Mrs. Bowyer VHS Name: Explaining Fallacies: Fallacies As Species of Non Sequitur

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1 Name: Explaining Fallacies: Fallacies As Species of Non Sequitur Here are the more common logical fallacies. Study them. Note that most fallacies are variations of the non sequitur fallacy. If you re not sure which fallacy is at work (there could be more than one) always start by asking, Does the conclusion follow from the evidence? If not, you know you have a non sequitur. Then, see if there is a particular reason for the non sequitur confusing causation with correlation, arguing by analogy, etc. Fallacy Translation or Clarification What It Does Example Non Sequitur It does not follow asserts logical or causal connection where none exists Post hoc After this...because of this substitutes time sequence for logical sequence That Hummer sure looks sturdy. I ll bet it s reliable. After the Giants won the World Series, tourism was up in San Francisco. This was caused by their win. Begging the Question Begs the question in the sense of not addressing it assumes as proven what needs to be proved If advertising didn t sell products, businesses wouldn t advertise. False Analogy confuses similarity with causation Iraq is like Vietnam, a quagmire Oversimplification leaves out causes or intervening premises The only solution to saving the schools is to spend more money. Hasty Generalization comes to conclusion too quickly, without considering all the evidence draws conclusion based on inadequate sampling I saw the sun today. At last, summer is here! Ad Hominem against the man, not the argument attacks the person instead of the argument Don t believe anything Kanye West says. He has anger problems. Correlation Is Not Causation confuses simultaneity for causation As skirts get shorter, the stock market rises. So let s hope for short skirts! Guilt By Association confuses association with causation Barack Obama has many Muslim friends. That must mean he is a Muslim too. Bandwagon as in get on the bandwagon, join the crowd confuses popularity with correctness If all teachers want a change in the union, then I as a teacher must want that change too. Slippery Slope slippery because to take one step on the slope (accept one part of an argument) is to accept it all forces acceptance of either all or nothing of an argument or point of view We cannot legalize marijuana. If we do, it won t be long before we are legalizing crack and heroine. Appeal to (False) Authority seeks to reinforce ethos or credibility by citing sources misuses the authority appealed to no expertise in given area, etc. Kobe Bryant just opened a new restaurant. It must be amazing.

2 Create Your Own Fallacy Directions: Write your own example of each of the fallacies below. Fallacy Non Sequitur Post hoc Begging the Question False Analogy Oversimplification Hasty Generalization Ad Hominem Correlation Is Not Causation Guilt By Association Bandwagon Slippery Slope Appeal to (False) Authority

3 Logical Fallacies Exercise 1 1. The Federal Reserve cut rates last week. That must be why the stock market went up this week. 2. More people drown during the summer, when they also eat a lot of ice cream. Eating ice cream causes drowning. 3. He s guilty, otherwise he wouldn t have been brought to trial. 4. The brain is exactly like a computer because both use electrical signals to operate. 5. Vote Republican and the economy will improve. 6. I saw a yellow leaf on the ground today. Fall has started. 7. Clinton can t be a good President. He has affairs with interns. 8. Arnold s father was a member of the Nazi party, so Arnold must be a Nazi. 9. All my friends take drugs. It must be all right. 10. Catherine Zeta Jones recommends Verizon Cellular. It must be the best cellular phone service. 11. That woman is really beautiful. She d make an excellent mayor. Logical Fallacies Exercise 2

4 1. He s very good at applying a bandaid. He s probably good at surgery, too. 2. The answer to the drug problem is easy: it all boils down to just saying No. 3. God must exist, or we wouldn t be able to ask about His existence. 4. Jerry Rice, the football player, shops at Home Depot. That must be the place to buy home remodeling materials. 5. Everybody s buying Google. I probably should, too. 6. If you ve driven one car, you ve driven them all. 7. He s a college professor. Why wouldn t you expect him to be a liberal? 8. Even if the President argued that 1+1 is 2, I couldn t agree with him. After all, he s just a Texas cowboy. 9. In the movies, Schwarzenegger made a good Terminator. In politics, he ll make a good governor as well. 10. All I know is that whenever a town lets its citizens carry concealed weapons, the crime rate goes down. 11. The last time I saw a black cat, I had a flat tire. I just saw a black cat, so I m going to have a flat tire. Logical Fallacies Exercise 3

