Thursday, March 22nd, 2007
- Deductive argues from the whole top the parts. (the funnel is upside down)
- Beware of these unspoken premises that are too common to us all.
- It is true if I believe it (simple-minded)
- It is true if we believe it (group thinking)
- Majore categories of fallacies
- Formal - mistakes in reasoning resulting from failure to follow the rules for the formal structure of valid arguments. Such arguments “break form” by breaking the rules of logic.
- Informal - mistakes in reasoning due to carelessness regarding the relevance of ideas unclear use of language, and use of expression of material
- Argumentum Ad Hominem
- Appeal to the man (making the argument)
- Also known as “the genetic fallacy.”
- Attempts to rebut a claim by criticizing it’s source, irrelevant attack on the person, not his or her claim
- Eg. You can’t take him serious, because he’s a liberal.
- Straw Man
- Attempt to refute by exaggerating or distorting or misrepresenting via setting up a parallel case that is easier to burn down.
- E.g. Attempting to refute Darwinism, Bishop Wilberforce asked, “Is it credible that all favorable varieties of turnips are tending to become man?”
- Argumentum Ad Populum
- Appeal to the crowd/popular view
- Also known as group think or crowd think.
- Seeks to strengthen a claim by appealing to the passions, prejudices of the listeners
- Eg. “Look around - everyone in a gym can see that the refs are biased against us!”
- Argumentum Ad Baculum
- Appeal to force
- Employs threat/intimidation and tools to force persuasion
- E.g. “If you don’t shut up, I’m going to get my big brother to come over and beat you up.”
- Petito Principii
- Begging the question
- Occurs when the conclusion of an argument is already present, so the question goes “begging” - unanswered.
- E.g. “what is the reason for the rising divorce rate?” / “the rate is rising because more marriages are breaking up”
- Argumentum Ad Ignorance
- Appeal to ignorance
- Affirms the truth of something by claiming a lack of evidence to the contrary
- E.g. “you can’t argue for life after death because there is no evidence of anyone returning from the dead to tell us about it”
- Post Hoc Ergo Properter Hoc
- Argument from false cause
- A claim w/out sufficient evidence. Because A is before B, therefore A caused B.
- Slippery Slope
- Claim made without sufficient evidence that one event will necessarily domino into some other more disastrous event
- E.g. If university campuses provide free condoms, promiscuity will become the norm, male-female relationships will become corrupt and the institution of marriage will die.
- Red Herring Smokescreen
- Also called “attention span fallacy”
- Failing to answer a question by sending the question off target’ drawing a smoked herring across the path to confuse hunting dogs
- E.g. “did you bet on reds games when you were a player?” / “everyone makes mistakes, even me.”
- Hasty Generalization
- Also known as “over generalization” (cp to “sensible generalization”)
- Tends to draw conclusions that are applied to most/all and based on minimal anecdotal or slim empirical evidence
- Don’t say, “all/most”
- Argument from Outrage
- Also the “rush limbaugh fallacy”
- Cases attempted based on disgust, sharp insults and high decibel level. Distorts a person/position with a flurry of sarcasm
- False analogy
- attempts to explain relatively unfamiliar or opaque ideas by referring to something different but more familiar. “This is that.”
- E.g. If you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs
- Changing the Story
- Also known as “fuzzing up” or spin, spin, spin!
- generally diverting the issue to an effort to cloud it up, cover over, blur or spin the issue in an effort to redirect the argument
- E.g. “what has become your original justification for the war.” / “saddam hussein was a bad man, and the world is a better place without him”
- False Dichotomy
- Generally the mistaken assumption that there are only two possible solutions to a problem
- this fallacy is designed to paint an opponent into a corenr and even force a specific decision
- E.g. “It was lies or lives.”
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