chapter 6

Question 1

what is a fallacy?

Answer 1

• a mistake for reasoning
• we commit a fallacy if we think a claim has been supported when the “support” is nothing more than rhetorically persuasive language

Question 2

how can you arrange fallacies into groups?

Answer 2

1: fallacies of relevance
2: fallacies of ambiguity
3: fallacies of presumption
4: fallacies of distraction

Question 3

the argument from outrage

Answer 3

• consists of inflammatory words (or thoughts) followed by a “conclusion” of some sort
• substitutes anger for reason and judgement in considering an issue

Question 4

scapegoating

Answer 4

• blaming a certain group of people, or even a single person for all of life’s troubles
• apart of argument from outrage

Question 5

score tactics

Answer 5

• Trying to scare people into doing something or accepting a position is using scare tactics
• A simply method might be to threaten the person, a special case of scare tactics known as argument by force.

Question 6

argument from pity

Answer 6

• When feeling sorry for someone drives us to a position on an unrelated matter, the result is the fallacy known as argument from pity.

Question 7

apple polishing

Answer 7

which we mean old-fashioned flattery

Question 8

guilt trip

Answer 8

Eliciting feelings of guilt to get others to do or not to do something, or to accept the view that they should or should not do it, is popularly known as putting a guilt trip on someone, which is to commit a fallacy.

Question 9

wishful thinking

Answer 9

happens when we accept or urge acceptance (or rejection) of a claim simply because it would be pleasant (or unpleasant) if it were true
- This fallacy also underlies much of the empty rhetoric of “positive thinking” - rhetoric that claims “you are what you want to be” and other such slogans.

Question 10

desire for acceptance

Answer 10

can motivate us to accept a claim not because of its merits but because we will gain someone’s approval (or will avoid having approval withdrawn).

Question 11

group identification

Answer 11

which people experience when they are part of a group - team, club, school, gang, state, nation etc
- One obvious form of this fallacy involves national pride, or nationalism - a powerful and fierce emotion that can lead to valid endorsement of a country’s policies and practise.

Question 12

other types of fallacies based on emotions

Answer 12

1: argument from pity
2: apple polishing
3: guilt trip
4: wishful thinking
5: desire for acceptance
- peer pressure argument
6: group identification
- nationalism

Question 13

what are some non-emotion-based fallacies?

Answer 13

1: red herrings
2: appeals to popularity and tradition
3: rationalizing

Question 14

red herring/ smoke screen

Answer 14

When a person brings a topic into a conversation that distracts from the original point, especially if the new topic is introduced in order to distract, the person is said to have introduced a red herring.

Question 15

what are the two variations of the appeal to popularity

Answer 15

1: appeal to common practice
2: appeal to tradition

Question 16

appeal to common practice

Answer 16

consists in trying to justify or defined an action or practice (as distinguished from an assertion or claim) on the grounds that it is common.

Question 17

what is this an example of? “” I shouldn’t get a speeding ticket because everyone drives over the limit”

Answer 17

appeal to common practice

Question 18

appeal to traidtion

Answer 18

People do things because that is the way things have always been done, and they believe things because that is what people have always believed

Question 19

rationalizing

Answer 19

• When we use a false pretext to satisfy our own desires or interests.
  Involves a confusion in thinking, and to the extend -
• we wish to avoid being confused in our thinking, we should try to avoid rationalizing

Question 20

two wrongs make a right

Answer 20

When wrongful behaviour on someone else’s part does not convert wrongful behaviour on your part into rightful behavior any more than illegal behavior on someone else’s part converts your illegal activity into legal activity.

Question 21

retributivism

Answer 21

• apart of the two wrongs make a right
• according to which it is acceptable to harm someone in return for a harm he or she has done to you.