fallicies and rhetorics

Question 1

politicians fallacy

Answer 1

We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.
•IF we do nothing THEN the world will end. We do something. Therefore, the world will not end.
•IF A THEN B. Not A. Therefore, not B.
im grunde denying the antecedent

Question 2

belief bias

Answer 2

Possibly because of “BELIEF BIAS”–

the tendency to evaluate reasoning by how believable its constituents seem.

Question 3

false consensus effect

Answer 3

A tendency to assume that attitudes held by us and our peers are held by society at large.

Question 4

bandwagon effect

Answer 4

A tendency to align our belief system with the belief systems of those around us.
(E.g. the Asch effect: Perception is affected by what other people say they are perceiving.)

Question 5

negativity bias

Answer 5

A tendency to assign more importance/credibility to information that is associated with negative emotion.

Question 6

loss aversion

Answer 6

A tendency to assign more importance to arguments aimed at avoiding losses than acquiring gains.

Question 7

availability bias

Answer 7

A tendency to endorse a belief depending

on the ease of with which one can recall examples

Question 8

in-group bias

Answer 8

A tendency to favor or believe members of one’s in-group over out-group members. May take the form of automatically discounting arguments supporting the opinions of people who are “not one of us.”

Question 9

fundamental attributions bias

Answer 9

A tendency to hold those who are “not one of us” especially blameworthy for their actions or responsible for their statements. A ist ein schlechter mensch denn er hat schlechte dinge gemacht–> kein gutes argument

Question 10

obedience to authority

Answer 10

A tendency to endorse a belief because it is backed by an authority

Question 11

overconfidence effect and better than average illusion

Answer 11

Cases where the subjective confidence in a judgment is greater than is objectively warranted.

Question 12

ambiguities

Answer 12

e.g. People who lie frequently get into a lot of trouble.

Question 13

grouping ambiguities

Answer 13

Fallacy of division: Arguing from collective differences to individual differences
Fallacy of composition: Arguing from individual differences to collective differences
E.g.
Preference for social over cognitive psychology  preference for book, lecturer, practical, etc.

Question 14

“Trump delivered a great, eloquent speech last night. Everyone awakened feeling refreshed.”

Answer 14

Ridicule/Sarcasm
I can say the opposite of what I mean and can still be sure that you understand me right, because this is just so obvious.

Question 15

“Is Deborah generous? She’d give you her life savings if she thought you were in need.”

Answer 15

Hyperbole

Question 16

“collateral damage” “stimulus package”

Answer 16

euphemism (making it sound less worse)

Question 17

“junk food” “bail out”

Answer 17

dysphemism (making it sound more worse)

Question 18

“An environmentalist is a tree-hugging extremist.”

Answer 18

rhetorical definition, a definition that uses emotive force to get you to feel a certain way about something

Question 19

“The reason environmentalists won’t let you cut down a tree is they want to put everyone out of work.”

Answer 19

rhetorical explanation

Question 20

“Your average environmentalist is about as smart as a toilet seat.”

Answer 20

rhetorical analogy

Question 21

“What do you expect? She’s just a dumb blonde.”

Answer 21

stereotype

Question 22

“Pornography is a problem, but we must protect free speech.”

Answer 22

downplayer

a word or phrase that is meant to reduce the importance of a topic

Question 23

“Clearly, she shouldn’t have done that.”

Answer 23

proof surrogate, A claim masquerading as proof or evidence, when no such proof or evidence is actually being offered

Question 24

“I didn’t say Bush invaded Iraq to help his friends in the oil industry. I just said his friends have done very well since the invasion.”

Answer 24

innuendo, a way to say something about something or someone without actually saying it outright

Question 25

“This vitamin supplement may cure your problem.”

Answer 25

weaseler

Question 26

“When did you stop cheating on your girl friend?”

Answer 26

Loaded question (rests on an assumption that should have been established but wasn’t)

Question 27

•“Everybody believes X. Therefore X is true.”

Example: “Everbody believes global warming is real. Therefore, global warming is real.”

Answer 27

argument from popularity

Question 28

•“Everybody does X. Therefore it’s right to do X.”

Example: “Everybody breaks the speed limit. Therefore, it’s right to break the speed limit.”

Answer 28

“Argument” from Common Practice

Question 29

•“Thinking or doing X is a tradition. Therefore it’s right to think or do X.”
Example: “Traditionally, marriage has been restricted to heterosexual couples. Therefore it’s right to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples.”

Answer 29

“Argument” from Tradition

Question 30

“Arguments” from Popularity, Common Practice, and Tradition

Answer 30

1. Everybody believes X. Therefore X is true.
2. Everybody does X. Therefore it is right to do X.
3. Everybody has always believed X or done X in the past. Therefore it is right to think or do X.

Question 31

“Buy Michelin tires. Don’t risk your children’s safety by buying inferior brands.”

Answer 31

Scare Tactics

•Trying to scare us into accepting or doing something.

