Agree. I certainly was in place of Alice having a conversation like “But is there X? Here. Oh, but it isn’t really X, because it isn’t Y. Here Y. But it isn’t Z!” which even from inside started to feel like making up excuses to reject the evidence, until I looked into more general situation and noticed that no, the thing I was talking about clearly was real, I just didn’t notice how I gave imperfect verbal definition and then that definition became more salient than initial concept, so I became unsure where those “No, it isn’t” come from.
It actually reminds me Non Central Example Fallacy. The situation may become much worse if Bob consciously or subconsciously gives examples which fit the formal given definition, but aim to not actually fit into concept. Something like “What are famous criminals? Martin Luther King. But he isn’t really a criminal, because he is not bad. Then Vladimir Putin, he commits warcrimes. No, he isn’t making them personally! Then Prigozhin.”, it can be really hard if the actually looked for is something Ted Bundy.
Agree. I certainly was in place of Alice having a conversation like “But is there X? Here. Oh, but it isn’t really X, because it isn’t Y. Here Y. But it isn’t Z!” which even from inside started to feel like making up excuses to reject the evidence, until I looked into more general situation and noticed that no, the thing I was talking about clearly was real, I just didn’t notice how I gave imperfect verbal definition and then that definition became more salient than initial concept, so I became unsure where those “No, it isn’t” come from.
It actually reminds me Non Central Example Fallacy. The situation may become much worse if Bob consciously or subconsciously gives examples which fit the formal given definition, but aim to not actually fit into concept. Something like “What are famous criminals? Martin Luther King. But he isn’t really a criminal, because he is not bad. Then Vladimir Putin, he commits warcrimes. No, he isn’t making them personally! Then Prigozhin.”, it can be really hard if the actually looked for is something Ted Bundy.