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FALLACIES

Radioactive Area KEEP OUT !!!

Definition of Fallacy

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Fallacies are flaws in the way reasoning and evidence is used in an argument.

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Sometimes people are intentionally fallacious in order to manipulate, and sometimes they are not aware of their fallacies.

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As critical thinkers, we must learn to recognize these fallacies —especially in the media, in politics, with your professors, peers, or anyone else who tries to influence/persuade you.

Faulty logic and arguments often appear to be correct.

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Informal Fallacies

: – Arguments that are flawed because of mistaken assumptions in the premises, errors in language, misuse of evidence, or violation of argument principles.

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Formal Fallacies

: – These occur because of mistakes in the logical structure of the argument in terms of syllogisms.

Fallacies of Appeal

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Ad Hominem

: Attacking the person instead of the argument.

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Appeal to Ignorance

his/her claim is wrong.

: Claiming an argument to be ignorant by shifting the burden of proof. In other words, instead of providing grounds, the person making a claim asks the opponent to prove •

Appeal to Pity/Fear

: Exploitation of pathos.

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Ad Populum or Bandwagon

: Because the majority believes it, than you should too.

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Reductio ad Absurdum

: Extending an argument absurd lengths .

KEEP OUT !!!

Fallacies of Logic

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Circular Reasoning

: assumes as one of its premises the very conclusion it sets out to establish. The person merely keeps repeating the claims.

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Non Sequitur

: it does not necessarily follow. There’s no connective thinking linking the grounds to the conclusion drawn from the claim.

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Red Herring

: diversionary tactic. Transfers relevancy to another topic. We transfer attention from one thing to another —deliberately misleading the argument.

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Straw Figure

: instead of attacking the actual argument, we create a “scarecrow,” an irrelevant and distracting issue and we easily knock it down to make ourselves look good and our opponent stupid.

Other Types of Fallacies

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The Slippery Slope

in that direction.

: consists of making the false assumption that taking the first step in any direction will inevitably lead to dangerous lengths •

False Dichotomy or Either/Or

: giving your opponent only 2 alternatives.

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Post Hoc

: after the event, or therefore because of the event, the consequent happened.

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Hasty Generalization

sample of the group.

: drawing a conclusion about a whole group based on an inadequate •

False Analogy

: because of 2 or more things are similar in a few respects, they must be similar in some further respect.

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Appeal to Loyalty

: an action should be taken based only on the need to be loyal to the group.

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Tu Quoque

: “you too,” two wrongs make a right, or common practice. Also claiming that because a person can’t live up to his/her own standards, then the standards must be wrong.

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Hourse/Horse Laugh

: responding to an argument with an expression of derision instead of a counterargument.

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False Consolation

: arguing that someone is not really harmed because things could be worse, or pointing out what one has to be thankful for.

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Misplaced Authority

: because a certain celebrity believes it, we should too.

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Class Exercise: Identifying Fallacies

We don’t need mandatory lawn watering rules in our city because the people I know do a good job of conserving water.

Mothers should either stay home with their kids, or we will have an increase in juvenile delinquency.

Either you support homeless causes or consider yourself a very prejudicial, uncompassionate person.

What’s the big deal? I watch porno movies all the time and I’m not a rapist.

Man, what a witch! She must be having a bad PMS day. She doesn’t know anything about running the company.

The real problem is not Bill Clinton’s lies, it’s Ken Starr’s witch hunt.

The Tea Partiers are terrorists.

You can’t expect insight and credibility from the recent book The

Feminist Challenge

author, David Bouchier, is a man.

because its A group of self appointed “life-style police” are pushing to control our daily lives. If they succeed, we lose our basic right to free choice. Today they’re targeting smoking. What’s next? Red meat? Coffee? If 50 million smokers can lose their rights anyone can.

Religious people are irrational.

Dr. Smith told me I was overweight. If he’s such an expert, why is he fat?

Anyone who cares about this country will vote Democrat in the elections.

Opponents of President Obama are racists.

Why should we listen to a bunch of drugged-out wackos? What do they know about welfare?

Immigration is one the rise, therefore crime will also rise.

If we legalize marijuana, then all drugs will eventually become legalized.

Thousands of people are killed in car crashes, yet we continue to license drivers. Few people have been killed in nuclear accidents in this country, yet nuclear power plants are banned in many parts of the U.S.