English 101-LACC



Watch out for logical fallacies (unreasonable argument tactics).In politics, in much media and ads, logical fallacies can be effective/persuasive, but they are unreasonable and dishonest tactics. They avoid the issue at hand but are often emotionally gripping.They overlap and have various names. Here are some. Our goal is to be alert to them and not to use them in our essays or fall prey to faulty logic.slippery slope: This is a fear tactic. This is a conclusion based on the premise that if “A” happens, then eventually “Z” will happen too, basically equating “A” and “Z.” So, if we don't want “Z” to occur, “A” must not be allowed to occur either.Here are some examples: If we ban Hummers because they are bad for the environment eventually the government will ban all cars, so we should not ban Hummers. In this case, banning Hummers is the “A” and banning all cars is the “Z.” The author is equating banning Hummers with banning all cars, which is not the same thing. Since the audience doesn’t want “Z” to happen (for all cars to be banned), this faulty logic goes, he or she should not support “A” either. A reasonable argument would prove, step by step, how “A” would indeed lead to “Z” rather than use the “Z” to scare the audience into agreement.Think of some slippery slope arguments you may have heard related to the following:If gays were to be allowed to marry… If we don’t invade Iraq… If we legalize marijuana…hasty generalization: This is a conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence. In other words, you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the facts, facts that are sufficient, representative and relevant.Here are some examples:Even though it's only the first day, I can tell this is going to be a boring course. In a single year, scores on standardized tests in California’s public schools rose by ten points. Therefore, more children than ever are succeeding in America’s public school systems.A stereotype is a hasty generalization about a group: Women are bad bosses. Asian students excel in math. An overstatement is a hasty generalization that contains words like “all,” “every,” “always,” “never.”Review your essays for these!How might logical fallacies be effective? They simplify a complicated world and foster a sense of rightness and righteousness. They can appeal to emotions and often stir up fear.post hoc ergo propter hoc (Latin for “after this, therefore because of this”), called post hoc fallacy for short: This is a conclusion that assumes that if “A” occurred after “B” then “B” must have caused “A.” The fallacy confuses a time sequence with causation: I drank bottled water and now I am sick, so the water must have made me sick. ?????? Since Governor Lee took office, unemployment in the state has decreased by 7 percent. Governor Lee should be applauded for reducing unemployment.How would you instead ensure that the connection is as reasonable as possible? non sequitur (Latin for “does not follow”): In this fallacy, a writer/speaker makes a leap from one claim to another that is based on an assumption the audience may not share.Mary loves good food; therefore, she will be an excellent chef.Violent crime is increasing. Therefore, we should vigorously enforce the death penalty.begging the claim/begging the question: Often by using “clearly” or “obviously,” the conclusion that the writer/speaker should actually work to prove to the audience is simply validated within the claim.Since Obama is obviously a socialist, he is out of step with most Americans.Hilary Clinton would clearly be the best choice to lead the country in 2016.either/or fallacy/ sometimes called “false dilemma”: This is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices. While there might be many options in a particular case, an either/or fallacy suggests that there are only two. The second is usually extremely undesirable, which can persuade the audience to select the former: We can either cut classes or raise tuition.We can either stop using cars or destroy the earth. Our current war against drugs has not worked. Either we should legalize drugs or we should turn the drug war over to our armed forces and let them fight it.ad hominem (Latin for “to the man”): This is an attack on the character of a person rather than his or her opinions or arguments:Green Peace's strategies aren't effective because they are all lazy hippies. Obama is a socialist, a liberal elitist.Republicans are stupid. This is connected to…. straw man fallacy, which characterizes the opponent’s views to make them laughable, easily knocked down, as if it were made of straw.A straw man argument can be annoyingly effective because in response you often have to spend time clarifying what your position is not instead of what your position is:Those who are for gun control don’t want people to be able to protect themselves.Those who are opposed to raising taxes don’t care about education. ad populum: This is an emotional appeal that speaks to positive (such as patriotism or democracy) or negative (such as terrorism or fascism) concepts rather than the real issue at hand:If you were a true American you would support the rights of people to choose whatever vehicle they want. In this example the author equates being a "true American," a concept that people generally want to be associated with, particularly in a time of war, with allowing people to buy any vehicle they want even though there is no inherent connection between the two.bandwagon appeal: This is a claim that an idea should be accepted because a large number of people support it. (Everyone supports prop 12. Shouldn’t you too?)transfer: associating a prestigious name with the person’s side, or an ignoble name with the opposition. (Just like John F Kennedy, candidate Jones is a strong believer in…) appeal to nature (This is used in advertising a lot today. But just putting a smiling sun on a package or calling something “Nature Made” doesn’t mean the product is not full of chemicals.) red herring: This is a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them:The level of mercury in seafood may be unsafe, but what will fishers do to support their families? The media is biased for the left and make Palin seemed unprepared to serve.false analogy: Whereas an analogy points out reasonable similarities between two things that are otherwise different, a false analogy makes an unreasonable leap to connect one thing to another:Voting for Holly for class president is like voting for George W. Bush.If we can put humans on the moon, we should be able to find a cure for the common cold.misrepresentation: (quoting out of context; deliberately distorting a source, often through the use of ellipsis marks). We often see this in reviews for bad movies, where perhaps a critic described the film as “anything but funny,” yet on the packaging, the quote reads “…funny!”Politicians’ words are often taken out of context. Sometimes, to justify a slip-up, politicians will use “misrepresentation” as a defense. ................
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