Directions: Determine which fallacies (if any) occur in ...



Directions: Determine which fallacies (if any) occur in the following passages, and state reasons for your answers. Note that some of these passages may contain fallacies discussed in Group 1.

1. Iraqi citizen on August 26, 1990, while Iraq was holding more than a thousand American citizens hostage: The mentality is different here. We are justified in holding Americans here because the Americans forced Japanese into U.S. internment camps in World War II.

2. From a conversation overheard in early 1994 during a large social event: She: I don’t see what’s so bad about how the Clintons have done in the White House. They’re doing pretty good as far as I’m concerned. He: Boy, you are so gullible. They’ve been playing dirty power politics since the day they, ah, he, took office. She: Really? How do you know? He: They’re Arkansas politicians, aren’t they? Arkies are next to Okies.

3. HK: Hey, what’s with all this junk food you bought? You’re always railing at me about eating healthily. Aunt: Don’t fuss. It was on sale. HK: Oh.

4. A letter to the editor of Connoisseur magazine (January 1992) defended a previous article favoring bullfighting from “the protesting letters you are sure to receive,” by reminding readers that “bulls selected for the arena live twice as long as those destined for McDonald’s and die in a far more noble fashion.

5. Argument heard all too frequently in introductory philosophy classes: We’re perfectly entitled to believe there is a God. After all, every effort by atheists to prove otherwise has failed.

6. Sigmund Freud: Our own death is…unimaginable, and whenever we make an attempt to imagine it we can perceive that we really survive as spectators.

7. Each human cell is very lightweight, so a human being composed of cells is also very lightweight.

8. Lottery winner bragging: I was born on July 4, so the number 74 has always been my lucky number (July being the seventh month of the year, you know). So when I realized that 74 had not shown up in the lottery in the past six months (you can bet I was paying attention), I knew 74 was due. So I bet a bundle on 74 and won! It pays to pay attention.

9. Overheard on a bus to Atlantic City: “I just play the quarter slots when I go to Atlantic City. That way, I don’t lose too much money.”

10. "She asserts that we need more military spending, but that is false, since she is only saying it because she is a Republican."

11. Bill: "I think that some people have psychic powers."

Jill: "What is your proof?"

Bill: "No one has been able to prove that people do not have psychic powers."

12. Well, it's time for a decision. Will you contribute $10 to our environmental fund, or are you on the side of environmental destruction?

13. Opponent: Because of the killing and suffering of Indians that followed Columbus's discovery of America, the City of Berkeley should declare that Columbus Day will no longer be observed in our city. Speaker: This is ridiculous, fellow members of the city council. It's not true that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. I say we should continue to observe Columbus Day, and vote down this resolution that will make the City of Berkeley the laughing stock of the nation.

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