KIM WOODS ONLY - Discussion 2
Common Logical Fallacies Appeal to authority —An appeal to authority is ordinarily one good way to buttress a line\ of thought. The practice becomes fallacious when one of the following ha\ ppens: the authority is not an expert in the field in which one is speaking; the allusion to authority masks the fact that experts may be divided down the middle on the subjec\ t; no explicit reference is made to the authority. Attack against the person —A common fallacy in which someone argues against a position or claim by assailing the proponent of it. The truth or falseho\ od of a position doesn't depend on who does (or doesn't) espouse it. e.g. "You can't trust Jones' theory of electromagnetic particles because he's a communist." (The theory is good or bad because it comports (or doesn't comport) with certain facts and evidence, not because the man propounding it holds a political affiliation.) Appeal to Pity -- Occurs when an appeal is made to pity or to one's sympathetic nature. Example : "Augusto Pinochet is an old, dying man. It is wrong to make him stand \ trial for alleged offenses." Bandwagon Appeal -- This fallacy occurs when an argument panders to popular passion or sentiment. When, for instance, a politician exclaims in a debate that\ his opponent "is out of step with the beliefs of everyone in the audience," he/she is com\ mitting the fallacy.
The legitimacy of a statement depends not on its popularity, but on its \ truth credentials. Begging the question -- Circular reasoning in which a claim is assumed to be true and is then tucked in the conclusion. e.g. "Government by the people is ideal because democracy is the least inadequate form of government." ("Government by \ the people" is the working definition of democracy; the first part of the statement nee\ ds to be proven, not reasserted in the predicate.) False alternatives -- A fallacy occurring when the number of alternatives is said to be fewer/less than the actual number. Common examples of this fallacy are s\ tatements containing either/or, nothing/but, all-or-nothing elements. Examples: "Is she a Democrat or a Republican?" (She may be a socialist, a libertarian, a Leninist, an anarchist, a feminist or any number of other things, including one who is strictly ap\ olitical.) "If you aren't for your country, then you are against it." (One may be neither "for"\ nor "against" but may occupy a position of strict neutrality or be affirmative sometim\ es and critical at others.) False Cause —The fallacy of reaching a conclusion based solely on the sequence of\ events. Implying causation when no good reason is given for doing so. “\ The Soviet Union collapsed after adopting atheism. Therefore, we must avoid atheism\ or we also run the risk of collapse.” Hasty generalization -- The habit of arriving at a bold conclusion based on a limited sample of evidence. This often occurs with statistics. For instance, som\ eone may ask ten women and one man what their opinion is of contemporary male-female relationships and from this sample draw a sweeping conclusion; hasty generalization would \ then be said to exist. Invincible ignorance -- the fallacy of insisting on the legitimacy of one's position in the face of contradictory facts. Statements like "I really don't care what the experts say; no one is going to convince me that I'm wrong"; "nothing you say is going to change my mind"; "yeah, okay, whatever!" are examples of this fallacy. Non sequitur ("it does not follow") -- A statement that does not logically follow from what preceded it—a conclusion that does not follow from the premises. “Because Jane Smith is a brilliant historian she must be a brilliant history teacher.”\ Prejudicial Language value or moral goodness is attached to believing the author. Loaded language is emotive terminology that expresses value judgments. When use\ d in what appears to be an objective description, the terminology unfortunately ca\ n cause the listener to adopt those values when in fact no good reason has been give\ n for doing so.
[News broadcast] In today's top stories, Senator Smith carelessly cast the deciding vote today to pass both the budget bill and the trailer bill to fund yet anot\ her excessive watchdog committee over coastal development.—This broadcast is an editorial posing as a news report.
Red herring -- An attempt to divert attention away from the crux of an argument by introduction of anecdote, irrelevant detail, subsidiary facts, tangentia\ l references, and the like.
Slippery Slope a series of increasingly unacceptable consequences is drawn. The form of\ a slippery slope fallacy looks like this:
A leads to B.
B leads to C.
C leads to D.
...
Z leads to HELL.
We don't want to go to HELL.
So, don't take that first step A.
Straw man -- A fallacy that occurs when someone attacks a less defensible position th\ an the one actually being put forth. This occurs very often in politics, when one seeks to derive maximum approval for himself/herself or for a cause. Example: "Opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement amounts to nothing but opposition to\ free trade." (Someone can believe in free and open trade and yet still oppose NAFTA.\ ) Taken From: http://www.philosophicalsociety.com/Logical%20Fallacies.htm \
