Logical Fallacies PDF

Logical fallacies Over the ages people have been teaching, preaching, and learning as life goes on. Philosophizing has been taking place as people try to make sense of the world and life in it. Within anthroposophy there have been times where reasoning has been robbed of logic and proper...

Logical fallacies Over the ages people have been teaching, preaching, and learning as life goes on. Philosophizing has been taking place as people try to make sense of the world and life in it. Within anthroposophy there have been times where reasoning has been robbed of logic and proper sense. Fallacies are faults in logic that then impact the reasonability of argument. It can also be a factor that differentiates quacks and preachers from teachers and philosophers *it is always nice for some people to be believed, hence they try  Cont.. Ad Populum (Argumentum) – this is the type of argumentative fallacy whereby someone defends his utterances as truth simply because many people believe what he says/ believes. It is about the following like ideologies. Example: John walks and tell his friend to believe that Jesus died for his sins and the sins of all people to be forgiven. When his friend asks him why should that be believed as a truth, John simply says that the whole of his family and 7b people in the world are Christians. And he went on explaining how bad it is to reject what multitudes believe etc Cont… Ad Hominem (Argumentum) – this is the type of argumentative fallacy where a person chooses to leave the unsolved argument and attack the one who argues against him. This can be done by manner of making the subject matter of argument seem like it is imprinted or emblazoned upon the face of your argumentative opponent Example: when Amanda came late to the class and argued that she was stuck at the traffic jam and she became late because of that. Her teacher just looked at her and said “you know what? It is just written all over your face that you are lying, you have been asleep Cont… Ad Verecundium (Argumentum) – a logical fallacy that appeals to authorities. One argues without any better reason than relying upon the statements and the views of those that are viewed as superpowers or superiors Example: Elizabeth argues that humans evolved from apes and she wants Ayub to believe that story of hers. Ayub argues that he does not come from being a monkey, and he asks anxiously “why do you even think that’s a good thing to believe and take serious?” Elizabeth tells Ayub that she listened to Professor Richard Dworkins’ lectures, a world’s renowned American Biologist Cont… Straw Man- a fallacy whereby the person reinvents the initial argument with the aim to find loopholes in it and attack it on its demerits. Sometimes one may even extend the argumentation issue to look absurd and then collapse it. Example: in most debates you will find people bringing their views of what the actual argument is. In stating it in their own words they sometimes emphasize points that were not emphatically stated and they expose weaknesses of the whole argument with the aim to attack it on its demerits. At the end the whole argument looks absurd. Cont… Thwackun – a fallacy in argumentation whereby a person knows only one ideology or view, for which then whatever he hears is supposedly only that which he knows eg if one knows only one religion, then every time he thinks of a religion and religious people he thinks of his own religion and religious people who are nothing different from him. Example: Jane heard people arguing that there is no hell/ heaven and she got very angry as she is a Christian that was an insult to her. She even advanced to challenge them and say “how dare you people! How dare you say there is no hell/ heaven. At that the two Cont… False dilemma – a fallacy where in an argument one puts his opponent into a situation of discomfort by presenting both sides as unlikely to bring comfort. Then the other argument party gets stuck because it would seem that winning the argument will not give the desired peace. Example: Hilson was in an argument with Ferguson about the Nazi Germany and holocaust. Ferguson argues that the existence of Hitler and his movement was not needed and it was a mere destruction to the world peace. Hilson says for Germany’s industrialization to happen it was either you have or never have development that you now enjoy. *love it or leave it to suffer! Cont… Begging the question- a fallacy where a person comes into an argument already knowing the conclusion and he only fights to prove that the conclusion he holds is correct. He does not bother about how did it come about. Heresy _ a fault where a person takes the argument with excitement and run with it without checking and verifying its authenticity. He runs with it to the extent of ridiculing people who do not hold it as true, it is commonly garnished with insults and vain appraisals Cont… Ad misericordiam __ the argument appeals to pity. Eg if one person is disabled in the argument of whether he should be jailed or not, he would then seek pity of the audience by exposing his disability and cry out that he’s being taken advantage of. Ad bacculum __ the argument includes duress/ threat. Eg a person comes to the argument already knowing the answer, so he tries to use force that his conclusion should be accepted. Ad ignoratiam _ the argument that appeals to the unknown. Eg one would argue that “since there is no evidence that you are guilty, therefore you are innocent”, “since there is no proof that there is God, therefore there is no God”. Cont… Slippery-slope _ a kind of argument made from predictions. Eg someone argues that a particular event will happen given a series of events that will happen. *Argument that one day it will be a day of judgement because people keep sinning while God is watching* it may happen or not happen Equivocation _ a kind of argument made by using ambiguity in terminology. Eg one person may choose to use terms that have two meanings and then the argument may be interpreted to either mean this or that. Wishful thinking _ argument from wishes, full of mere claims. Eg one would shout out “one day the believers will go to heaven and leave this world of sinners!” and believe that such is true because she wishes it so Red Herring _ diverting attention to extraneous issues than the main one in discussion. Eg while discussing Global warming, somebody just stands up and tell us that the sins of people are angering God so much that he will punish the world with fire, the day of judgement is near and people will burn if they do not repent.