Transcript Rhetorical Dirty Tricks - College of the Redwoods

Rhetorical Dirty Tricks Part 2:
Induction Fallacies
Deductive
Inductive
Premises demonstrate or prove
the conclusion.
Premises support the
conclusion.
Validity: It isn’t possible for the
premise to be true and the
conclusion to be false.
Support happens in degrees:
probability & strong vs. weak
arguments.
Soundness: The premise is true
and argument is valid.
We have to evaluate the
weight of the support (BOC &
IBE).
Generalizing
What is it?
Tell us what seems to be
generally true about
Why do it?
How do we do it?
CR students
CR math teachers
CR English teachers
CR counselors and advisors
CR cafeteria food
The Sample Needs to be Sufficient & Representative
Hasty Generalization
CR students
(generalizing from too few
cases, fallacy of small sample
CR math teachers
or fallacy of the lonely fact)
Argument by Anecdote
CR English teachers
Generalizing from
Exceptional Cases
CR counselors and advisors
CR cafeteria food
Biased Sample
Self-Selection Fallacy
Homework
2. Stress bad for you? That’s a myth. I
know all sorts of type A people who
are in excellent health.
10. I tried to by a portable heater from
the Saber Company last winter, and it
was back-ordered. After a month, I just
generalizing from exceptional cases cancelled and decided not to do any
more business with them.
hasty generalization
4. I had a great time at the party last
night; I’ll be all university parties are
great.
14. These days young people don’t like
expensive cars. You hardly ever see a
hasty generalization
teen ager driving a Maserati.
hasty generalization
8. Most Americans watch American
Idol. That’s clear since over one million
people cast votes on the season finale. 22. Given the right circumstances,
humans will always revert to savages.
hasty generalization
Look at the Nazis.
generalizing from exceptional cases
Analogies
What are they?
Why do we use them?
CR students in MW
classes buy more Coke
than Pepsi in the
cafeteria, so I’ll be CR
students in TTH classes
will buy more Coke than
Pepsi too.
Weak Analogy & False Analogy
Lack of fundamental, relevant
similarities.
Presence of fundamental, relevant
dissimilarities.
CR students taking night classes
want the library to be open on
weekends, so I’ll be CR students
taking day classes want the library
to be open on weekends too.
Homework
3. These university kids drink
like crazy on Halloween and
St. Patrick’s Day. They
probably drink like crazy on
Christmas, too.
weak analogy
6. Salmon is very bad for
dogs. You shouldn’t let your
cat eat it either, I guess.
weak analogy
13. The professor is a fantastic
teacher. He should run for
congress.
weak analogy
21. You would not go in the
woods if you knew there were
bears in there, and the same
thing, therefore, holds for
getting into a bear market.
Hang onto your money until
the market changes.
weak analogy
Appeals to Emotion, Authority,
Common Belief, & Tradition or
Common Practice
What is “an appeal”?
How do we make appeals?
Why would we make
appeals?
When do they work & when
do they fail (or become
“faulty appeals”)
The appeal has to be
appropriate to the
circumstances.
When might it be
appropriate to appeal to
offer an emotional appeal?
An appeal to authority,
common belief, or tradition?
Homework
5. The prayer leader cured her
rheumatism. She said he did, and
who would know better than she?
faulty appeal to authority
18. My son thinks Galaxies are
better than iPhones, and he should
know since he is a teenager.
faulty appeal to authority
19. I’m putting my money in a
Vanguard account. My history
teacher think the firm has the best
mutual funds, and he is a smart
man.
faulty appeal to authority
I think we should give Jack a raise.
He doesn’t have any spending
money at all, and he’s always
having to make excuses about not
being able to go out with the rest
of his friends because of that. Jill,
on the other hand, seems to be
getting along just fine on her
salary.”
You know, our third grader’s
friend Joe comes from an
impoverished family. He looks to
me as though he doesn’t get
enough to eat. I think I’m going
to start inviting him have dinner
at our house one or twice a
week.
Statistics show that flying is much safer than
driving. So why put your family at risk? This
summer, travel the safe way: fly United Airlines.
If you ask me, I think ending your relationship with
Brittany is a big mistake. Remember that she stuck
by you last year when you really needed
somebody. Should you really repay her by
dumping her?
Letter to the editor: “Your food section frequently
features recipes with veal, and your ads say veal is
a wholesome, nutritious food. Well, I have a
different opinion of veal. Do you know how it
comes to be on your plate? At birth, a newborn
calf is separated from its mother, placed in a dark
enclosure, and chained by its neck so it cannot
move freely. This limits muscular development so
that the animal is tender. It is kept in the dark pen
until the day it is cruelly slaughtered.”
Fallacies of Cause and Effect
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc: “After this;
therefore, because of this.”
Cum Hoc, Ergo, Propter Hoc: With this;
therefore, because of this.
How can we determine that one event is the
cause of another event?
Complications in Cause & Effect Claims
Overlooking the possibility of
coincidence.
Overlooking a possible
common cause.
Overlooking the possibility of
random variation.
