Pseudo reasoning

Question 1

What is meant by Equivocation?

Answer 1

When we deliberately use a word or form of words with the intention of confusing the audience

Question 2

Failing to notice what can lead to falling to equivication?

Answer 2

To fall prey to an argument that employs equivocation, by contrast, is to fail to notice an ambiguity, or in some cases an instance of vagueness, thereby accepting the conclusion of an argument

Question 3

What is meant by red herring technique?

Answer 3

Using irrelevant information and rhetorics to distract from the argument (Throwing them off the scent)

Question 4

Is the red herring technique a substantive fallacy? Why?

Answer 4

Note that although red herring arguments can easily be represented as valid, red herring is not a substantive fallacy, what is and what is not relevant to a conclusion will depend on the conclusion’s particular subject matter.

Question 5

What is meant by the slippery slope technique

Answer 5

when an arguer wrongly assumes that to permit or forbid a course of action will inevitably lead to the occurrence of further related and undesirable events, without providing good reasons to suppose that the further events will indeed inevitably follow; and thus to allow the first is to tread on a slippery slope down which we will slide to the other events.

Question 6

Give another name for the slippery slope technique

Answer 6

Floodgates

Question 7

What is meant by the straw target technique?

Answer 7

This is the technique used when an arguer ignores their opponent’s real position on an issue and sets up a weaker version of that position by misrepresentation, exaggeration, distortion or simplification.

Question 8

What is meant by the false dilemma technique?

Answer 8

This is the technique of limiting consideration of positions on an issue to fewer alternatives than are actually available to be considered.

Question 9

What is meant by begging the question?

Answer 9

An argument commits the fallacy of begging the question – sometimes called ‘circular reasoning’ – when the truth of its conclusion is assumed by one or more of its premises, and the truth of the premise(s) depends for its justification on the truth of the conclusion.

Question 10

Explain the difference between relative and absolute risk in terms of a medication trial.

Answer 10

Relative risk is a measure of the difference in risk between someone taking the medication that’s being trialled and someone who’s not taking it.
The absolute risk is the risk of someone in the general population.
So if trials of Roccastatin are reported to reduce the risk of heart attack by 54 per cent, we should understand this as a 54 per cent reduction in the absolute risk. Suppose that risk is 0.5 per cent – 1 in 200 – then taking the new medication would reduce that risk to 0.27 per cent – 1 in approximately 370

Question 11

Is the red herring technique a substantive fallacy? Why?

Answer 11

Note that although red herring arguments can easily be represented as valid, red herring is not a substantive fallacy, what is and what is not relevant to a conclusion will depend on the conclusion’s particular subject matter.

Question 12

What is meant by the slippery slope technique

Answer 12

when an arguer wrongly assumes that to permit or forbid a course of action will inevitably lead to the occurrence of further related and undesirable events, without providing good reasons to suppose that the further events will indeed inevitably follow; and thus to allow the first is to tread on a slippery slope down which we will slide to the other events.

Question 13

Give another name for the slippery slope technique

Answer 13

Floodgates

Question 14

What is meant by the straw target technique?

Answer 14

This is the technique used when an arguer ignores their opponent’s real position on an issue and sets up a weaker version of that position by misrepresentation, exaggeration, distortion or simplification.

Question 15

What is meant by the false dilemma technique?

Answer 15

This is the technique of limiting consideration of positions on an issue to fewer alternatives than are actually available to be considered.

Question 16

What is meant by begging the question?

Answer 16

An argument commits the fallacy of begging the question – sometimes called ‘circular reasoning’ – when the truth of its conclusion is assumed by one or more of its premises, and the truth of the premise(s) depends for its justification on the truth of the conclusion.

Question 17

Explain the difference between relative and absolute risk in terms of a medication trial.

Answer 17

Relative risk is a measure of the difference in risk between someone taking the medication that’s being trialled and someone who’s not taking it.
The absolute risk is the risk of someone in the general population.
So if trials of Roccastatin are reported to reduce the risk of heart attack by 54 per cent, we should understand this as a 54 per cent reduction in the absolute risk. Suppose that risk is 0.5 per cent – 1 in 200 – then taking the new medication would reduce that risk to 0.27 per cent – 1 in approximately 370

Question 18

What are fallacies?

Answer 18

arguments that make use of a mistake in reasoning

Question 19

What is the differences between formal and informal fallacies?

Answer 19

Formal fallacies are fallacies in which there is an inappropriate logical connection. Informal (substantive) fallacies are fallacies which involve reliance on a generalisation, unjustified assumptions or inferences. This often includes the reliance on an implicit assumption.

Question 20

Name four formal fallacies

Answer 20

Affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent, deriving ought from is, base rate

Question 21

What is meant by deriving ought from is?

Answer 21

A prescriptive conclusion cannot be validly derived from descriptive premises. This fallacy does exactly that.

Question 22

What is the ad hominem fallacy?

Answer 22

This is responding to a claim by making an attack upon the person or by rejecting a claim because of dislike for the person making the claim.

Question 23

What is meant by ad hominem circumstantial

Answer 23

This is believing that an argument is discounted because the person making the argument would allegedly benefit from people believing the argument

Question 24

What is the tu quoque fallacy

Answer 24

This is making unwarranted conclusions between a person’s alleged lack of credibility and the strength of their argument. It assumes that whenever a person’s behaviour is inconsistent with their advice, the advice is either false or should not be taken seriously.

Question 25

What is meant by the perfectionist fallacy?

Answer 25

This is rejecting an argument because it will not completely solve a problem. It contains the hidden premise that if a solution does not completely solve a problem, it should not be used.

Question 26

What is meant by conflation of morality with legality?

Answer 26

This is assuming that anything that is legal must be moral or that anything that is illegal must be immoral. “There is no law against it, so it’s acceptable”.

Question 27

What is meant by a weak analogy?

Answer 27

This is assuming that if one entity is similar to another entity in one aspect, it is similar in all the aspects.

Question 28

What is meant by Post hoc ergo propter hoc?

Answer 28

This is inferring that an event caused another event merely on the basis that one event occurred after the other. “After that, this, therefore this because of that”.

Question 29

Name two other causal fallacies

Answer 29

Mistaken correlation for cause and inversion of cause and effect

Question 30

Name two epistemic fallacies

Answer 30

Appeal to ignorance: This is assuming that if something is not proven, that it must be false or that if something has not been disproven, it must be correct.
Epistemic fallacy: This is assuming that if someone believes A, someone must also believe B, based on the grounds that A and B are about the same thing or person.

Question 31

How is the margin of error involved in faulty argument techniques?

Answer 31

Misinterpreting the margin of error (usually a confidence interval)