The Quality of Arguments: Fallacies

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The Quality of ArgumentsFallacies

• Pei Lei sarahpei7_at_gmail.com

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Three Basic Fallacies

• Problematic premise arguments that for any
  reason fail to fulfill the acceptability
  requirements.
• Irrelevant reason an argument fails to minimally
  satisfy the criteria of relevance.
• Hasty conclusions all evidence and links taken
  together fail to meet the test of sufficiency.

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Basic Fallacy 1 Problematic Premise

• Begging the question
• Fallacy of incompatibility

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Problematic Premise

• Free speech is good for the society because it is
  conducive to the interests of the community.
• Begging the Question

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Basic Fallacy 1 Problematic Premise

• Green-card holder should get voting rights. They
  live in this country so they should have their
  voting rights to protect their interest. However,
  this wouldnt harm the citizens interests,
  because the statistics shows not many of
  immigrants really get involved in their local
  affairs like voting for community leaders.
• Fallacy of incompatibility

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Basic Fallacy 2Irrelevant Reason

• Argument ad hominem
• Straw person fallacy
• Red herring
• Poisoning the well
• Guilt by association
• Appeal to fear
• Appeal to popularity
• Appeal to tradition

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Irrelevant Reason

• Examples
• Fallacious Attacking a candidate for President
  of the debate club for failing a math
  examination.
• Not fallacious Attacking a candidate for the
  Ministry of Health for cheating on medical exams.
• Ad Hominem

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Irrelevant Reason

• Example Someone opposing the death penalty
  argues that the death penalty risks executing an
  innocent person. The straw person response might
  be youre suggesting we open the doors of our
  prisons and let everyone out to avoid wrongfully
  convicting anyone.
• Straw Person

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Irrelevant Reason

• George W. Bush announced that the congress got
  two bills and theyll pass one of it. One is to
  ban cyclists across the nation the other is to
  launch the war in Iraq. A journalist asked why
  he wanted to ban cyclists. George responded
  See, nobody cares Iraq. So well pass the second
  motion.
• Red Herring

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Irrelevant ReasonAdditional Fallacies

• Robert is an American. We cant expect him to
  help Chinese debate education.
• Poisoning the well
• How can you possibly expect Pei Lei to help with
  debate teaching in China. After all, she works
  for Robert!
• Guilt by Association

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Irrelevant ReasonAdditional Fallacies

• attempting to take the focus off the argument by
  shifting the focus solely on the basis of fear.
  If you vote for my opponent, we should all build
  bomb shelters because we will be attacked.
• Appeal to fear

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Irrelevant ReasonAdditional Fallacies

• All the nations in the world are taking actions
  towards CO2 emission. So should China.
• Appeal to popularity Using the popularity of
  someone or something to justify a favorable
  evaluation.

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Irrelevant ReasonAdditional Fallacies

• The Chinese has been using fireworks for
  hundreds of years so we should continue to do so
  in the future.
• Appeal to tradition

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Basic Fallacy 3Hasty Conclusion

• Hasty generalization
• Fallacious slippery slope arguments
• Two wrongs fallacy
• Improper appeal to practice
• Fallacy of composition
• Fallacy of division
• Post hoc fallacy
• Faulty analogy

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Hasty Conclusions

• I have five students in my class from Xian and
  they are all failing. I suppose Xian does not
  produce good students.
• Hasty Generalization

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Hasty Conclusions

• If the university bans electric ovens in
  dormitory. They will also ban TV. Then computer.
  Then our smartphones will also be banned. Even
  an iwatch will not be allowed. We will have no
  appliance or any electronic products at all.
  Because they produce heat and probably cause
  fire!
• Fallacious Slippery Slope Arguments

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Hasty Conclusions

• As a college teacher, you shouldnt complain
  about your salary, because college teachers are
  supposed to devote(sometimes sacrifice)
  themselves and ask for no return.
• Two Wrongs Fallacy

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Hasty ConclusionsAdditional Fallacies

• Why should government set a quota for woman in
  the office? Other businesses have more men than
  women.
• Improper appeal to practice

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Hasty ConclusionsAdditional Fallacies

• Tim Howard, the keeper for Manchester United, is
  a superb keeper. Therefore, Manchester United is
  one of the best football teams in Europe.
• Fallacy of composition

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Hasty ConclusionsAdditional Fallacies

• Harvard is an excellent university, therefore
  Law Professor Lawrence Tribe must be an excellent
  Professor.
• Fallacy of division The evidence is drawn from
  the whole, but the conclusion is about the part.

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Hasty ConclusionsAdditional Fallacies

• the assumption that because one thing precedes
  another, the first must have caused the first.
  After Barak Obama was elected, the U.S. economy
  went into recession. Therefore Obama was the
  cause of the recession.
• Post hoc fallacy

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Hasty ConclusionsAdditional Fallacies

• Abortion practices are just like Hitlers murder
  of six million Jews.
• Faulty analogy this fallacy occurs when two
  events are compared to each other but are not
  similar in terms of the comparison.

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FallaciesSome Concluding Thoughts

• Fallacies are about the quality of an arguments
  construction, not its truth.
• An argument free of fallacies is not necessarily
  a true argument.
• An argument is not necessarily false just because
  it contains a fallacy.
• Arguments are not either categorically good or
  bad. They exist on a continuum from more
  -or-less good to more-or-less bad.

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