Errors in Reasoning What is an Argument Argument

Errors in Reasoning

What is an Argument? Argument = ‘A set of Statements, one of which is the Conclusion, and the rest of which are Premises. • An argument need not be a disagreement • An argument is certainly not a shouting match Common Symbolism in Philosophy P 1: Socrates is a human being P 2: All human beings are mortal C: Socrates is Mortal

Fallacies A Fallacy is any error in reasoning that makes an argument fail to establish its conclusion, and also has a recognizable error in content Formal vs. Informal Fallacies – Formal fallacies have a specific form; Informal fallacies do not. Fallacies of Irrelevant Premise – have premises which have no bearing on the conclusion. Fallacies of Unacceptable Premise – Have premises are relevant to conclusion, but make a mistake in some other way.

Sorting out the News When watching the news: • Consider whether the report conflicts with what you have good reason to believe • Look for reporter slanting • Consider the source • Check for missing information • Look for False Emphasis • Check Alternative News Sources What about advertising? Never trust it! Always fact check it. Watch for the informal fallacies.

The Fallacies begin Appeal to ignorance – claiming something is true just because we cannot prove it is false. For example: “you cannot prove that God does not exist. Therefore God does exist. ” Or, “you cannot prove the defendant is innocent, therefore he is guilty. ” The Problem is that lack of evidence usually does not prove anything … although sometimes it strongly suggest something.

Anecdotal Evidence Eyewitness Testimony – “I saw, remember, experienced X. ” Mistakes in perception and memory are both very common and easily made. For Example: Frank says, at 13, he saw a dog turn into a man and walk in to 7/11

Bigfoot and the Burden of Proof – If you claim that something is the case, you are obligated to give positive reasons for thinking that you are right. It is not the responsibility of others to “prove you wrong. ”

Experts and appeal to authority Appeal to authority – appealing to the opinion of a non -expert as if they were an expert Who is an expert? --- Someone with a very high degree of training and/or education from reputable institutions in a very specific area And --- experience making judgements in their field of expertise

Appeal to false authority This fallacy claims that “so-and-so” says “X is true” or “X is false” and rests the argument on “so-and-so's” authority; but, in fact, “so-and-so” is not really an expert on the matter they speak for. For example: Jenny Mc. Carthy and Jim Carey are public proponents for the view that some vaccines cause autism. But, of course, Mc. Carthy and Carey have absolutely no expertise in this area.

Appeal to Popular opinion This fallacy holds that because the majority of people think something is true, it is, therefore, true. This kind of thinking is often behind opinion polls where we learn that, say, 57% of Americans think X or y. The problem is that the majority of people have often believed in terrible things, like thinking women should not be allowed to vote, or that slavery was a good thing. Nothing is right just because most people think it is so.

Appeal to tradition Quite similar to the appeal to popularity, but here the argument is that “we have always done it this way, so it is the right way to do things. ” This argument suffers from the same flaw, just because something has always been done a certain way, does not mean it is right. For example: someone might claim that marriage must be between “one man and one woman” simply on the grounds that “it has always been so. ” Nothing follows from this

Against the Person This argument attacks a person's character rather then their argument. For example: “Rush Limbaugh says global warming is not real. Limbaugh, however, is a big fat idiot! We must conclude therefore that Rush is wrong about Global warming. There are some other versions of this fallacy: you can attack someone's circumstances rather than their argument, you can poison the well, or use what is called the tu quoque (you too) fallacy.

The Genetic Fallacy Arguing that claim is true or false solely because of its abstract or nonhuman origins Ex: Bill thinks we would legalize all “soft” drugs. But, he only thinks this because he read that New York Times Article

The Decision Point Fallacy Concluding that simply because you cannot find a definitive point in some process wherein “A” becomes “B”, that there is no such point. Ex: - “You know, we never actually become old. I mean, think about, it’s not like 3 hours, 12 minutes, and 33 seconds after your 55 th birthday, you cross the old-age line, so you never really get there. ” Ex: - “Death is not an exact moment. Death is a process of cellular destruction that we cannot pinpoint. So, we never really die. ”

Emotion based fallacies Appeal to pity – takes an emotional response to an unfortunate situation as a reason to believe or act in a certain way Appeal to Emotion – Believe that something is true because it makes me feel good, or that it is false because it makes me feel bad. Appeal to Force – This fallacy basically says “do this or something bad will happen to you!”

Some more Fallacies Straw Man – Person A offers an argument. Person B attacks a weaker and distorted version of the argument, rather than their argument itself. Ex: Ralph opposes mandatory prayer in public schools. Ralph Argues that as a nation we believe in freedom of religious practice, including the freedom to have no religion. Ellen attacks Ralph’s argument by saying “Ralph wants children to be taught to be atheists. To hate religion and anyone who is religious. Clearly, we should not allow our schools to force children to be atheists. ”

Red Herring In this argument you divert attention away from your opponents original argument, to focus on another, completely different, argument. EX: Sue: Global Warming is serious threat to the planet. We must do something to address this threat immediately. Bob: Sue says we must do something about Global Warming. But I think a very serious threat is ISIS! We need to fight ISIS now, and Sue denies this!

A few other fallacies Begging the question – assuming what you are trying to prove Hasty Generalization – making a conclusion about an entire group based on a small selection of samples. This is often a worry when opinion polls are taken. False Dilemma- claiming that someone only has two options when they actually have at least three.

Fallacies of Language Equivocation- changing the meaning of a word during an argument, but acting as if the meaning did not change. Loaded Language – Using language in a biased way to influence the outcome of your argument apart from it’s argumentative quality Ambiguity – using vague and imprecise language to obscure the issue you are discussing

Persuaders: Rhetorical Moves Beware of the following techniques designed to misdirect and mislead by appealing to emotions over reason: 1. Innuendo – suggesting something denigrating about a person without explicitly saying so. 2. Euphemisms & Dysphemisms – words used to convey positive, neutral or negative attitudes or feelings about something. 3. Stereotyping – An unwarranted conclusion or generalization about an entire group of people. 4. Ridicule – The use of derision, sarcasm, laughter, or mockery to disparage a person or idea. 5. Rhetorical definitions – define something in such a way that the very definition sways you toward a particular position on the issue.