Fallacies of Argument
Goal: to help you recognize fallacies of arguments and avoid
them in your own paper
Fallacies of Argument are arguments that appeal to false logic or unprincipled tactics. Fallacies occur everywhere we look: in the media, in advertising, in images, and in lectures from parents. Learning to identify fallacies can help you avoid them in your own writing. Fallacies can weaken an argument, and sometimes they even make readers angry.
Fallacies of
Emotional Argument
- Scare Tactics--to
reduce complicated issues to threats, or to exaggerate the possible danger
well beyond its statistical likelihood.
- Either/Or Choices--to
reduce a complicated issue to two limited alternatives, or to deliberatly
obscure alternatives.
- Slippery Slope--to
cast a tiny misstep today as tomorrow's avalanche.
- Sentimental
Appeals--to use excessive emotion to distract readers from the copmlete picture
of complex social issues.
- Bandwagon Appeals--to
urge others to follow the same path everyone else is taking.
Fallacies of Ethical
Argument
- Appeals to
False Authority--when writers offer themsleves or other authorities as the
cheif warrant: "X is true because I say so."
- Dogmatism--to
assert or assume that a particular position is the only one acceptable wihtin
a community.
- Moral Equivalence--suggesting
that serious wrongdoings don't differ in kind from more minor offenses.
- Ad Hominem
Arguments--attacks directed at the character of a person rather than at a
claim he or she makes.
Fallacies of Logical
Argument
- Hasty Generalization--an
inference drawn from insufficient evidence.
- Faulty Causality--the
assumption that because one event follows another, the first necessarily causes
the second.
- Begging the
Question--assuming as true the very claim that is disputed.
- Equivocation--an
argument that gives a lie and honest appearance.
- Non Sequitur--an
argument in which claims, reasons, or warrants fail to connect logically.
- Faulty Analgoy--innacurate
or inconsequential comparison between two things.
Instructions: There are many websites that discuss and define llogical fallacies. Usinga an Internet search engine, please find examples of each type of fallacy listed above. Include each fallacy in your post.
