Fallacious Reasoning Types of Fallacies Types of Fallacies

Fallacious Reasoning

Types of Fallacies

Types of Fallacies • LOGIC FALLACIES A. MISSING GROUNDS B. IRRELEVANT GROUNDS C. DEFECTIVE GROUNDS D. UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS • LANGUAGE FALLACIES

Glossory 1. Circular Reasoning; 2. Diversion (Red herring偷换话题, Straw-man扭曲对 方论据); 3. Slippery slope扭曲连续因果; 4. Name calling人身攻击; 5. Appeal to hypocrisy/ authority/ majority/ emotion/ignorance; 6. Two wrongs以牙还牙; 7. Overgeneralization; 8. False cause; 9. False analogy; 10. False dichotomy非此即彼 or 两难推理; 11. Poisoning the well 以偏概全; 12. Synecdoche 以整体代部分.

• 1. c i r c u l a r i t MISSING GROUNDS

a. b e g g i n g t h e MISSING GROUNDS

MISSING GROUNDS b. circular definition Ø “A cat is a feline animal. " “Feline means relating to or affecting cats or other members of the cat family. ” [cf: a small animal with soft fur that people often keep as a pet ] Ø “Synthesis is the act of synthesizing. “ [cf: the act of combining separate ideas, beliefs, styles, etc]

B. IRRELEVANT GROUNDS (Irrelevant Data)

IRRELEVANT GROUNDS 2. Diversion a. Red herring b. Straw-man

� a. "red herring" (红鲱鱼/偷换话题) - The name of this fallacy comes from the sport of fox hunting in which a dried, smoked herring, which is red in color, is dragged across the trail of the fox to throw the hounds off the scent. • "I think that we should make the academic requirements stricter for students. I recommend that you support this because we are in a budget crisis and we do not want our salaries affected. "

• “I fail to see why hunting should be considered cruel when it gives pleasure to many people and employment to even more. ” • “Why should we raise fund for African children while there are so many deprived children in deprived areas in China who need our help?

b. "straw man" : 扭曲对方论据 - Imagine a fight in which one of the combatants sets up a man of straw, attacks it, then proclaims victory. All the while, the real opponent stands by untouched. • It is a straw man to portray the anti-abortion position as the claim that all abortions, with no exceptions, are wrong. • (medical necessity due to hereditary diseases or congenital deformity--rape--career prioritization) • Jill: "We should clean out the closets. They are getting a bit messy. " • Bill: "Why, we just went through those closets last year. Do we have to clean them out everyday? "

3. Slippery slope; slippery extension扭曲连续因果 - A faulty assumption that one case will lead to a series of events or actions • “If we ban smoking, then people will start taking soft drugs (eg marijuana) and then move onto hard drugs (eg heroin), and the crime rate will go up and up. We should therefore prevent crime by allowing smoking. ”

• “Helping refugees in the Sudan today will force us to help refugees across Africa and around the world. ” • “If we outsource jobs from the United States, then other companies will outsource jobs, and then the U. S. economy will collapse. ” • “If we negotiate with terrorist, people will think the government is weak and unjustified, then more complaints and antagonization, and finally uprisings against the government” Ø coercion

b y Ad hominem: [Latin] to the man, directed at the person [attacking a person’s character (or a background, etc) rather than answering his argument] s s e. g. : o • Hitler favored vegetarianism. Therefore, c vegetarianism is wrong. i a

• “ H o w c a n y o u

5. Appeal to hypocrisy/authority/majorty/emotion /ignorance a. tu quoque [Latin: “you're another”法不责众] or, appeal to hypocrisy效仿他人不合理做法 E. g. “You did it too. ”

[ e g : r e l i g i o n b. Appeal to tradition / convention (unchallengeable authority):

Ø"It's God's will. " Ø"The Bible says so. " Ø"We must support the president. He's right and knows best. " Ø "Our teacher/Confucius says so. "

c. Appeal to majority Ø Appeal to Popularity Argument by Consensus Argumentum ad Populum [ad populum: the argument from popularity] Ø Authority of the Many • “Everyone loves KFC, therefore KFC foods are healthy. ”

