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Critical Thinking
Lecture 5a
Fallacies
By David Kelsey
Fallacies
•
A fallacy is a mistake in reasoning.
•
Examples:
The argument from outrage
•
An argument from outrage is
given when inflammatory words are
followed by a conclusion.
•
Examples:
•
When a person becomes angry
she can become illogical in
two ways:
– 1. Mistaking rhetoric for
argument
– 2. Displacing anger
Scapegoating
•
To scapegoat a person or group:
–
to blame that person or group for something they didn’t do.
– Serial Murderer example…
Scare Tactics
•
One uses scare tactics when she tries to scare someone else into
believing some claim.
– Painting a scary picture
– Global warming example
More fallacious reasoning
•
Argument by force
•
Argument from pity
–
Trying to get someone to accept
some claim by threatening her.
–
Evoking compassion to cause a
mistake in reasoning.
–
Examples
–
Examples:
Argument from Envy
•
One makes an argument from envy when she evokes envy to cause a
mistake in reasoning.
– Examples
Apple Polishing
•
Apple polishing occurs when pride causes a mistake in reasoning.
– Examples
Guilt trips and
Wishful Thinking
•
•
A guilt trip occurs when guilt is
evoked to get someone to accept a
claim.
Examples:
•
Wishful thinking
–
to accept a claim simply because it
would be pleasant if it were true.
–
Example:
•
Believing in God exists
The peer pressure argument
•
Peer pressure argument:
–
To accept (or urge acceptance of) some claim because one will gain someone’s
approval if she does.
–
Examples:
The group think fallacy
and Nationalism
•
The group think fallacy occurs
when one substitutes pride of
membership in a group for reason
and logic in arriving at some claim.
–
Examples of groups:
•
Nationalism
–
when national pride leads one to
blind endorsement of a country and
its policies.
–
Examples:
Rationalizing
•
One rationalizes when she uses a false pretext to satisfy her own
desire.
– Example:
• Mr. Smith rationalizes the Table Saw he gives his wife
Argument from popularity
•
This occurs when someone accepts some claim on the grounds that all or most
of some group of people (not experts) believe it.
–
–
Just because everyone believes something doesn’t make it true
Example:
Arguments from
common practice and
from tradition
•
Argument from common practice
–
•
•
–
when someone justifies some action
on the grounds that it is common.
Example:
Argument from tradition
•
when someone justifies some action
on the grounds that it is tradition.
Example:
Relativism fallacy &
two wrongs make a right
•
Relativism fallacy
–
to think that one and the same
factual claim can be both true for
one person or culture and false for
another.
–
Example:
•
Two Wrongs make a Right:
–
When someone performs a wrong
action and you retaliate with another
wrong action.
–
Examples:
Red Herrings
•
Red Herring:
–
When an argument is being made in favor of some claim and someone introduces
another claim for the sake of distracting attention away from the original argument, she
has introduced a red herring.
–
The purpose of the red herring is distraction
–
Changing the subject
–
Examples:
Smokescreens
•
Smokescreen
– when an argument is being made in favor of a claim and she attempts to
distract attention away from it by piling issues on top of it or by making the
argument overly complex until the original argument is lost in the verbal
“smoke”.
–
For example:
• What reasons were given for Invading Iraq?