Refraction (Bent Thinking) of the #34

Hypothesis Contrary To Fact: Beginning an argument with a hypothetical statement in which the antecedent (the   historically possible situation) is generally known to be false (it never happened).  Refutation: From a logical perspective, you cannot negate the “if” portion of hypothetical sentence and draw a conclusion from it (see the section on arguments on my Critical Reasoning site). Example:  Adam: Betty, if contraceptives had not been made readily available to our generation, we would not be seeing the epidemic of STD’s that we have today. Side Note: The best response back is to say, “It did not happen that way…period.  It is a complete waste of time to argue how things would be different today if the past were different. It is all speculation.