• “ N i k e s a r e s u

d. Appeal to emotion/compassion - pity/fear • "People are suffering in this recession, therefore we should have a stimulus package. “ e. g. : • A man applies for a job. When the boss asks him what his qualifications are, he replies that he has a wife and his six children have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, no shoes on their feet, there are no beds in the house, no coal in the cellar, and winter is coming. • Charity to relieve extreme poverty in Africa

e. Cherry Picking appeal to ignorance 片面化 Also known as: • Card Stacking (or, Selective Omission 洗牌作弊法) • Ignoring the Counterevidence • One-Sided Assessment • Slanting 片面化 • Suppressed Evidence • Appeal to ignorance e. g. : “All swans are white. ”

6. two wrongs “Bill has borrowed Jane’s expensive pen but found he didn’t return it. He tells himself that it is okay to keep it, since she would have taken his. ” ØIf lying or killing is wrong, you don’t make it right by doing it twice.

Ø Nature: Retaliation Ø Capital punishment Ø Affirmative action / Positive discrimination ( 平权运动): the practice of choosing people for a job, college etc who are usually treated unfairly because of their race, sex, etc. Ø Historic reparation Ø "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. " -- Mahatma Gandhi

Exception to Two Wrongs • It should be noted that it can be the case that it is not wrong for A to do X to B if X is done to prevent B from doing X to A or if X is done in justified retribution. For example, if Sally is running in the park and Biff tries to attack her, Sally would be justified in attacking Biff to defend herself. • As another example, if country A is planning to invade country B in order to enslave the people, then country B would be justified in launching a preemptive strike to prevent the invasion.

C. DEFECTIVE GROUNDS (Defective Data)

DEFECTIVE GROUNDS 7. Overgeneralization a. hasty generalization: b. unqualified generalization / accident

DEFECTIVE GROUNDS a. hasty generalization: a. too few cases: "After one semester here I can tell the faculty are unfriendly. " b. unrepresentative cases: “Having seen 13 Flowers of Nanjing (金陵十三钗), I think Zhang Yimou movies are too bloody. "

b. u n q u a l i

• B i r d s n o r

D. UNWARRANTED ASSUMPTIONS (with flaws in reasoning)

e c a a. post hoc, ergo propter hoc (does not follow) u [Latin: After this, therefore because of this] s • “I got sick right after eating at the cafeteria. It must e be their food. ” • “Every time the cheerleaders have worn blue � ribbons, the basketball team has won. If the team wants to keep winning, the cheerleaders should continue wearing blue ribbons. ” • Superstition

• N oa. Non n s e q u i t u r : sequitur (“does not follow”)

b . S i n g l e c a u

c. hypothesis contrary to fact • If Madame Curie had not happened to leave a photographic plate in a drawer with a chuck of pitchblende, the world today would not know about radium.

9. False analogy Ø Analogies/Metaphors are especially risky. • "Students are our customers. ” • “Students should be allowed to look at their textbook during examinations. After all, surgeons have X-rays to guide them during an operation, lawyers have briefs to guide them during a trial, carpenters have blueprints to guide them when they are building a house. Why, then, shouldn’t students be allowed to look at their textbooks during an examination? ” • Xiaoming next door (隔壁的小明)

10. False Dilemma/Dichotomy ("either-or fallacy", “black-or-white fallacy”) A false dilemma is an illegitimate use of the "or" operator. Putting issues or opinions into "black or white" terms is a common instance of this fallacy. • “If you don’t send little Susie to private school this year, she will not gain admission to college. ”

• E i t h e r y o u ' r e 10. False Dilemma

11. Poisoning the well 以偏概全 The phrase "poisoning the well" ultimately alludes to the medieval European myth that the black plague was caused by Jews poisoning town wells — a myth which was used as an excuse to persecute Jews. • “COMMON SENSE tells us. . . ” • “INFORMED people believe. . . ” • “Only an ignoramus would disagree with circulating books. ” • “Only people with high moral standards can understand ……”

i v i s i • o n • s “Every SUFE student makes high achievements. “ - The universe has existed for fifteen billion years. - The universe is made out of molecules. - Therefore, each of the molecules in the universe has existed for fifteen billion years.