Overlooking the possibility of
regression.
Students in my 8:30 am class were
completely uninterested in my
lecture and falling asleep, so I
added some jokes to the lecture
for my 10:00 class, and the class
loved the lecture. I’m going to
start adding jokes to all my
lectures.
I gave the class a short quiz at the
beginning of class, and the
students scored far below average.
After listening the lecture and
being retested, students scored
closer to the average on the quiz.
I guess the lecture worked well.
Homework
12.The heart attack rate spikes
the day clocks are set ahead for
daylight saving time,
demonstrating how time change
can affect our health.
cum hoc
24. My student evaluations
were better this year. I’ll be
it’s because I had to cancel
class two times.
post hoc
15. Prostate cancer is almost
unheard of in countries where
they don’t eat meat, proof
positive that mean in your diet
will lead to prostate cancer.
cum hoc
25. Statistics show that
smokers disproportionately
come from low-income areas.
We are trying to figure what it
is about poverty that makes
people smoke.
cum hoc
Fallacy of Accident: Assuming that a General
Principle Applies to an Exceptional Case
7. You have to stand up for what
you believe. Ignore it if your wife
complains about how fast you’re
driving.
9. ONE GUY: The guy Paulson
shot had climbed through a
window and was coming down
the darkened hallway.
ANOTHER GUY: Doesn’t matter;
he still should have been charged
with murder because the guy he
shot was unarmed.
17. The new law says everybody
who takes a firearms course can
carry a concealed weapon, so I
don’t see why I can’t take my
gun to school.
20. Be prepared. We are
traveling to a Third World
country; there won’t be any
good hotels.
23. We live in a democracy.
That’s why children should be
allowed to vote.
What’s wrong with
socialism? I’ll tell you
what’s wrong with
socialism. Americans don’t
like it. That’s what wrong
with socialism.
“Everybody or most
people or many believe X
is right/true/good, so X
must be right/true/good.”
So you want to know why
you should try to do well on
these logic exercises in class
today? I’ll tell you: because
if you don’t, I’ll ask you to
leave and not return.
Scare tactics and Argument by Force.
Threatening rather than reasoning.
Motivating by fear rather than reason.
Some people have
the gift of psychic
power and can
read minds. Don’t
believe me? Name
one scientists or
identify one study
that proves no one
has psychic power.
There are very good reasons for the death
penalty. First, it serve as a deterrent to those
who would commit capital offenses. Second, it is
just and fair punishment for the crime committed.
Third, reliable polls show that over 70% of all
Americans favor it.
Why should I put a note on this guy’s car that I
just dented? Do you think he’d put a note on my
car if he put a dent in it?
Can I prove the Biblical flood really happened?
Hey, can you prove it didn’t?
There is no evidence against
the theory of evolution, so
until someone produces that
evidence, I’m going to accept the theory as a
credible one.
Animal rights people shouldn’t
pick on rodeos about animal
treatment. If they’d come out
and see the clowns put smiles
on kids’ faces and see horses
buck off the cowboys and hear
the crowd go “ooh” and “ahh”
at the bullriding, why, then,
they’d change their minds.
An irrelevancy brought in
to “support” a claim or to
distract one from the
issue.
Can I prove the Biblical flood really happened?
Of course it happened! Why else would Noah
build an ark?
Stephen Colbert: “George W. Bush: great
president or greatest president?”
I believe that when we die, we are all given new,
young, perfect bodies, and we spend eternity with
those whom we love. I can’t imagine the point of life
if it all just ends when we die!
“Historically, marriage has been restricted to
heterosexual couples. Therefore, it’s right to restrict
marriage to heterosexual couples.”
“You’re giving me grief for downloading music on a
P2P network?? Please. Who doesn’t do that these
days?
Hands off our freedom, atheists
Letter to the editor, Times Standard 08/29/2013
I agree with Dr. Lawrence's “My Word” (”Atheists' lawsuits disrespect our
nation,” Times-Standard, Aug. 20, Page A4). I am so sick and tired of atheists
attacking us Christians with idiotic lawsuits. We don't try to sue atheists
because they don't believe in God. If atheists want respect, they should be
respectful. They twist the Constitution claiming that separation of church
and state means no prayer, and no religion at all in any government office.
That is not what separation of church and state means! It was put in the
Constitution so the government couldn't tell us how to worship. The
pilgrims came to America to escape religious persecution. My problem with
atheists isn't because they don't believe like I do. My problem with them is
their constant complaining and whining and filing silly expensive lawsuits.
The only aim of such lawsuits has nothing at all to do with the Constitution
but it is to take away the freedom of Christians. We are told by atheists that
we can pray in church or at home but that we shouldn't pray in public. They
tell us where we can display nativity scenes. They want prayer out of the
schools. It wasn't very far back in history that schoolhouses were used as
churches on Sundays. If atheists don't want to be labeled as negative then
they need to keep their hands off our freedom! No, Dr. Lawrence, you need
not apologize. The atheists need to give us Christians an apology.
Becky Payton , Eureka