FALLACIES: FAULTY REASONING
Today’s notes:
As in other classes, memorizing isn’t as important as knowing where to
find information or recognizing that an argument “sounds wrong”.
“Picking out fallacies is more art than science. Some arguments are bad but not
fallacies, and some arguments are so bad that they could very well be more than
one kind of fallacy. Getting the name of the fallacy right is far less important than
understanding why the argument in question is a bad argument.”
Keep this handout! You will use it throughout the term/year.
FAULTY REASONING
Fallacies in Argument
Websites Consulted and Quoted:
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http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/
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http://carm.org/logical-fallacies-or-fallacies-argumentation
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http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/identifyingunderstanding-fallacies-used-785.html?tab=4#tabs
•
http://literarydevices.net/ad-hominem/
•
http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalfallacies/fl/Suppressed-Evidence-Fallacy.htm
Fallacy
•An argument that relies upon faulty reasoning
• A false or misleading idea, deceptive appearance
1. Ad Hominem
• Attacking the individual instead of the argument.
• Example:
You are so stupid your argument couldn't possibly be
true.
• Example: He’s not a great athlete; he’s a fraud, a cheat and a
liar.
• Example: I figured that you couldn't possibly get it right, so I
ignored your comment.
• Example: “How can you argue your case for vegetarianism
when you are enjoying your steak?”
2. Appeal to Force
• Telling the hearer that something bad will happen to
him if he does not accept the argument.
•
Example: If you don't want to get beaten up, you will agree with what I say.
•
Example: Convert or die.
Example: David: My father owns the department store that gives your
newspaper fifteen percent of all its advertising revenue, so I’m sure you won’t
want to publish any story of my arrest for spray painting the college.
Newspaper editor: Yes, David, I see your point. The story really isn’t newsworthy.
3. Appeal to Pity
• Urging the hearer to accept the argument based upon
an appeal to emotions, sympathy, etc.
Example: You owe me big time because I really stuck my neck out for you.
• Example: Oh come on, I've been sick. That's why I missed the deadline.
• Example/Explanation: It is proper to pity people who have had
misfortunes, but if as the person’s history instructor you accept Max’s
claim that he earned an A on the history quiz because he broke his wrist
while playing in your college’s last basketball game, then you’ve used the
fallacy of appeal to pity.
•
4. Bandwagon (Appeal to popular)
• Urging the hearer to accept a new position because a
majority of people hold to it.
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•
•
•
•
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Example: The majority of people like soda. Therefore, soda is good.
Example: Everyone else is doing it. Why shouldn't you?
Example: [Advertisement] More and more people are buying sports utility vehicles. It is
time you bought one, too.
If you suggest that someone’s claim is correct simply because it’s what most everyone is coming to believe, then you’re are
using the bandwagon fallacy. Get up here with us on the wagon where the band is playing, and go where we go, and don’t
think too much about the reasons.
What most everyone believes is likely to be true, all things considered, and if one defends a claim on those grounds, this is
not a fallacious inference. What is fallacious is to be swept up by the excitement of a new idea or new fad and to
unquestionably give it too high a degree of your belief solely on the grounds of its new popularity, perhaps thinking simply
that ‘new is better.’
Appeal to the popular can work oppositely when people support a claim that no one likes _________.
5. Appeal to Tradition
• Trying to get someone to accept something because it
has been done or believed for a long time.
• Example:
This is the way we've always done it. Therefore, it is the
right way.
• Example:
The Catholic church's tradition demonstrates that this
doctrine is true.
• Example: Of course we should buy IBM’s computer whenever we need new
computers. We have been buying IBM as far back as anyone can remember.
6. False Dilemma
• Giving two choices when in actuality there could be more
choices possible.
Example: You either did knock the glass over or you’re lying. Which is it?
(Someone else could have knocked the glass over)
• Example: Do you still cheat at golf?
