protect an a posteriori claim from a falsifying counterexample by...
categorized among informal fallacies, more precisely as a genetic fallacy, a subcategory of fallacies of irrelevance. Ad hominem fallacies can be separated into...
Western philosophy – a similar epistemological reductionist standard McNamarafallacy – Erroneous reasoning based solely on numeric metrics Alder, Michael...
this is called the slippery slope fallacy. This is a type of informal fallacy, and is a subset of continuum fallacy, in that it ignores the possibility...
compromise, argument from middle ground, fallacy of gray, middle ground fallacy, or golden mean fallacy—is the fallacy that the truth is always in the middle...
The nirvana fallacy is the informal fallacy of comparing actual things with unrealistic, idealized alternatives. It can also refer to the tendency to...
street, because that's where the light is. It has no other choice." McNamarafallacy – Erroneous reasoning based solely on numeric metrics David H. Freedman...
The genetic fallacy (also known as the fallacy of origins or fallacy of virtue) is a fallacy of irrelevance in which arguments or information are dismissed...
question or assuming the conclusion (Latin: petītiō principiī) is an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument's premises assume the truth of the conclusion...
argument. The argument from authority is a logical fallacy (also known as ad verecundiam fallacy), and obtaining knowledge in this way is fallible. However...
equivocation ("calling two different things by the same name") is an informal fallacy resulting from the use of a particular word/expression in multiple senses...
number of informal fallacies have been identified, including the fallacy of equivocation, the fallacy of amphiboly, the fallacies of composition and division...