Chapter 6: fallacies

Question 1

Fallacies

Answer 1

¬ intentional or unintentional errors in reasoning. Often psychologically persuasive since they mimic successful approaches to argumentation and fool people experienced in critical thinking.
o People commit fallacies because they are bad arguers or deliberately to accept people to accept a conclusion

Question 2

Types of fallacies

Answer 2

o Can divide fallacies according to three criteria of the S-Test. Some fallacies usually affect the satisfactoriness of an argument’s premises, others undermine the support that those premises grant to the conclusion or the sufficiency of that support.

-fallacies associated with satisfactoriness, support, and sufficiency

Question 3

List fallacies associated with satisfactoriness

Answer 3

• Amphiboly
• begging the question
• equivocation
• false dilemma
• improper appeal to authority
• inconsistency
• straw person argument

Question 4

Amphiboly (satisfactoriness)

Answer 4

o the structure of a sentence allows two different interpretations
♣ Problem: can create situations in which people interpret the same claim differently.

Question 5

Begging the question (satisfactoriness)

Answer 5

o the truth of the conclusion is already assumed in the premise
♣ Problem: in order to consider the premise of an argument satisfactory, one has to have already accepted its conclusion.

Question 6

Equivocation (satisfactoriness)

Answer 6

o Fallacy in which the same term is used with two different meanings, but the argument treats both meanings as if they were the same.
♣ Problem: arguments can be fallacious if they use the same words without proper continuity of meaning.

Question 7

False dilemma (satisfactoriness)

Answer 7

o only two choices are given when in fact there are more options
♣ Problem: in most situations, there are more than two options available

Question 8

Improper appeal to authority (satisfactoriness)

Answer 8

o the authority that provides support for the conclusion is either not an expert in the relevant area, or is not honest and reliable, or is not in agreement with other experts in this area, or the area is not something that one can be an authority about.
♣ Problem in example: the fact that a person is an authority is one area does not make that individual an authority in others.

Question 9

Inconsistency (satisfactoriness)

Answer 9

o An argument in which contrary or contradictory statements are asserted to be true at the same time.
♣ Problem with example: two statements cannot both be true at the same time, so at least one of the argument’s premises must be false.

Question 10

Straw person argument (satisfactoriness)

Answer 10

o the arguer reconstructs an opponent’s argument as something weaker than it actually is, then attacks that weaker version of the argument
♣ Problem: this type of fallacy gets its name from the idea that you can knock down a straw figure more easily than a real person. Similarly, it’s easier to knock down an artificial argument than a real one.
♣ This fallacy is common in political debates or happens accidentally when an arguer doesn’t quite understand what another arguer is claiming

Question 11

List fallacies associated with support

Answer 11

-abusive ad hominem
-ad hominem tu quoque
-affirming the consequent
-appeal to force
-appeal to pity
-appeal to popularity
-appeal to tradition
-circumstantial ad hominem
-denying the antecedent
guilty by association
-red herring
-two wrongs make a right

Question 12

abusive ad hominem (support)

Answer 12

o meaning “to the person”. An individual’s character is attacked, rather than his or her argument

Question 13

ad hominem tu quoque (support)

Answer 13

o means “you too!”. An argument in rejected because the arguer does not act in accordance with his or her own conclusion
♣ Problem with example: that the person doesn’t listen to his or her own argument doesn’t entail that it’s a bad argument

Question 14

affirming the consequent (support)

Answer 14

o	This argument takes the form: 
If A, then b 
 					B\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
Therefore,					 A 
♣	This argument form is always invalid. 
♣	Problem from ex: if A is true, it doesn’t tell us what we can know if B is true.

Question 15

appeal to force (support)

Answer 15

o This is an attempt to persuade through threat of harm.
♣ Problem: threats to a person’s economic, physical, or psychological well-being can be quite intimidating, but are irrelevant to whether the claims made by the arguer are true.

Question 16

appeal to pity (support)

Answer 16

o an attempt to persuade on grounds of compassion when compassion is not relevant to the argument
♣ Problem: on its own, pity is not a legitimate reason to accept an argument. In the example, the nature of the unfortunate situation is irrelevant to the satisfactoriness of the claim. Compassion may be relevant in some cases

Question 17

appeal to popularity (support)

Answer 17

o a claim is argued to be true on the grounds that is widely believed to be true.
♣ Problem: while the popularity of a belief might be justified if the belief is true, that people believe something doesn’t make the belief true. Popular views are not necessarily the correct ones.

