Fallacies of Language Flashcards
Chapter 8
Fallacies of Language
The structure, or “form,” of this argument is what makes it invalid rather than its content.
Equivocation
Related to semantic ambiguity, sentence contains words or phrase that consists of more than one meaning
Amphiboly
Makes use of syntactic ambiguity, structure of sentence is what causes ambiguity
Composition (Parts to Whole)
Feature of parts is erroneously attributed to whole
Composition vs Hasty Generalization
Composition (acknowledged individually to taken collectively) & Hasty Generalization (acknowledged individually to conclusion of all members of collective taken individually)
Division (Whole to Parts)
Feature of collective is erroneously attributed to individual members
Confusing explanation with Excuses
Speaker is justifying or excusing actions when the original intention was to simply explain why something happened
To Justify Means
Show that an action is reasonable under circumstances with no due criticism
To Excuse Means
To relieve an actor of blame or criticism (criticism is due but an excuse exempts the actor from it anyway)
Contradictory
Pair of claims that are exact opposites and never have the same truth value
Contrary
Pair of claims that are not exact opposite, cannot be both true but can be both false
Consistency
Set of beliefs is considered consistent if and only if it is possible that each and every belief is true at the same time
Inconsistent
Set of beliefs is considered inconsistent if and only if it is not possible for each belief to be true at the same time
Miscalculating Probabilities
Deals with the likelihood of events
Incorrectly Combining Probability of Independent Events
One independent event cannot affect the outcome of another, probability of two inependent events is gauged by multiplying each of their probabilities (instead of adding them).