Question 32

“Buy Michelin tires, or I will see to it you lose your job.”

Answer 32

Argument from Force

•Trying to threaten us into accepting or doing something.

Question 33

“Buy a Mac Book Pro! Apple consumers are part of a special and sophisticated tech community”

Answer 33

Group Think

•Trying to get us to do or believe something by appealing to group identity.

Question 34

“Of course we are winning the war! If you don’t like it here, move to Baghdad.”

Answer 34

Peer Pressure

•Trying to get us to do or believe something by appealing to fear of being excluded from the group.

Question 35

Buying your wife a set of power-tools for her birthday: “She will really love this!”

Answer 35

Rationalizing

•Lying to ourselves about our real reasons for believing or doing something.

Question 36

Denial is a common form.

“Oh, Professor, I didn’t miss that many classes!”

Answer 36

Wishful Thinking

•Thinking X is true for no better reason than that you want it to be true.

Question 37

“Yes, obviously the President’s strategy in Iraq is working. The liberal media in this country just can’t stand the thought of us winning this war.”

Answer 37

Red Herring / Smokescreen
•An irrelevancy brought in to “support” a claim or to distract one from the issue
•There are many types of Red Herrings

Question 38

1. You can’t be pro abortion because killing babies is an outrage
2. If somebody has just lost a relative in a plane crash, you can’t argue that in fact airplanes are safer than cars.

Answer 38

1. argument from outrage

2. argument from pity

Question 39

Al Gore comes from a rich family and has had it easy in life, therefore we shouldn’t take global warming seriously

Answer 39

argument from envy

Question 40

When a car-salesman applies discount technique

Answer 40

apple polishing

Question 41

When a car-salesman applies discount technique

Answer 41

Two Wrongs Make a Right
•Thinking wrongful behavior by someone else excuses wrongful behavior by you
•Thinking that the fact that another would do a wrong to you excuses you doing a wrong to him/her

Question 42

“Well, I think human sacrifice is immoral, but the ancient Mayans didn’t, so it wasn’t wrong for them.”

Answer 42

Relativist Fallacy believing both of these at the same time:
•It’s wrong to do X.
•It’s not wrong to do X, if your society thinks it is okay to do X.

Question 43

Example: “According to Al Gore, global warming is the most serious threat facing us today. This is not true. Al Gore spends $20,000 each year on electricity in his Tennessee mansion!”

Answer 43

Argumentum ad hominem: the most common fallacy on earth.
Premise: All Gore spends $20,000 each year on electricity.
•Conclusion: Therefore global warming is not the most serious threat facing us today.

Question 44

•“What Al Gore says about global warming is not true! That clown will say anything to get attention.”

Answer 44

Attack ad hominem

Question 45

•“What Al Gore says about global warming is not true. Al Gore makes a fortune from alternative energy investments. What do you expect he would say?”

Answer 45

circumstantial ad hominem

Question 46

•“Senator Clinton says we should get out of Iraq. This is non-sense! She voted for the war, let’s not forget.”

Answer 46

Inconsistency ad hominem

Question 47

•“Don’t watch Fox News. They distort their graphs and statistics when reporting on Democratic governments.”

Answer 47

Poisoning the well

Question 48

•“Does God exist? Of course not. That idea originated with a bunch of ignorant people who knew nothing about science.”

Answer 48

Genetic fallacy

Question 49

Rejecting some particular person’s idea as false because there is something defective about the person

Answer 49

ad hominem variant of the genetic fallacy

Question 50

Example: “Either we increase the number of troops in Iraq or the terrorists will be attacking U.S. cities. Seems like a simple choice to me.”

Answer 50

false dilemma

Question 51

“It’s impossible to eliminate terrorism entirely. We should stop wasting money on it.”

Answer 51

“Perfectionist” version of false dilemma

Question 52

There shouldn’t be restrictions on violence in the movies. After all, when is a movie ‘too violent’? You just can’t draw the line.”

Answer 52

“Line-drawing” version of false dilemma

Question 53

“Twenty percent? You want to tip her 20%? Hey, maybe you want to give her everything we make, but I frankly think that is ridiculous!

Answer 53

Straw man
Person 1 asserts proposition X.
Person 2 argues against a superficially similar proposition Y, falsely, as if an argument against Y were an argument against X.

Question 54

“Twenty percent? You want to tip her 20%? Hey, next thing you’ll want to tip 25%! And then 30%! It will never end.”

Answer 54

slippery slope

Question 55

“Can I prove the Biblical flood really happened? Hey, can you prove it didn’t? / Hey, I have no indications that the Biblical flood didn’t happen! ”

Answer 55

Misplacing the burden of proof / Appeal to ignorance

Question 56

”Can I prove the Biblical flood really happened? Of course it happened! Why else would Noah build an ark?”

Answer 56

begging the question
an arguer includes the conclusion to be proven within a premise of the argument, often in an indirect way such that its presence within the premise is hidden or at least not easily apparent