Question 18

appeal to tradition (support)

Answer 18

o an assertion that because something has always been done a certain way, that way is correct.
♣ Problem with example: the long-term practices of this person’s family are no more immune to criticism than are the practices that have only been taken up recently.

Question 19

circumstantial ad hominem (support)

Answer 19

o an argument is rejected on the grounds that the arguer has some ulterior motive.
♣ Problem: An argument may still have merit regardless of whether the arguer has ulterior motives for presenting it.

Question 20

Denying the antecedent (support)

Answer 20

o	this argument takes the form: 
P1) If A, then B 
P2) Not A\_\_\_\_
C3) Therefore, Not B. 
♣	This argument form is always invalid. 
♣	Problem of ex: the argument assumes that since A (the antecedent) is false, B (the consequent) must be false to.

Question 21

Guilty by association (support)

Answer 21

o a person’s views are rejected because those views are associated with a group that is unpopular.
♣ Problem: a view may be correct, or an argument may be strong, even if it is associated with a disreputable group.

Question 22

Red herring (support)

Answer 22

o A red herring occurs when an arguer wanders from his or her argument to some other unrelated or tangential point, thereby distracting the audience.
♣ Problem: The person uses irrelevant claims to digress or misdirect the audience.

Question 23

Two wrongs make a right (support)

Answer 23

o a wrong action is defended on the basis that someone else did the same thing.
♣ Problem from ex: the fact that other people did something wrong and were not punished is irrelevant to whether the act itself is wrong.

Question 24

List fallacies associated with sufficiency

Answer 24

• appeal to ignorance
• composition fallacy
• division fallacy
• faulty analogy
• hasty generalization
• post hoc
• slippery slope

Question 25

Appeal to ignorance (sufficiency)

Answer 25

o an argument in which, because something is not known to be true, it is assumed to be false; or, because it is not known to be false, it is assumed to be true.
♣ Not knowing something is false is different from knowing that it is true.

Question 26

Composition fallacy (sufficiency)

Answer 26

o fallacy in which, because the parts of a whole have a certain property, it is assumed that the whole has that property
♣ The fact that the parts of the whole are good does not entail that the whole itself will be good.

Question 27

Division fallacy (sufficiency)

Answer 27

o this is a fallacy in which, because the whole has a certain property, it is assumed that the parts have that property
♣ Problem: this fallacy occurs when one assumed that all parts of a whole must have the same qualities as the whole

Question 28

faulty analogy (sufficiency)

Answer 28

o an argument by analogy: the two objects or events being compared have no relevant similarities or are relevantly dissimilar.
Problem: an argument from analogy depends on the existence of relevant similarities between the primary subject and the analogue case, as well as a lack of relevant dissimilarities

Question 29

hasty generalization (sufficiency)

Answer 29

o A hasty generalization is a faulty generalization based on a small or unrepresentative sample size
♣ Problem: one cannot generalize from one or two instances.

Question 30

post hoc (sufficiency)

Answer 30

o A fallacy in which, an arguer claims that since one event happened before another event, the first event must have caused the second.
♣ Problem: that one event occurs before another does not mean that the first event was the cause of the second. The events might have occurred in this order accidentally, or they might share some other common cause.

Question 31

slippery slope (sufficiency)

Answer 31

o this is a fallacy in which a series of increasingly unacceptable consequences are sad to follow from an original position that appears to be acceptable. From this, it’s claimed that the original position is therefore unsatisfactory.
♣ Problem: usually you can find a point in the “slope” where there is a relevant distinction to be drawn and it is no longer obvious that the alleged consequence will follow.

Question 32

Where do you most often encounter fallacies

Answer 32

o You frequently encounter fallacies in advertising. The number of commercial advertisements that an average Canadian is exposed to in the course of a normal day ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand. The advertising industry exists to try to persuade you to “buy into” its messages, and the goal of advertising is to persuade you to buy things that you may or may not need.
o Sometimes advertising is not rational at all—targets our emotions or unconscious thoughts. But when it targets our reason, it tends to use a variety of badly formed arguments that provide plenty examples of fallacious reasoning.