• Example: I want to go to Scotland from London. I overheard
•
McTaggart say there are two roads to Scotland from London: the high
road and the low road. I expect the high road would be too risky
because it’s through the hills and that means dangerous curves. But
it’s raining now, so both roads are probably slippery. I don’t like either
choice, but I guess I should take the low road and be safer.
7. False Cause
• Comments or information that do not logically follow
from a premise or the conclusion.
Example: We know why it rained today: because I washed my car.
• Example: I don't care what you say. We don't need any more
bookshelves. As long as the carpet is clean, we are fine.
Example: My psychic adviser says to expect bad things when Mars is
aligned with Jupiter. Tomorrow Mars will be aligned with Jupiter. So, if a
dog were to bite me tomorrow, it would be because of the alignment of
Mars with Jupiter.
•
8. Poisoning the Well
• Presenting negative information about a person
before he/she speaks so as to discredit the person's
argument.
•
•
Example: Frank is pompous, arrogant, and thinks he knows everything. So, let's hear
what Frank has to say about the subject.
Example: Don't listen to him because he is a loser.
Example: [Prosecuting attorney in court] When is the defense attorney planning to call
that twice-convicted murderer, David Barnington, to the stand? OK, I’ll rephrase that.
When is the defense attorney planning to call David Barnington to the stand?
9. Double Standard
• Applying a standard to another that is different from a
standard applied to oneself.
• Example:
You can't possibly understand menopause because
you are a man.
• Example: Those rules don't apply to me since I am older than
you. I
• Example: I know we will hire any man who gets over a 70
percent on the screening test for hiring Post Office
employees, but women should have to get an 80 to be hired
because they often have to take care of their children.
10. Begging the question
• Assuming the thing to be true that you are trying
to prove. It is circular.
•
Example: God exists because the Bible says so. The Bible is inspired. Therefore, we know
that God exists.
•
Example: I am a good worker because Frank says so. How can we trust Frank? Simple: I
will vouch for him.
Example: “Women have rights,” said the Bullfighters Association president. “But
women shouldn’t fight bulls because a bullfighter is and should be a man.”
The president is saying basically that women shouldn’t fight bulls because women
shouldn’t fight bulls. This reasoning isn’t making any progress.
Booby Traps:
•An argument, that while not a fallacy, might
lead an inattentive reader to commit a
fallacy.
Term
11. Vagueness
12.
Equivocation
13. Suppressed
Evidence
14. Appeal to
Authority
Definition
A lack of clarity or precision in language. Words or groups of words are vague
when their meanings are inexact or when it is unclear to which things the
word applies.
A subcategory of vagueness that consists of using a term or expression in an
argument in one sense in one place in in another sense in another (in other
words: changing the definition of the word within the argument).
Example
Wife: “I see Mr. Smith is cooking out on his new barbecue grill.”
Husband: “So his wife finally got fed up with his unfaithfulness!”
Explanation: Is Mr. Smith cooking food or being
cooked? The message is vague and unclear.
Any law can be repealed by the proper legal authority. The law of
gravity is a law. Therefore, the law of gravity can be repealed by the
proper legal authority.
Explanation: Two different definitions of law are being used: a
law of nature (unchangeable) and a legal rule (breakable).
A failure to mention or otherwise acknowledge important, relevant evidence.
Suppressing evidence is not always a fallacy (for instance, defense lawyers are That type of car is poorly made; a friend of mine has one, and it
professionally obligated to ignore evidence of their client’s guilt), but ignoring continually gives him trouble.
Explanation: What else could cause the car to give him trouble?
relevant facts is often a sign of an attempt to mislead.
Accepting the word of authorities when we lack good reasons for thinking
that they have the information we need or when we think that they might be
biased, or when we ought to figure the matter out for ourselves, or when the
authority in question is not really an expert in the relevant area.
(Not caring for it—no oil, tune-ups, tire rotations, etc.)
