A Number Harmonics Webpage
LOGICAL FALLACIES
Fallacies that result from errors in induction:
Dicto Simpliciter or Overstatement: An unqualified generalization. “My
English teacher never gives A's." “Almonds are good for the heart; everyone
should eat 2 handfuls of almonds every day.”
Hasty Generalization: Stating a conclusion based on too little evidence
or based on ignoring some evidence. “Running must be bad for your heart. Look
what happened to Florence Joiner." “My little Yamaha motorcycle never gave me
problems. Yamaha motorcycles are the best.”
Stereotyping: Giving the same characteristics to everyone in a group
(related to overstatement and hasty generalization). “Used-car salesmen can't be
trusted.” “BYU coeds are fat.” “ Utah State graduates are all nerdy.” “ Mormons
all have several wives.” “ Southern Utahns are all right-wing conservative
fanatics who refuse to pay taxes and want to destroy the environment.”
“California blondes are all as wild as they can be.”
Forced hypothesis: Reaching a conclusion that is not supported by the
evidence or a conclusion that is more complicated than necessary. “Jerry and Kim
live next door to each other, so they must be really good friends.”
Non sequitur: From Latin, meaning “it does not follow"; this refers
specifically to conclusions which are not logically derived from the reasoning
that precedes them. “ Al Gore is a wonderful father, so he would have made a
great president.” “President George W. Bush admitted to getting a DUI ticket
when he was younger, so we can be sure the booze flows freely at White House
Parties.” “We don’t see as many women in calculus classes as we do men, so
clearly their brains are not capable of handling difficult math concepts.”
Slippery slope: An argument in which we assert that X should not happen
because it will inevitably be followed by consequences Yand Z, which are
terrible. “Utah should not legalize parimutuel betting on horse races because
that will only lead to gambling on other sporting events and finally to casino
gambling.” “We should never allow families to have doctors disconnect the
respirators and feeding tubes of brain dead patients. If we do, pretty soon we
will be asking doctors to kill people with Alzheimer’s disease and children with
Down’s syndrome.”
False dilemma: An argument asserting that only two (or a limited number
of) options exist when there are actually more. “We must either ban Hustler and
Penthouse or our children will never learn respect for women.” “You either
support the war in Iraq or you are a traitor to your country and an enemy to
freedom.”
False analogy: An argument based on a comparison of two things when the
differences between the two are too great. “There are 10,000 deaths from alcohol
poisoning to 1 from mad-dog bites in this country. In spite of this, we license
liquor but shoot the dogs.” “It is true that an embryo can grow into a person,
but an acorn can grow into an oak. We don’t criticize people who step on an
acorn just because the acorn could become an oak, so we shouldn’t think it is a
big deal if someone decides to abort an embryo.” “In a pack of wolves, there is
always an alpha male, the powerful male who makes the decisions and makes sure
the whole system runs well. Likewise, a man should be firm and forceful in his
dealings with his wife and children; then, the whole family will run more
smoothly.”
Post hoc: From the Latin "after this, therefore because of it," this
means simply assigning a cause-effect relationship where none exists or where it
is difficult to prove there is a cause-effect relation. “A black cat ran across
my path on the way to work this morning, and sure enough, I got a flat tire on
the way home." “The president had been in office just a few months before the
stock market went into the toilet and unemployment soared. People in the market
just lost confidence because he was elected.” “Ever since my teacher saw that I
had my tongue pierced, my grades on tests have gone down. I think he just
doesn’t like body piercings.”
Fallacies that result from ignoring the issue:
Begging the question: To assume that part or all of your argument will be
accepted as true without support. “The federal government should not subsidize
development of alternative-fuel automobiles because gasoline is the cheapest and
cleanest fuel.” “We should give every American the right to have assault weapons
in his or her home because we know that a nation in which its citizens have
assault weapons will be safer that one without.” “We know that our police are
never involved in bribery, dishonesty, or abuse of the law because the police
report issued in January of 2004 said so.”
Red herring: To introduce an irrelevant side-issue and divert attention
from the topic at hand. “Mary Gordon shouldn't be elected to the school board
because she doesn't have any children in public schools."
“The officer said I was going 50 miles an hour in a school zone. Can you believe
that? There are rapes and bank robberies going unsolved in our city, and she has
time to worry about people’s driving habits!”
Straw man: To accuse your opponents of holding erroneous or ridiculous
view or attitudes and attacking those instead of attacking their arguments.
“Environmentalists are trying to save the spotted owl because they want to run
American loggers out of business.” “Some conservatives are angry that the
Supreme Court recently banned the death penalty for kids who commit crimes under
the age of 18. Let’s face it; conservatives hate kids. They want as many of them
to die as possible.” “Feminists are upset with all the laws passed prohibiting
same-sex marriages. They want to live in a world in which no woman ever uses her
womb for something as subservient to a man as bearing his child.”
Ad hominem: From the Latin meaning “to or towards the person.” “This is
the strategy of attacking the proponent of an argument rather than the argument
itself. “Of course you believe that--you're a woman.” Or “I'd expect something
like that from a socialist like you!" “You students are always trying to cheat
and get free money from the government; of course you are going to be in favor
of Social Security.” ( A special form of Ad Hominem arguments occur when someone
attacks an argument by attacking the speaker before he or she speaks. It is
called “Poisoning the Well.” “Jane Fonda is going to speak tonight about how we
ought to give more to help Tsunami victims. Don’t forget; this is the same Jane
Fonda that visited Hanoi and criticized the war when our G.I’s. were dying in
Vietnam. We should not listen to her.”)
Argument ad Miseriocordiam: "Argument to Pity": An emotional appeal to a
logical issue. While pathos generally works to reinforce a reader's moral sense,
if a writer relies on an appeal to emotion only to accept a conclusion, it is a
fallacy. “ I know my paper is late, but I have had the worst pimple on my nose
for a week, so I was too miserable to bring it to class. Please don’t mark it
late.” “Or “Janice, you have to marry me! If you don’t, I will be the most
miserable person alive. Who knows, I may even turn to drugs and alcohol.”
Common practice: Sometimes called “bandwagon” fallacy. This is to argue
that an action should be taken or an idea accepted because everyone is doing it.
“Don't worry about using your older brother's research paper. It's only a
general ed requirement, and half the kids in the class are doing the same
thing.” “Dad, I can’t live without a cell phone and a laptop. All the kids have
them now.”
Argument ad populum: from the Latin “to the people"; appealing to the
beliefs of the multitudes. “Republican candidates are the choice of red-blooded
Americans who believe in the traditional American values of liberty and
prosperity and America first.” “Everybody knows that women care more deeply
about their children than men do.” (A form of this called “snob appeal” is often
used in advertising: “Buick is the choice of intelligent discerning Americans.”;
“Caring mothers choose Pampers.”)
Argumentum ad Baculum: Appeal to Force, bullying, or the
"Might-Makes-Right" Fallacy. This argument uses force, the threat of force, or
some other unpleasant backlash to make the audience accept a conclusion. It
commonly appears as a last resort when evidence or rational arguments fail to
convince (Most of us have mothers and fathers who used it with us.) Some years
ago, the student newspaper here at Dixie wanted to publish a story that was
controversial. The administration opposed publishing the article. When the
editor brought up the first amendment and the rights of free speech and a free
press, an administrator replied, “Oh, of course you have a right to publish
whatever you wish. But we also have a right not to fund the newspaper. If you
publish this, there will be no newspaper here at Dixie.” The argument was very
effective.
BACK: INFO PAGES
From:
http://dsc.dixie.edu/owl/writing_revision/LogicalFallacies.htm
