Fallacy Flashcards
Like a sob story, use emotion to distract the audience from the facts and to manipulate the audience into drawing unjustified conclusions
Ex: The thousands of baby seals killed in the Exxon Valdez oil spill have shown us that oil is not a reliable energy source.
Pathos / Emotional Appeals
Provides easy answers to complicated questions, often by appealing to emotions rather than logic
Ex: School violence has gone up and academic performance has gone down ever since organized prayer has been banned in public schools. Therefore, prayer should be reintroduced, resulting in school improvement.
Oversimplification
Use misleading or unrelated evidence to support a conclusion
Ex: That painting is worthless because I don’t recognize that artists.
Red Herrings
Try to frighten people into agreeing with the arguer by threatening them or predicting unrealistically dire consequences
Ex: If you don’t support the party’s tax plan, you and your family will be reduced to poverty.
Scare Tactics
Encourage an audience to agree with the writer because everyone else is doing so, “to the crowd”
Ex: Paris Hilton carries a small dog in her purse, so you should buy a hairless Chihuahua and put it in your Louis Vuitton.
Ad Populum or Bandwagon Appeals
Asks audiences to agree with the assertion of a writer based simply on his or her character or authority of another person or institution who may not be fully qualified to offer that assertion.
Ex: My high school teacher said it, so it must be true.
False Authority
Occurs when someone offers personal authority as proof.
Ex: Trust me - my best friend wouldn’t do that.
Using Authority Instead of Evidence (or overreliance on authority)
Is the assertion of a claim w/o presenting a reasoned argument to support it.
Ex: Ben: “I think that some people have physic powers.”
Jerry: “What is your proof?”
Ben: “No one has been able to prove that people do not have physic powers.”
Failing to Accept the Burden of Proof
Calls someone’s character into question by examining the character of that person’s associates
Ex: Sara’s friend Amy robbed a bank; therefore, Sara is a delinquent.
Creon also blames Ismene when Antigone buried hers and Ismene’s brother.
Guilt by Association
(Latin: to the individual) Arguments attack a person’s character rather than that person’s reasoning.
Ex: Nick Jacobson is not a worthy candidate for vice president of the senior class because he is short and frowns too much.
Ad Hominem / Name Calling
Draws general and premature conclusions from scanty evidence.
Ex: I wouldn’t eat at that restaurant-the only time I ate there, my entree was undercooked.
Dallas Police Chief Christopher Michaels suggested that all dogs must be muzzled because two Golden Retrievers have been disturbing the peace in Fritz Park
A Hasty Generalization
Arguments confuse chronology with causation: one event can occur after another w/o being caused by it.
Ex: Sally worked on her written argument longer than she had for any other essay; therefore, she felt she must earn an “A”.
a+b≠c
Faulty Causality (Latin: Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc)
Represents only one side of the issue, thus distorting the issue.
Ex: Cats are superior to dogs because they are cleaner, cuter, and more independent.
Stacked Evidence / Slanting / Card Stacking
Occurs when a writer simply restates the claim in a different way; such an argument is circular; trying to prove one idea with another idea that is too similar to the first idea
Ex: “These movies are popular because they make so much money. They make a lot of money because people like them. People like them because they are popular.”
Begging the Question (or circular reasoning)
A technique that is used too much to drum the message into the target audience’s subconscious by repeating key words or phrases over and over until resistance to the message, weakens, and the target audience eventually accepts it. This is a propaganda technique that is used in the media and by advertisers who want to convince audience members to accept an idea, watch or play something, or buy a product.
Repetition