I am not a doctor but I play one on the hit series Grey’s Anatomy. Take
it from me, there is no faster-acting pain relief formula than Advil
Liqui-Gels®.
Explanation: A fake doctor has no credibility for knowing what
pain medication is best.
15.
Questionable
use of Statistics
Employing statistics that are questionable without further support.
Subcategories include:
Hasty Conclusion: Accepting an argument on the basis of too little evidence.
Small Sample: Drawing conclusions on the basis of a sample that is too small
to be reliable.
Unrepresentative Sample: Reasoning from a sample that is not
representative of the general population.
The store brand soda is cheap, so the Pepsi will be cheap too.
Explanation: The sample is too small or there isn’t enough
evidence.
Propaganda Techniques
•Propaganda--The expression of opinion or
action by individuals or groups deliberately
designed to influence opinions or actions of
other individuals or groups with reference to
predetermined ends.
16. “Name Calling” makes us form a judgment without examining
the evidence on which it should be based. The propagandist appeals
to our hate and fear by giving “bad names” to those individuals,
groups, nations, races, policies, practices, beliefs, and ideals that he
would have us condemn and reject. For example, for centuries the
name “heretic” was bad. Anybody who dissented from popular or
group belief or practice was in danger of being called a heretic and
of receiving the punishment of heretics. Today’s bad names include
liberal, demagogue, dictator, power elite, right wing, alien, secular
humanist, feminist (and others you can probably think of). Those
who want to change the status quo apply bad names to those who
would maintain it. In more recent times, the Sierra Club has applied
bad names to ranchers and loggers.
• 17.
“Glittering Generalities” By use of “virtue words,” the
propagandist appeals to our emotions of love, generosity, and
brotherhood. He uses words like freedom, honor, liberty, social
justice, public service, loyalty, progress, democracy, the American
way, the Constitution. These words suggest shining ideals in
which all persons of good will believe. Hence the propagandist,
by identifying his individual group, nation, race, policy, belief, or
practice with such ideals, seeks to win us to his cause. Glittering
Generalities is a device to make us accept and approve without
examining the evidence. For example, use of the phrases, “right
to bear arms,” and “Founding Fathers” may be a device to make
us accept viewpoints about gun laws which, if we examined
them critically, we would not accept at all.
• 18.
“Transfer” is a device by which the propagandist carries
over the authority, sanction, and prestige of something or
someone we respect and revere to something he would have us
accept. For example, most of us respect and revere the church
and our nation. If the propagandist succeeds in getting church
or nation to approve a campaign in behalf of some program, he
thereby transfers its authority, sanction, and prestige to that
program. Thus we may accept something we might otherwise
reject. In the Transfer device symbols are constantly used. The
cross represents the Christian church; the flag represents the
nation; cartoons like Uncle Sam represent a consensus of public
opinion. Those symbols stir emotions. At their very sight, with
the speed of light, is aroused the whole complex of feelings we
have with respect to church or nation.
• 19.
“Testimonial” is a device to make us accept
anything from an herbal supplement or car to a
program or national policy. In this device the
propagandist makes use of testimonials: “When I
feel tired, I take Mom’s Ginseng and have energy
to spare.” “I bought a car from Jones Ford and
they treated me right.”
• 20.
“Plain Folks” is a device used by politicians, labor leaders,
business executives, and even by ministers and teachers to win
our confidence by appearing to be people like ourselves—“just
plain folks,” “just an ole country boy/gal,” “just an American
citizen.” In election years especially candidates show their
devotion to little children and the common, homey things of life.
They ride buses from town to town to campaign. For the
network interviewer they raid the refrigerator to find some
home-baked pie. They go to barbeque festivals; they attend
services at the old white-frame church; they go fishing and play
with the dog; they love their mothers. In short, they would win
our votes by showing that they’re just as common as the rest of
us—“just plain folks”—and therefore wise and good. Business
executives are often “plain folks” with the factory workers.
Practice Sentences
DUE NEXT TIME