Section 4 Flashcards
What is the Ad Hominem fallacy
when someone attacks the arguer instead of the argument
What is the genetic fallacy
when one argues (or, more commonly, implies) the origin of something (e.g., a theory, idea, policy, etc.) is a reason for rejecting (or accepting) it.
What is the straw figure (man) fallacy
when someone (willfully or mistakenly) misinterprets someone else’s argument or position. The opponent’s argument or position is characterized uncharitably so as to make it seem ridiculous or indefensible.
What is the red herring fallacy
where you intentionally or unintentionally change the subject to avoid the real issue at hand.
What is an irrelevant appeal
Any kind of appeal to a factor, consideration, or reason that isn’t relevant to the argument at hand
What is an appeal to unqualified authority
The fallacy is when we trust an authority on one subject (or perhaps someone who is not an authority on anything at all) to speak on another subject about which they have no real expertise.
What is an appeal to force
an irrelevant appeal because it argues that some proposition is true but uses it as justification to claim a threat on the listener.
What is an ad populum (appeal to the people) fallacy
appealing to the popularity of a thing or idea or practice in order to justify that thing or idea or practice. In an argument, one appeals to the popularity of a conclusion and then uses that popularity as a basis for inferring that the conclusion is true.
What is an appeal to consequences
consists in the mistake of trying to assess the truth or reasonableness of an idea based on the (typically negative) consequences of accepting that idea. For example, suppose the results of a study revealed that there are IQ differences between [different sized people] (this is a fictitious example, there is no such study that I know of). In debating the results of this study, one researcher claims that if we were to accept these results, it would lead to increased bias in our society, which is not tolerable.
What is the fallacy of equivocation
the same word is being used in two different senses but drawing a conclusion as if it had the same meaning
Children are a headache. Aspirin will make headaches go away. Therefore, aspirin will make children go away.
What is an appeal to ignorance
The lack of proof against some claims does not by itself justify believing that claim.
The mere fact that we cannot prove that “aliens have visited Earth” is false, though, does not mean that we can conclude that “aliens have visited Earth” is true.
What is the slippery slope fallacy
when one event is said to lead to some other (usually disastrous) event via a chain of intermediary events. made up of a series of conjunctions of probabilistic conditional statements that link the first event to the last event.
To figure the probability of a conjunction, we must multiply the probability of each conjunct:
(.9) × (.9) × (.9) × (.8) × (.8) × (.9) × (.8) × (.8) = .27
What is the Texas sharpshooter fallacy (the fallacy of Cherry-Picking Evidence)
when someone already knows which conclusion they’d like to prove and then selects evidence which supports that conclusion. They’ve done the process backwards. The analogy is that the painting of the bullseye is selecting which evidence to take into account. If you only weigh the evidence which supports the conclusion you like (or in the story, if you only draw the target around the bullet holes that looked good) then you’d be disregarding other evidence for no other reason than that it got in the way of you concluding what you wanted to conclude.
What is Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc (post hoc fallacy)
Just because something happens after another thing happens, doesn’t mean that the second thing is caused by the first thing.
X occurred before Y
Therefore: X caused Y.
What is a hasty generalization
when one generalizes about a group of people or things or events, but one does so too quickly and without enough evidence or with too small of a sample from that group.
What are fallacies of presumption
when an argument rests on an unjustified assumption. Recall the informal fallacy, begging the question. This is a fallacy of presumption because the premise of an argument that begs the question merely assumes the truth of its conclusion rather than provides reason to believe its conclusion.
What is the false dilemma (false dichotomy) fallacy
a fallacy of presumption in which it is assumed without good reason that there are fewer options (usually two) than there really are.
What is the burden of proof fallacy (burden shifting)
when one decides that someone else must prove them wrong when in reality they are the person with the burden of proof: one should prove oneself right!
What is the general rule for burden of proof
the least plausible claim has the highest burden of proof. whoever is making the wilder claim or the claim that is hardest for a reasonable person to believe is the one who should have the burden of proving their claim.
What is independent support
when each premise seems like it’s an argument for the conclusion on its own
What is conjoint support
when a premise doesn’t seem to support the conclusion without the help of the other premises.
What is the main conclusion in an argument
the final conclusion of the argument. It doesn’t serve as a premise/support for any other proposition in the complex argument.
What is the main premise in an argument
is one among the set of premises directly supporting the main conclusion
What is a sub-inference in an argument
an inference from a premise to another premise.
What is a sub-premise in an argument
a premise in a sub-inference
What is a sub-conclusion in an argument
a conclusion in a sub-inference. (Note that a sub- conclusion is always a premise itself, and that it is usually one of the main premises unless the argument gets really complex).
What are hidden premises
where an argument in fact relies on a claim that it doesn’t state as a premise.
What is a normative principle
a general rule which allows us to move from a simple statement of supposed fact to a prescription for what we should do
How do you determine if premises are conjoint or independent support
The negation test. If you make one premise the opposite of what it is and the argument makes no sense, then it is conjoint support.