5 1. When investing in the stock market, it s best to check the astrological signs. If they re positive, you ll make money. 2. I always check with my doctor when it comes to deciding whom to vote for. 3. If you can play golf, you can play cricket. After all, they re both games. 4. How do I know Fox News is objective? Because the network s motto is Fair and Balanced. 5. The solution to the Iraq war isn t difficult: just leave. 6. Terry s always got a calculator. He must be an engineer. 7. If they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men. A. Schwarzenegger 8. We need a law requiring a three foot buffer between cyclists and cars. After all, other states already have such a law. 9. Last week, I washed my car. This week, it rained. If we need rain, all I have to do is wash my car. 10. When it comes to fighting terrorism, you re either with us or against us. 11. Jazz musicians tend to drink a lot. Jeremy s a jazz musician, and probably a drunk, too. 12. I m not doing well in history because it s an afternoon class. 13. Hillary Clinton has the best campaign team. She picked the best person for each position. Logical Fallacies Exercise 4

6 1. Mary s African American, which means she s voting for Obama. 2. Tactics that ended apartheid in South Africa can end it in Israel. 3. Last year, Congress added a tax on Internet purchases. This year, it s a tax on carbon footprints. Soon, they ll be taxing the air we breathe. 4. My caddie advised me to invest in a Dr. Don s Fatburgers franchise, so I m going to do it. 5. I saw some kids smoking outside the school today. The entire younger generation is addicted to one drug or another. 6. There s another alternative. Let s just nuke the place! Then we can take the oil. 7. My mother is always right; otherwise she wouldn t be my mother. 8. The NFL won the Super Bowl. That means the stock market will end higher this year. 9. Obama is a friend of Lewis Farrakhan, so Obama must be anti Semitic like Farrakhan. 10. Since the 1950s, both the atmospheric CO2 level and crime levels have increased sharply. Hence, atmospheric CO2 causes crime. (from Wikipedia) 11. I did a raindance during the drought, and the next day it rained. The raindance caused it! 12. At the last Olympics, the basketball team picked the best player at each position, and won no medals. Logical Fallacies Exercise 5

7 "Just like Jews, blacks care about affordable healthcare, energy independence, and the separation of church and state," Hastings said. "And just like blacks, Jews care about equal pay for equal work, investment in alternative energy, and a woman's right to choose." [So] "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose [like Sarah Palin or John McCain] don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. Governor Palin told a group of donors, "Our opponent... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." Palin's reference was to Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the group the Weather Underground, a terrorist group from the Sixties responsible for killing a number of people. Obama knows Ayers, an admitted terrorist who escaped prison on a technicality. The government bailout of banks is a bad idea: First, the enactment (or even possible enactment) of one big bailout would lead other industries to step up their efforts to lobby for their own handouts. Second, the Bush proposal creates an "attitude altering" situation in which bailouts (especially those that are smaller in magnitude than the administration plan) come to seem "normal" to public opinion and are therefore less likely to encounter strong resistance. Would you trust your children with that man? He s a priest. I led a miserable life until I got a new telephone number. Then everything straightened out, and it s obvious the new phone number is the reason. Hitler was a vegetarian and evil. Max is a vegetarian. So he s evil too. If such actions were not illegal, then they would not be prohibited by the law.

8 Abortion is a public matter because it deals with how human beings treat other human beings. The Church forced Galileo to retract his scientific findings.they conflicted with Church teachings, and so could not be right. Government would be more successful if it were run like a business. Iraq boasts quite a long history of intermarriage and intercommunal cooperation. But a few years of this hateful dialectic soon succeeded in creating an atmosphere of misery, distrust, hostility, and sectbased politics. Once again, religion had poisoned everything. Everyone is selfish; everyone is doing what he believes will make himself happier. The recognition of that can take most of the sting out of accusations that you're being "selfish." Why should you feel guilty for seeking your own happiness when that's what everyone else is doing, too? Most people eat meat, so it must be good for you. I better increase my consumption of meat. What do you mean the delivery of the Boeing 777 jet is late? How hard can it be? Friends was the best show on TV because it had the biggest audience. If it didn t have the biggest audience, it wouldn t have been the best show on TV.

Errors in Logic Often Found in Persuasive Texts

Errors in Logic Often Found in Persuasive Texts A fallacy is an error in logical reasoning in an argument or a persuasive text. This isn t the same as a factual error. FALLACY FACTUAL ERROR 4 out of 5