II. LANGUAGE FALLACIES

1. E m o t i v e II. LANGUAGE FALLACIES

1. Emotive (loaded) language "the foolish proposal“ 2. Amphiboly / ambiguity [an ambiguity which results from ambiguous grammar] “The anthropologists went to a remote area and took photographs of some native women, but they weren't developed. ”

3. Equivocation / ambiguity [the ambiguity of words or phrases; different definitions of the same word during the course of an argument] • “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. ” (Bill Clinton; A sexual relationship or intercourse? )

Exercises • Teenagers shouldn't be allowed to drive. It's getting too dangerous on the streets. • amphiboly / ambiguity

• "Sugar is an essential component of the body, a key material in all sorts of metabolic processes, so buy some P&R sugar today. “ • composition / division (synecdoche以整体推 测个体)

• I can't believe how much money is being poured into the space program. • emotive language • slanting

• Of course Nixon was guilty in Watergate. Everybody knows that. • appeal to majority

• I am sure that Karen plays the piano well, since her family is so musical. • composition / division (synecdoche)

• Using a mobile phone while driving is not dangerous at all. My friends and I often talk on the phone while driving, but none of us has been in any traffic accidents. • hasty generalization

• Mary joined our class and the next week we all did poorly on the quiz. It must be her fault. • false cause

• John's objections to capital punishment carry no weight since he is a convicted felon. • name calling

• Of course the Bible is the word of God. Why? Because God says so in the Bible. • begging the question • appeal to tradition

• Women need to be either brilliant or beautiful to survive in this world. • false dilemma/dichotomy

• This must be a great car, for, like the finest watches in the world, it was made in Switzerland. • false analogy

• All men are rats! Just look at the louse that I married. • hasty generalization • emotive language

• Many people say that engineers need more practice in writing, but I would like to remind them how difficult it is to master all the math and drawing skills that an engineer requires. • red herring 偷换话题

• Those who favor gun-control legislation just want to take all guns away from responsible citizens and put them into the hands of the criminals. • straw man • slippery slope

• Supporters of apartheid (南非种族隔离制度) point to U. S. practices of slavery to justify their system. • appeal to hypocrisy 法不责众（效仿他人不 合理做法）

• Because we allow terminally ill patients to use heroin, we should allow everyone to use heroin. • accident

• Gerda Reith is convinced that superstition can be a positive force. "It gives you a sense of control by making you think you can work out what's going to happen next, " she says. "And it also makes you feel lucky. And to take a risk or to enter into a chancy situation, you really have to believe in your own luck. In that sense, it's a very useful way of thinking, because the alternative is fatalism, which is to say, 'Oh, there's nothing I can do. ' At least superstition makes people do things. " http: //www. fallacyfiles. org/eitheror. html • false dilemma

Practice Topic 1: • This house supports “Gold-diggers”. • Infoslide: Gold-diggers are persons who form relationships or marry others purely to obtain money, expensive gifts or properties from them.

Practice Topic 2: • This house would ban violent video games.

Practice Topic 3: • This House believes that the media should not report the private lives of politicians.

• 1. D o e s e v e r y Discussion Questions

2. • Husband wife, Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo, donated $115 million to the California Institute of Technology recently. It may sound like a victory for Chinese soft power, but many Chinese netizens are angry that the money isn't being directed toward domestic concerns. "Why don't you donate to our own colleges, traitor? " one user asked in response to the news. Are Chinese donations to US College unpatriotic?

Chen Tianqiao, chairman and CEO of Shanda Games Ltd

• The core of the financing purpose to set up the California institute of technology Chen Luo flourishing brain science research institute. • The donation is Chen Luo flourishing brain science research institute first forming project of science funding plan. The scientific goal of this plan is to deepen the human understanding of the brain, explore the operation mechanism of the brain in basic level, and the mechanism of brain function failure due to disease and aging. http : //www. aiainews. com/science-technology/2016/12/07/29182. html

Reading Assignment • Chapter 24 Persuasive Speaking * O’Hair, Dan. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking. Bedford/St. Martins.

Further Readings • S. E. Toulmin, R. Rieke, S. Janik. Introduction to Reasoning. Prentice Hall, 1984. • http: //www. fallacyfiles. org/index. html • http: //department. monm. edu/cata/Mc. Gaan/ Classes/cata 335/fallacy-list. htm

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