Fallacies

-arguments that use fallacies are invalid, yet….convincing

          -psychologically convincing

-fallacies rely on:

          -fear

          -emotion

          -sentiment

          -circumstantial associations

-fallacious arguments seem to be correct, but when you examine them, they are revealed as using poor reasoning

-premises may be true, the conclusion may be true, but the method of reasoning is not proper

FALLACIES OF RELEVANCE

R1: Ad ignorantiam

There is intelligent life in outer space, for no one has been able to prove that there isn’t.

I know that every action we perform is predetermined because no one has proved that we have free will.

There is no proof that the dean leaked the news to the papers, so I’m sure she couldn’t have done such a thing.

I have never once heard an argument for price controls that any sensible person would accept.  Therefore price controls are obviously a bad idea.

No responsible scientist has proved that the strontium 90 in nuclear fallout causes leukemia.  Therefore we can disregard the alarmists and continue testing nuclear weapons with a clear conscience.

If there were any real evidence for these so-called flying saucers, it would be reported in our reputable scientific journals.  No such report has been made; therefore there is no real evidence for them.

R2:  Appeal to Authority

I join two presidents, twenty-seven senators, and eighty-three congressmen in describing Drew Pearson as an unmitigated liar.

The institution of marriage is as old as human history and thus must be considered sacred.

Marriage has always been between a man and a woman, therefore same-sex couples should never be allowed to marry.

It must be so, I read it in a psychology book.

The golden rule is basic to every system of ethics ever devised.  Everyone accepts it in some form or other.  It is, therefore, a sound moral principle.

The hullabaloo over dishonesty among athletes at the All-State Conference is unfounded, for the mayor who attended that conference declared that he saw no evidence of dishonesty whatsoever.

R3: Ad Hominem

The senator is now saying that big corporations shouldn’t pay more taxes.  That’s what you’d expect from a congressperson who has lived in Washington for a couple of years and has forgotten all about the people back home.

(in Omni)  The most recent occurrence of recent years is all these knuckleheads running around protesting nuclear power—all these stupid people who do not research at all and who go out and march, pretending they care about he human race, and then go off in their automobiles and kill one another.

There’s no point in listening to what you have to say; everyone knows you’re on the Radical Right.

R4:  Ad Populum

All loyal Americans will deplore the passage of this bill.

We favor extended social security.  Isn’t that the American thing to do?  And we are trying to reduce social discrimination.  That’s the American way too.

Let’s get down to brass tacks.  None of us here is a Philadelphia lawyer; we’re just plain folks, trying to see our way clear.  There’s been a lot of high-falutin’ talk about “economic implications” and such like, but the plain fact is that if they build that damn here it will cost us money we just don’t have.  I’m against it—we’re all against it.

I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, she’s a Pepper, we are Peppers, wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too?

The apple of our eye.  Is there anything that can top Mom’s apple pie?  Our natural cheddar.  Cracker Barrel cheddar cheese.  It’s another reason America spells cheese K-R-A-F-T.

R5:  Ad Miseracordiam

I’m on probation, sir.  If I don’t get a good grade in this class, I won’t be able to stay in school.  Please, could you at least let me have a C?

Please don’t punish me, I feel bad enough already.

After a long trial, the jury let Bert Lance go.  Lance denied the charges, as well as any intention of hurting the banks.  In an emotional summation that left some of the jurors weeping, the defense attorney told them:  “Those folks in Washington can’t understand how we trust folks down here.  If you find Mr. Lance guilty of anything, you will have ruined the reputation, life and character o one of the South’s finest men.”

R6:  Ad Baculum

If you do not convict this murderer, one of you may be her next victim.

Don’t argue with me.  Remember who pays your salary.

You don’t want to be a social outcast, do you?  Then you’d better join us tomorrow.

This university does not need a teacher’s union, and faculty members who think it does will discover their error at the next tenure review.

Dear editor, I hope you will agree that this little escapade by my son has no real news value.  I know you’ll agree that my firm buys thousands of dollars worth of advertising space in your paper every year.

No, if you don’t mind losing a tire, going off the road, and maybe killing yourself, you don’t need a new tire.

