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Fallacies and Assumptions
People around the world encounter logical fallacies on almost a daily basis. This paper will look at three common logical fallacies. I will define each of the three fallacies, explain its significance to Critical Thinking, and discuss its general application to Decision Making. I will also show organizational examples that illustrate each one of my chosen fallacies.
Fallacies and Assumptions
Encyclopaedia Britannica (2006) defines a fallacy in logic as "erroneous reasoning that has the appearance of soundness." Generally, when we think about making decisions, most people believe that they are making logical decisions. Logical decisions are based on facts, rational thought and sensible reasoning. A critical thinker should be able to determine a rational decision based on facts rather than emotion or "erroneous reasoning."
Bassham, Irwin, Nardone & Wallace (2002) say that fallacies, which are arguments that contain mistakes in reasoning, fall into two groups. The first group, fallacies of relevance, occurs because the premises are irrelevant to the conclusion. Fallacies of insufficient evidence do not provide sufficient evidence to support the conclusion even though the premises are logically relevant.
The first fallacy that I will discuss is the appeal to authority fallacy. This fallacy occurs when a person either claims to be or is presented as an authority on a specific subject and makes a claim about that subject. Since the person appears to be an authority, it is taken for granted that the claim must be true.
When a person falls prey to this fallacy, they are accepting a claim as true without there being adequate evidence to do so. More specifically, the person is accepting the claim because they erroneously believe that the person making the claim is a legitimate expert and hence that the claim is reasonable to accept (Labossiere, 1995).
Not all appeals to authority are fallacious. In order to determine if the appeal is a good one or not, certain things must be considered. Is the person a legitimate expert with experience in the area of the claim? Do other experts generally agree? Is there a significant amount of bias or reason for making the claim? The answers to these and other questions may help delineate the truth. I found a simple example of an appeal to authority in the June, 2005 issue of Popular Science Magazine. In that issue, an advertisement for The Sleep Number Bed appeared. The advertisement had a picture of a famous actress with her signature standing next to a picture of the bed.
An example is “For instance, swine and humans are similar enough that they can share many diseases” (Dicke and Van Huis 345). The authors create a Hasty Generalization fallacy by concluding that because humans and swine are similar, they share diseases. Furthermore, this makes the audience feel lost because the authors do not provide evidence of how “swine and humans are similar” (Dicke and Van Huis 345). Similarly, the author says that “Because insects are so different from us, such risks are accordingly lowered” (Dicke and Van Huis 345). Again, the author fails to provide a connection between how the risk of getting an infection is lowered because humans and insects are different. The authors also create a Hasty Generalization fallacy because they conclude that the risk of humans getting infected is lowered just because insects and humans are different. In summary, the use of fallacies without providing evidence and makes the readers feel
A straw man fallacy, in its most lucid form, is executed when a person not only disregards an opponent’s counterarguments, but also distorts them into exaggerated versions of themselves in the interest of making them easier to refute. In many cases, the adversary’s arguments are skewed to such a severe point that they wind up being completely different than what the adversaries were actually fighting for; however, this is all for the convenience of the proponent. An innumerable amount of politicians and authors are infamous for using this problematic method of disproving opposing arguments, even notable celebrities like George W. Bush. The straw man method of persuasion is a proficient way to make a personal stance sound factual, but it
Clifford’s arguments for this conclusion is that if we are gullible enough to believe something without evidence then we are not only harming our individual credibility and intellect but also polluting the rest of society...
“Thou shall not Commit Logical Fallacies” Logical fallacies are tricks and illusions of thought. They are often very sneakily used by politicians and the media to fool people into thinking in a specific way. There are a lot of ways that people make terrible and invalid arguments. Making a good argument is about using logic to prove a conclusion based on some given facts.
Introduction Critical thinking provides an opportunity to explore the positive and negative sides of an argument for and against an idea, theory, or notion. Reasoning and perception is attuned to personal impression and provides outcome to belief and opinion. The dictionary term and understanding for the word ‘logic’ is “of sound thinking and proof by reasoning” (Merriam-Webster, 2009). Logic is the examination of the methods and doctrine used to determine ‘correct’ from ‘incorrect’ and is used in the structure of an argument.
