FALLACIES -- MALFORMED ARGUMENTS.
Fallacies may be used to support good conclusions, and false conclusions may include good arguments. But a fallacy is not itself a good reason to believe anything. Here are a few examples.
INDUCTIVE FALLACIES -- false analogy/unrepresentative sample, exclusion of evidence, slothful induction. Premises are based on samples that do not properly represent those involved in the conclusion, either because the samples are too few or too odd, or because some factor or pattern has been excluded from the sample population or ignored.
- The quarterback failed chem, so jocks are dumb.
- "My roommate's chem class was hard, and mine's hard, too. Chem's just hard."
- “To see if Bush would win the next election, we polled thousands of people in Venice, California”
- "Jim has arrived prepped for each essay this semester, so we can expect him to arrive prepared for the final (even though he’s running a fever of 103 degrees, his car just burst into flames on the 57 and his mother reported him to the IRS."
- “I always get ridiculously busy at the end of the semester, but it’s not bad planning: Things just happen that I don’t expect.”
DEDUCTIVE FALLACY - A thinker considers that the relations between two ideas determine the nature of a third idea. If any relation in a chain of reasoning is not valid, the conclusion, correct or incorrect, is not supported.
FALLACIES OF DISTRACTION - Irrelevant conclusions.
- False Dilemma - The thinker presumes that fewer options exist than those that may exist.
- "Either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists."
- Complex Question - .Two distinct statements are treated as inseparable.
- "Do you support our troops and the war in Iraq?"
- Slippery Slope - One idea is related to another similar (or dissimilar!) idea.
- "“If we allow same-sex marriage, pretty soon we’ll have to honor marriages to multiple partners, then to animals.”
- Argument from Ignorance - If it cannot be proven, it must be false.
- "In over 2,000 years, no one has proven that God exists, so obviously She doesn’t.”
- Attacking the person (not the argument) -
- "The Pope just believes that because he's Catholic."
- "You were never poor (or old, or left-handed) so you just don't understand."
- “You say pot hurts my studies, but you do seem to like your whisky sours.”
- Style over Substance - Judging whether something's true or false by how it's presented.
- "How can you believe Bush? The guy can’t say three sentences without putting his foot in his mouth.”
- “But that’s just why I trust him: He’s so downto-earth and anti-intellectual.”
- Appeal to Authority (particularly anonymous authority) -- It's true because some authority says so.
- “Oprah says Bill Clinton’s autobiography is one of the best books written this year.”
- "Starbucks says espresso over ice is a great way to chill.”
- “But I read right in The National Enquirer where experts say it’s so!”
- "Flies have four legs: Aristotle said so!”
APPEAL TO MOTIVE - Whether the conclusion is convenient or not has nothing to do with its truth.
- Prejudicial Language - Something's held to have certain characteristics because of a term applied to it.
- Operation Iraqi Freedom?”
- "If you don’t support the Patriot Act, you must not be patriotic.”
- “If you don’t like Affirmative Action, what is it you prefer? Negative action or inaction?”
- Appeal to Pity, Force, or Popularity
- “I worked so hard on this handout that you students must consider it brilliant and interesting.”
- Lucy Van Pelt, speaking to Linus, says,“I’ll give you five good reasons: (wrapping her fingers one by one into a fist) : one, two, three, four, five.” "
- Look, we’re right because we can do it,
- It works, so it's right.”
- “It’s just common sense.”
- "Joe Basketball wears Flying A sneakers.
CAUSE AND EFFECT FALLACIES -
- Coincidental Correlation - One thing follows another, so someone assumes a causal relationship.
- “Jim caused a quake. The week after he moved to L.A. and started talking about quakes, one happened.”
- Complex Cause or Insignificant Cause - Ignores the various causes of an action to concentrate on one or a few.
- Joint Effect - The same phenomenon is treated at once as its own cause and effect.
- "Violence against the population was caused by the invasion."
- Reverse Cause/Effect - "I don't revise essays because I'm a lousy writer anyway."
2 comments:
I'm a bit confused on the whole assignment. Though the readings were interesting I'm not sure what we are supposed to write about concerning them. Are we supposed to pick one and write about the menaing, or make up our own?
Can i get someone to thoroughly explain the direction of the assignment. I'm really behind, and really need to get caught up.
-The one who's missed toooo much class!- See you this Friday. Promise!
Repost from other Comments. I posted under the wrong one:
One of the fallacies that I wanted to bring up in class, but was never given the chance to, was an ad-hom on a particular Internet Forum that I frequent. I am an avid beer "enthusiast" as I choose to refer to myself as. Snob is more appropriate most of the time, but I digress. I drink a lot of beer and post my impressions of beer. The nuances of the types of malts used, the yeast strain, water source. Etc. I have become very adept at noticing certain flavors dependent on those above factors. There are tastes of Pine, green apples, grapefruit, musty flavors that remind myself of rustic truffles, etc. There is a particular beer that I tried that even I found nearly undrinkable.
To provide some background. Hops are a type of dried grain that is one of the main ingredients in beer production. It is used both as a preservative and bittering agent for the beer. The more hops used, the more sugars there are for the yeast to turn to Alcohol, and the more stalwart the brew becomes. The more hops, the more alcohol and especially the amount of bitterness increases. Measured by the term IBU; International Bittering Units. Continuing, there is a beer from Dogfish Head Brewery that makes and sells a 120 Minute IPA, IPA is an India Pale Ale, a beer traditionally brewed with a lot of hops originally for shipment from Britian to India. A lot of hops are added to make a beer to endure the trip, sending the IBU's skyward.
This "beer" is continually dry hopped for 120 minutes, then wet hopped every day for 120 days from the first date of production. To provide a background example, your normal run of the mill mass produced american crap lager from Budweiser or Coors is somewhere in the low double digits, 15 IBU's, your high IPA's and Double IPA's can reach the 70's to 80's, which is already very very bitter. The 120 Minute IPA has a IBU rating of near, you guessed it, 120 IBU's. This is so profoundly bitter that all but the most experienced and aged of beer drinkers can stomach that much bitters. The type of Hops used in this beer is predominantly Cascade Hops, which is grown in the Pacific Northwest. Because of that, it imparts a strong pine needle flavor to the beer along with the incredible amount of bitterness and Alcohol (Alcohol level is 20%).
I stated, very plainly, that this is like drinking fermented tree sap. I was attacked for not being a "man" and not being to handle such a fine ale. That someone with my name (coincedentally, that is also pocky is god) that someone with such a childish name, named after a candy, doesn't have the palatte necessary to have an opinion.
Which is a typical ad-hom fallacy. What does my name have to do with what I think a beer tastes like? It serves no purpose other than to make the attacker open to criticism for using an ad hom attack. We argued back and forth and eventually we "agreed to disagree". Which is a cop out at best.
Remember kids, beer is good but don't be intimidated by bullies. Try different kinds, I'm sure there is something for everyone.
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