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Fallacy

Fallacy. A fallacy is an argument that is not logically valid, no matter how appealing it may be.

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Fallacy

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  1. Fallacy A fallacy is an argument that is not logically valid, no matter how appealing it may be.

  2. Dicto Simpliciter: Drawing a conclusion from an unqualified generalization e.g. “Exercise is good. Therefore everyone should exercise.” “Smoking is bad for your health. Every one should not smoke.”

  3. Hasty Generalization:Basing a general conclusion on too few instances or facts.e.g. “Every German I have met is short. The Germans are a short peoples.”

  4. Post Hoc (Ergo Propter Hoc) False causality. Because one event occurs after another, the first event must be the cause of the second. e.g. “If there are black clouds in the south, then it will rain.”(diff between empirical & rational)

  5. Contradictory Premises:A conclusion from two contradictory premises e.g. “There are no absolutely true statements.”“It is impossible for written words to communicate anything.”“If God is all powerful, can he put himself out of existence and come back with twice the power he had before?”

  6. Ad Misericordiam:Appeal to pity. Basing a logical argument on an appeal to someone’s emotions.e.g. “You can’t give me a C, I worked so hard!”

  7. False Analogy:Drawing a conclusion by making a comparison to something.e.g.“Girls are like ice cream. You should taste all the flavours before you chose a favourite.”

  8. Hypothesis Contrary to Fact:Drawing a conclusion from a hypothesis that is not true.e.g. “If Madame Curie had not left a photographic plate in a drawer with a chunk of pitchblende, the world today would not have x-ray machines.”

  9. Poisoning the Well (Ad Hominem): Arguing against someone’s ideas by attacking the person.e.g. “Mr Bush will tell you we are over spent on education. Naturally we expect that don’t we because he’s a republican?” “You may argue that God doesn’t exist, but that’s just because you are faithless.”

  10. Appeal to authority:e.g.“It’s true because my ToK teacher told me.”“It’s true because they researched it and proved it.”

  11. False dilemma:e.g.“Either you’re with me or against me.”“Either we cut welfare or we increase taxes, that’s the way it is.”

  12. Appeal to common practice:e.g.“Because that’s the way everyone does it.”“Why are you picking on me for making noise, they’re making noise as well.”

  13. Begging the question, circular argument:e.g.“God exists because the Bible says that he does.”“If she floats, she’s a witch!”

  14. Criticisms of RationalismUsed by academic elite to discredit common sense.It doesn’t actually improve anything.e.g. should we tell grandma she’s logically wrong about those black rain clouds?

  15. Cannot study how knowledge is made using just abstract methods.e.g. non-verbal knowledge Logic is a new fashion.e.g. cultures have traditional respected common sense & non-verbal skills.

  16. DefenceIt is logic’s abstraction that makes it useful, because it means we can apply one generalisation to many situations.e.g.Scientific lawsWe seek guiding principles in science, but we always remember that the principals are essentially flawed because they are idealised abstractions of reality.

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