Gentlemen, I am sure that if you think it over you will see that my suggestion has real merit.  You should look upon it as only a suggestion, of course, and not an order, even though I am the chairman of the board.

I don’t care how sick she is.  She is wanted in the shop immediately.  When the supervisor sends for someone, the employee is expected to show up.

Vote for Reagan vote for war.

FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION

-unfounded or unproven assumptions imbedded in them

P1:  Complex Question (evading the facts)

Why is it that women are more interested in religion than men?

Did John ever give up his bad habits?

Are you still a heavy drinker?

Have you stopped beating your wife?

What did you use to wipe your fingerprints from the gun?

When should you buy your first Cadillac?

Who made God?

Why isn’t a nice person like you married?

P2:  False Cause

Since every major war in which we have taken part during the last few generations has happened when we had a Democratic president, we ought therefore to think twice before voting for a Democrat in this presidential election.

More and more young people are attending high schools and colleges today than ever before.  Yet there is more juvenile delinquency and more alienation among the young.  This makes it clear that these young people are being corrupted by their education.

Twenty-five years after graduation, alumni of Harvard have an average income five times that of people of the same age who have no college education.  If a person wants to be wealthy, he or she should enroll at Harvard.

An electrical power failure in the Southwest is imminent.  UFO’s have been seen over the Boulder Dam, just as they were seen over the Niagra powerhouse shortly before the great New England blackout.

(Paul Newman)  I’m tired of people asking me to remove my dark glasses so that they can see my blue eyes.  I wonder if I would have been as successful if I had been born with brown eyes.

I look upon Fran’s place (legal whorehouse in Nevada) as a kind of insurance policy for the safety of young women and children in this area.  As long as there is a kind of safety-valve sort of a place where men can go to, my fifteen-year-old daughter can walk home at night in perfect safety.

I have never known anybody named Jim who wasn’t nice.

I think his daughter’s marriage must have worried him dreadfully.  She was his only child, you know.  He never talked about her, but I noticed that his hair began to turn white after the wedding.

Why are you losing your hair?

I worry a lot.

What do you worry about?

Losing my hair

P3: Begging the question (evading the facts)

          -simply reasserting the issue without proving it

          -also called circular reasoning

I will not commit this act because it is unjust; I know it is unjust because my conscious tells me so; and my conscious tells me so because the act is wrong.

The belief in God is universal because everyone believes in God.

Free trade will be good for this country.  The reason is patently clear.  Isn’t it obvious that unrestricted commercial relations will bestow on all sections of this nation the benefits which result when there is an unimpeded flow of goods between countries?

Left-handed people have no will power; for if they did, hey wouldn’t be left-handed.

Husbands cheat on their wives because they are unhappy with them; for if they weren’t unhappy with them, they wouldn’t cheat on them.

God exists.  How do you know.  The Bible says so.  How do you know what the Bible says is true?  Because he Bible is the world of God.

People can’t help doing what they do.

Why not?

Because they always follow the strongest motive.

But what is the strongest motive?

It is, of course, the one that people follow.

Of course she loves me.  She told me that she loved me, and I believe her.  Would she lie to someone she loved?

FALLACIES OF AMBIGUITY

A1: Equivocation

I gave you my reasons for doing it, but as usual you won’t listen to reason, so you continue to fight me.

The financial page says that money is more plentiful than it was yesterday.  This must be a mistake, for there is no more money than there was yesterday.

It is the clear duty of the press to publish such news as it shall be in the public interest to have published.  There can be no doubt about the public interest taken in this brutal murder, and so the press would have failed in its duty if it had refrained publishing the details about it.

No on who has the slightest acquaintance with science can reasonably doubt that the miracles in the Bible actually took place.  Every year we witness new miracles of modern science such as television, jet planes, antibiotics, and heart transplant operations.

As far as I’m concerned, we need pay no attention to the president of the college when it comes to educational matters because he has no authority in education.  He doesn’t even have enough authority to prevent students from staging protest rallies.

Practice makes perfect.  Physicians have practiced the art of healing for thousands of years.  My physician, therefore, who studied at one of our greatest medical schools, should be perfect in her field.

