BRIEF OVERVIEW OF RHETORICAL FALLACIES Complicating ideas of

(BRIEF) OVERVIEW OF RHETORICAL FALLACIES Complicating ideas of Ethos, Pathos, Logos

WHAT IS A FALLACY? • A defect or false assumption that weakens your argument Specifically, a rhetorical fallacy: • Is defined as a failure of discussion or argument • Distracts the audience with various appeals instead of using sound reasoning • Doesn’t allow for the open, two-way exchange of ideas upon which meaningful conversations depend

TYPES OF RHETORICAL FALLACIES • Emotional fallacies • unfairly appeals to the audience’s emotions • Ethical fallacies • unreasonably advances the writer’s authority or character • Logical fallacies • Inaccurately cites reasoning, or cites reasoning that is false

LOGICAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF LOGOS) • A Hasty Generalization draws conclusions from limited evidence. • Example: The person working at the campus coffee shop was rude to me; therefore, all people who work on campus are rude. • Faulty Causality arguments confuse time order with causation: one event can occur after another without being caused by it. • Example: A year after the release of the violent shoot-’em-up video game Annihilator, incidents of school violence tripled—surely not a coincidence.

LOGICAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF LOGOS) • Begging the Question occurs when a writer simply restates the claim in a different way; such an argument is circular. • Example: His lies are evident from the untruthful nature of his statements. • Stacked Evidence represents only one side of the issue, thus distorting the issue. • Example: Cats are superior to dogs because they are cleaner, cuter, and more independent.

LOGICAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF LOGOS) • A Faulty Analogy is an inaccurate, inappropriate, or misleading comparison between two things. • Example: Guns are like hammers--they're both tools with metal parts that could be used to kill someone. And yet it would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of hammers--so restrictions on purchasing guns are equally ridiculous. • Straw man is misrepresenting, misquoting, misconstruing and oversimplifying an argument to distract from actually doing any arguing or offering up solid evidence. • Person A: Biological evolution is both a theory and a fact. • Person B: That is ridiculous! How can you possibly be absolutely certain that we evolved from pond scum? !

EMOTIONAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF PATHOS) • Sentimental Appeals use emotion to distract the audience from the facts. • Example: The thousands of animals killed in the BP oil spill have shown us that oil is bad for the environment. • Scare Tactics try to frighten people into agreeing with the arguer by threatening them or predicting unrealistically dire consequences. • Example: If you don’t support the party’s tax plan, you and your family will be reduced to poverty.

EMOTIONAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF PATHOS) • False Need arguments create an unnecessary desire for things. • Example: You need an expensive car or people won’t think you’re cool. • Bandwagon Appeals encourage an audience to agree with the writer because everyone else is doing so. • Example: Everyone else likes to watch TV, so you should care about my paper talking about media representation.

EMOTIONAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF PATHOS) • Either/Or Choices reduce complicated issues to only two possible courses of action. • Example: The government can either approve my generator design immediately, or they can say goodbye forever to affordable energy. • **Slippery Slope arguments suggest that one thing will lead to another, oftentimes with disastrous results. • Example: If you get a B in high school, you won’t get into the college of your choice, and therefore you will never have a meaningful career.

ETHICAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF ETHOS) • False Authority asks audiences to agree with a writer based simply on his or her character or authority even if that person may not be fully qualified to offer that assertion. • Example: This person feels very passionately on the subject; even though they have no facts to back them up, they must be truthful. • Using Authority Instead of Evidence occurs when someone offers personal authority as proof. • Example: Simply because I go to college, I can tell you this is a problem.

ETHICAL FALLACIES (FALLACIES OF ETHOS) • Guilt by Association calls someone’s character into question by examining the character of that person’s associates. • Example: You can’t hang out with him; his friends are trouble. • Ad Hominem arguments attack a person’s character rather than that person’s reasoning. • Example: Why should we think a candidate who recently divorced will keep her campaign promises? • Dogmatism shuts down discussion by asserting that the writer’s beliefs are the only acceptable ones. • Example: I’m the teacher, so what I say is the only right answer.

TIPS FOR FINDING FALLACIES IN YOUR OWN ARGUMENT • Pretend you disagree with the conclusion you’re defending. What parts of the argument would now seem fishy to you? What parts would seem easiest to attack? Give special attention to strengthening those parts. • List your main points; under each one, list the evidence you have for it. Seeing your claims and evidence laid out this way make you realize that you have no good evidence for a particular claim, or it may help you look more critically at the evidence you’re using.

TIPS FOR FINDING FALLACIES IN YOUR OWN ARGUMENT • Learn which types of fallacies you’re especially prone to, and be careful to check for them in your work. Some writers make lots of appeals to authority; others are more likely to rely on weak analogies or set up straw men. • Be aware that broad claims need more proof than narrow ones. Claims that use sweeping words like “all, ” “none, ” “every, ” “always, ” “never, ” “no one, ” and “everyone” are sometimes appropriate—but they require a lot more proof than lesssweeping claims that use words like “some, ” “many, ” “few, ” “sometimes, ” “usually, ” and so forth. • Double check your characterizations of others, especially your opponents, to be sure they are accurate and fair.

ACTIVITY: • Examine the examples your group has pulled out of the article. Are any of these examples using a rhetorical fallacy to appeal to the audience? 5 -10 minutes.