Discussion Questions – week 4

1. What determines if an argument is fallacious?

A fallacy is, “erroneous reasoning that has the appearance of soundness” (Britannica, 2007). Fallacious arguments do not, “provide sufficiently good grounds for its conclusion, they employ unwarranted, unaccepted, unproven or incorrect premises and ignores or overlooks relevant information” (Home, 2007)

Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn the authors of How To think About Weird Things said an argument is fallacious if it contains the following: unacceptable premises, irrelevant premises, or insufficient premises. Premises are unacceptable if they are at least as dubious as the claim they are supposed to support. In a good argument, you see, the premises provide a firm basis for accepting the conclusion. If the premises are shaky, the argument is inconclusive. Premises are irrelevant if they have no bearing on the truth of the conclusion. In a good argument, the conclusion follows from the premises. If the premises are logically unrelated to the conclusion, they provide no reason to accept it. Premises are insufficient if they do not establish the conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt. In a good argument, the premises eliminate reasonable grounds for doubt. If they fail to do this, they don't justify the conclusion.

So when someone gives you an argument, you should ask yourself: Are the premises acceptable? Are they relevant? Are they sufficient? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then the argument is not logically compelling (Positiveatheism, 2007)


Reference

Http://britannica.com/eb.article-9033643/fallacy

http://home.austin.rr.com/tdotson/

http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/fallacy.htm



2. Why and how are fallacies used intentionally?


Why are fallacies used? Fallacies are used intentionally to persuade their audience. “Sometimes they are used intentionally by authors to manipulate their readers Readers and writers should be careful to avoid logical fallacies because they seriously compromise the integrity of an argument.” (Santarosa, 2007). Politicians provided intentional fallacies to their constituents when mock poll are used to support their cause.

How are fallacies used? Fallacies are used intentionally, Intentional fallacies can be called logical fallacies, and they can be used intentionally as a form of propaganda to manipulate opinion. “A person may agree with someone on one topic and disagree with the same person on another topic. The user of propaganda may try to lump the two people or a group of people together that disagree with them, suggesting a conspiracy, when it may only be people agreeing on a certain topic” (Illuminati-new, 2007).

The University of Phoenix PHL-251 week four EER readings provided a master list of fallacies:

1. Ad hominem or ATTACKING THE PERSON.
2. Ad ignorantium or APPEAL TO IGNORANCE
3. Ad verecundiam or APPEAL TO AUTHORITY.
4. AFFIRMING THE CONSEQUENT
5. AMPHIBOLY
6. APPEAL TO EMOTION.
7. ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY or FALSE ANALOGY
8. BEGGING THE QUESTION.
9. SLIPPERY SLOPE.
10. COMMON BELIEF (Sometimes called the “bandwagon” fallacy or ‘appeal to popularity
11. PAST BELIEF.
12. CONTRARY TO FACT HYPOTHESIS.
13. DENYING THE ANTECEDENT.
14. DIVISION.
15. COMPOSITION.
16. FALSE DILEMMA (often called the either/or fallacy or false dichotomy).
17. EQUIVOCATION.
18. HASTY GENERALIZATION.
19. POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC.
20. INCONSISTENCY.
21. NON SEQUITUR
22. QUESTIONABLE CAUSE.
23. RED HERRING
24. SLANTING
25. STRAW MAN.
26. TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT.
27. FAR-FETCHED HYPOTHESIS

References

http://www.illuminati-news.com/detect-mindcontrol.htm

http://www.santarosa.edu/~relowitz/Logical%20Fallacies.htm

https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/secure/resource/resource.asp