There are laws of nature.  Law implies a lawgiver.  Therefore there must be a cosmic lawgiver.

I do not believe in the possibility of eliminating the desire to fight from humankind because an organism without fight is dead or moribund.

I am puzzled by the protest groups that gather in front of prisons when an execution is scheduled.  The murderer, who has committed a heinous crime, has been granted all due process of law and is given every opportunity to defend himself—usually with the best available legal minds and often at taxpayer’s expense.  Yet these same protestors generally favor the execution of millions of innocent babies by abortion.

To enact reasonable drug legislation, we must find out about the effects of the various drugs—whether they are habit forming, have had bad effects on hormones, lead to psychoses, and so forth.  For this reason we need the advice of an authority, and so I invited he chief of the police department to testify before the committee.

The end of a thing is its perfection; death is the end of life; death is, therefore, the perfection of life.

“You are inconsistent,” protested a member of the jury to the foreperson.  “You told me yesterday that there was a presumption of this man’s innocence, and now when I say that we may presume he is innocent, you contradict me!”

A2: Amphiboly (the ones you laugh at)

New Housing Development.  Beautiful homes available immediately.  Get there first!  They won’t last long.

The ladies of the Walnut Street Mission have discarded clothes.  They invite you to come and inspect them.

It pays to remember your social obligations.  If you don’t go to other people’s funerals, they won’t come to yours.

(traffic sign)  Slow children crossing.

At a rate of 2,200 revolutions per minute, the janitor turned off the overheated generator.

(sign at a pharmacy)  We dispense with accuracy.

(advertisement)  Just received!  A new stock of sports shirts for men with 15 to 19 necks.

(headline)  Dock workers set to walk out in Atlantic ports.

The marriage of Miss Anna Black and Mr. Willis Dash, which was announced in this paper a few weeks ago, was a mistake and we wish to correct it.

Police authorities are finding the solution of murders more and more difficult because the victims are unwilling to cooperate with the police.

(testimonial from an insurance firm)  My husband and I took out a home insurance policy with your company.  Unless than a month our house accidentally burned down.  I consider it a blessing.

The pedestrian had no idea which way to run, so I ran over him.

Lost:  Samsonite Briefcase with Eyeglasses

(headline)  Elderly Often Burn Victims

(Yogi Berra)  The place is so crowded that nobody goes there anymore.

(road sign)  Tourists Taken In

Our x-ray unit will give you an examination for tuberculosis and other diseases which you will receive free of charge.

We stand behind every bed we sell.

The fund has a deficit of $57,000, which will be used to pay teachers’ salaries.

(billboard)  Come to us for unwanted pregnancies.

(welding kit)  Easy new way to weld with instruction book.

(baker’s advertisement)  You can skate more than one mile on one slice of bread.

(commercial)  We do not tear your clothes by machinery; we do it carefully by hand.

(church announcement)  What is hell?  Come to church next Sunday and listen to our new minister.

I cannot get sick pay.  I have six children.  Can you tell me why?

Flattering women amused him.

A3:  Accent

You never looked better.

I never thought it would be like this

I shall lose no time reading your paper.

Only Hollywood could produce a film like this.

Be courteous to strangers.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor.

I enjoyed the dinner.

You say nothing eloquently.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor.

Love your neighbor.

You may think as you please.

The Marines are looking for a few good men.

I hope you will stay for lunch.

(sign in a restaurant)  You think our waitresses are rude, you should see our manager.

We have the finest politicians money can buy.

She didn’t try to commit suicide today.

Slippery Slope (not in COPI, but is important to include)

The ruling sounds like the beginning of a totalitarian state.  Judge Owens is violating the concept of the secret ballot by demanding that faculty members reveal how they voted.  Next the government will want to prohibit secret voting in unions, professional organizations, civic organizations, corporations, and finally in the general elections.

(letter to the editor)  Taking bone marrow from Marissa to give to Anissa is the medical equivalent of rape.  The issue of tissue from a fourteen-month-old child, who is unable and possibly unwilling to give consent, is of itself an unbelievable act, but conceiving a child for the sole purpose of saving another is unconscionable.  What if the child died during the procedure?  What’s next?  People conceiving children to save their pets?