Arbitrary

Some ideas have a basis. If you didn't have the knowledge that some ideas have a basis or proof of some kind, it would be impossible for you to identify an idea as being without a basis, in other words, arbitrary.

The arbitrary is a claim with no basis—neither perceptual nor conceptual—it is neither true nor false. Arbitrary claims are not merely a linguistic issue but a cognitive one. A claim is not arbitrary if it is made within a Context where evidence is accessible, even if not verbalized. Arbitrary means detached from any rational, contextually available evidence.

In effect it is a blind cognitive whim adhering to no logical rules or standards, merely uttered by fiat. This definition can be induced from examples where arbitrary claims provide no probative observations or logical arguments:

• Past Lives as an Example of The Arbitrary
• Johnny Cochran at the O.J. Trial Claiming a Police Conspiracy

You can run through the rest: demonic possession, astrology, God, all the right-wing conspiracy theorists who think the Council of Foreign Relations or Jewish bankers or whatever are causing the state of the world, etc.

Any such statement deserves no epistemological consideration or attention at all; Your proper attitude should be as though the statement simply had not been made, cognitively speaking, which means it is not your responsibility to refute arbitrary assertions. In other words, it is a fundamental error on your part if you even try to do this.^[1] The rational procedure in the face of an arbitrary assertion is simply to dismiss it at once without further discussion or argumentation, merely identifying that it’s arbitrary and as such inadmissible.

Why? Well, the basic reason is metaphysical. It’s the fact that existence exists and that only existence exists i.e. there is no nothing.