Gaining the credibility in a speech can be difficult at times and can test even the best speakers ability to keep the crowds attention and respect. One of the ways to keep credibility with a crowd is practicing and applying appeal to ethics. Which is defined as winning the favor of the audience by showing strong credibility in the speaker (Merriam-Webster). One of the best speeches that exemplifies the usage of appeal to ethics is Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” speech where he addresses an issue of war at the revolutionary convention. Henry through appeal to ethics developed his credibility and wanted the people listening at the convention to believe they can’t sit and do nothing instead they have to get their hands dirty and fight.
As a rhetorical appeal, logos is most often based on probabilities rather than certain truth, for we often cannot know a thing with absolute certainty, yet we must act anyway. To appeal to logic and evoke a cognitive, rational response, the writer often uses more theoretical or abstract language that includes literal or historical analogies, definitions, factual data and statistics, quotations and citations from experts and authorities, and informed opinions. Persuasion, to a large extent, involves convincing people to accept our assumptions as probably true. Similarly, exposing questionable assumptions in someone else's argument is an effective means for preparing the audience to accept your own contrary
three logical fallacies that are used in this paper are Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, Far-Fetched Hypothesis, and False Dilemma. What is a fallacy? A fallacy is viewed as an error in reasoning. To be more exact, a fallacy is an "argument" in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. A logical fallacy is an error in logical argument which is independent of the truth of the premises. When there is a fallacy in an argument it is said to be invalid. The presence of a logical fallacy in an argument does not necessarily imply anything about the argument's premises or its conclusion. Both may actually be true, but the argument is still invalid because the conclusion does not follow.
" Strong readers often read critically, weighing, for example, an author claims and interpretations against evidence-evidence provided by the author in the text, evidence drawn from other sources, or the evidence that is assumed to be part of a reader's own knowledge and experience."(p.12)
As we know fallacies are used very often in our lives. Ad Hominem fallacy is not an exception. Lately, in Democrat's governor nominee election, I noticed an Ad Hominem fallacy happened between Phil Angelides and Steve Westley. They used each other personal life and their investments against each other instead of proving each other wrong by scientific proofs. The environment was the subject of many exchanges TV ads between them.
The effective use of rhetoric can spur people into action for worthy causes, bring about positive health changes, and even persuade one to finish a college education. In contrast, like most things in life, what can be used for good can also be used in a negative way to elicit emotions such as outrage, fear, and panic. This type of rhetoric often uses fallacious statements in an appeal to emotion which complicates the matter even more as the emotions are misdirected. Unfortunately, the daily newspapers are filled with numerous examples of fallacious statements. Within the past week, the following five examples appeared in the New York Times and USA Today. The examples included statements that demonstrated scapegoating, slippery slope, ad hominem, straw man, line-drawing, arguments from outrage, and arguments from envy.
Langdon, K. (2001). Smart things to know about decision making. Retrieved December 9, 2007, from eResourse.
It is a process in which knowledge and experience are applied to various alternatives in consideration in order to achieve the desired objective. It is a process that involves both inductive as well as deductive cognitive skills. Critical thinking is considered as inherent in making sound clinical reasoning. As critical reasoning and thinking make use of logical arguments they most probably lead one towards the evidence of any issue and help one to get down to the root cause of the problem. Hence it becomes a very crucial as well as vital part of the process that is constructed to resolve an ethical violation issue related to cyber technology.
What is critical thinking? Encarta Pocket Dictionary defines critical thinking as a type of critical analysis. Encarta Pocket Dictionary defines a decision as firmness in choosing something. The authors of Whatever It Takes suggest that decision-making material and literature tend to emphasize the product of decision-making but does not emphasize the actual process of decision-making. Critical thinking is the mechanical process by which problems are perceived, alternative solutions weighed, and rational decisions are made and decision-making is streams of choices (McCall, Kaplan, xv).
The opinion of an expert will only serve the knower in a way to incite interest and thereby activating the knower’s reasoning and it’s then up to the knower to decide whether or not to pursue the information any further and attempt to validate or falsify the