Miscellaneous Fallacies

Transcription

1 Miscellaneous Fallacies 1 Begging the Question Loading the conclusion in the claim; assuming that something is true before it s proven 2 Ad Hominem Personal Attack An attack on the character of the individual rather than his/her actual arguments or qualifications The antiwar demonstrators of the 1970s should be remembered as the cowards that they were. Your arguments against Freud are due to your unresolved unconscious conflicts. Rudy Giuliani divorced his loving wife of many years. How could he possibly be qualified to be mayor? How can you trust Freud he himself was bipolar! 3 Ad Populum Bandwagon Appealing to prejudices or inclinations. If a majority of people believe or do something, everyone else should, too. Over 70 percent of Americans favor the adoption of a national sky marshal program; what s your problem?

2 4 Red Herring Avoiding countering an opposing Equal pay for women is an important issue, but I argument directly by introducing a new or wonder whether women really want to take the non- issue to the argument responsibility that comes with higher- paying jobs. bachmann- announces- her- presidentia 5 Complex Question Loaded Question An unanswerable, biased question sometimes allowing only two possible answers: yes or no. Hey, Frank, have you quit hanging around crack addicts yet?

3 6 Appeal to False Auth. Association Fallacy Ideas or actions are (un)acceptable because of people associated with them The hijackers were Egyptian; obviously Egyptians support terrorism. All those who can afford it prefer Freudian therapy. 7 Non Sequitur Any illogical conclusion (usually reached from faulty premises or poor evidence) Japanese children spend 40% more time in the classroom than U.S. children. American parents should take more interest in the kids education.

4 8 9 Shifting Burden of Proof Whatever has not been proven false must There is no compelling evidence that UFOs are Appeal to Ignorance necessarily be true; whatever has not been not visiting the Earth; therefore, UFOs exist. proven true must necessarily be false. In its 30+ years, SETI hasn t ever detected Absence of evidence is evidence. signals from an ET, so neither aliens nor their UFOs exist. Contradiction Simultaneous acceptance and denial of a proposition or statement; two contradictory inferences can be drawn from the premise Intelligent people have open minds. Politicians are supposed to be intelligent. But anyone who says that recreational drugs shouldn t be legalized has a closed mind. Therefore, politicians

5 10 Fallacy of Composition A property shared by a number of individual items, is also shared by a collection of those items; a property of the parts of an object, must also be a property of the whole are not intelligent people. Every course I took in college was well- organized; therefore, my college education was well- organized. This new truck is made entirely of lightweight aluminum components, and is therefore very lightweight. 11 Fallacy of Division Assuming that a property of some object must apply to its parts; a property of a collection of items is shared by each item. 12 Circular Argument A sentence or argument that restates rather than proves QNAwUdHUQ 13 Genetic Fallacy Arguing that the origins of a person, object, or institution determine its worth Ocelots are now dying out. Sparky is an ocelot. Therefore, Sparky is now dying out. Humans are conscious and are made of cells; therefore, each cell has consciousness. President Reagan was a great communicator because he had that knack of talking effectively to the people. Plagiarism is dishonest because it is deceitful. He speaks with a German accent. He must be a Nazi. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46).

6 14 Oversimplification Ignores an issue s complexities, variations, or exceptions The influx of foreign cars almost destroyed the American auto industry.