no true Scotsman fallacy

noun

An informal fallacy in which one attempts to defend or protect an a posteriori claim from a falsifying counterexample by covertly modifying the initial claim, especially transforming it into a tautology by saying that any counterexamples are ipso facto not valid members of the class being described.

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Meanings

nounno true Scotsman fallacy (plural no true Scotsman fallacies)

plural no true Scotsman fallacies

  1. An informal fallacy in which one attempts to defend or protect an a posteriori claim from a falsifying counterexample by covertly modifying the initial claim, especially transforming it into a tautology by saying that any counterexamples are ipso facto not valid members of the class being described.

Origin

Attributed to the English philosopher Antony Flew, from his 1966 book God & Philosophy: :In this ungracious move a brash generalization, such as No Scotsmen put sugar on their porridge, when faced with falsifying facts, is transformed while you wait into an impotent tautology: if ostensible Scotsmen put sugar on their porridge, then this is by itself sufficient to prove them not true Scotsmen.

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Cite this entry
APA

no true Scotsman fallacy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/no%20true%20Scotsman%20fallacy

MLA

“no true Scotsman fallacy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/no%20true%20Scotsman%20fallacy. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “no true Scotsman fallacy,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/no%20true%20Scotsman%20fallacy.

Source: no true Scotsman fallacy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.