Fallacies of Argument

What is a fallacy? An argumentative move flawed in structure What does it mean if something is flawed? There are 3 major categories: Fallacies of emotional argument Fallacies of ethical argument Fallacies of logical argument

Fallacies of Emotional Argument 1 - Scare Tactics: frightening people, exaggerating possible dangers beyond their likelihood Can be used to stampede legitimate fears into panic and/or prejudice EXAMPLE: Laborers who are genuinely worried about losing their jobs can be persuaded to fear immigrants who may work for less money.

Fallacies of Emotional Argument 2 - Either/Or Choices: reduce a complicated issue to excessively simple terms, designed to obscure legitimate alternatives EXAMPLE:

Fallacies of Emotional Argument 3 - Slippery Slope: portrays today’s tiny misstep as tomorrow’s slide into disaster, exaggeration of the likely consequences of an action EXAMPLE: Universal background checks will inevitably be followed by a national registry of gun owners which will inevitably be followed by confiscation of all their guns.

Fallacies of Emotional Argument 4 - Overly Sentimental: using tender emotions excessively to distract readers from facts Highly personal Make readers/viewers feel guilty to challenge the idea Focus the attention on heartwarming and/or heart rending situations

Overly Sentimental Example

Fallacies of Emotional Argument 5 - Bandwagon: Urges people to follow the same path everyone else is taking, “follow the crowd” EXAMPLE:

Fallacies of Ethical Argument 1 - False Authority: Writers offer themselves or other authorities as sufficient warrant for believing a claim EXAMPLE: Claim - X is true because I say so. Warrant - What I say must be true.

Fallacies of Ethical Argument 2 - Dogmatism: a certain position is the ONLY one that is acceptable, the truth is obvious, self evident, and needs no support EXAMPLE: It is clear that when we go to war with China, we will win.

Fallacies of Ethical Argument 3 - Ad Hominem: “To the man” Attacking the character of the person rather than the claims he/she is making EXAMPLE: “Sotomayor’s blow brings us to confront an uncomfortable reality. More than WASPs, Methodists, Jews, Quakers, or Baptists, Catholics often try to impose their beliefs on you, me, public discourse and institutions. Especially if “you” are female.”

Fallacies of Ethical Argument 4 - Stacking The Deck: only showing one side of the story, always the side that is in their favor, “stacking the team to try and win” EXAMPLE: Super Size Me - States facts and gives evidence of what can happen if you eat fast food in abundance (Weight gain, decline in health, habit forming, toll on daily life). Failed to show what could happen if you ate the fast food AND did daily exercise and took vitamins.

Fallacies of Logical Argument 1 - Hasty Generalization: Inference drawn from insufficient evidence, forms the basis for stereotypes about people, sweeping claims for a large group based on a few members EXAMPLES: Because my Toyota broke down, then all Toyotas must be junk. She has wrecked her car several times, so all women are bad drivers. My husband doesn’t put his clothes away, so all men are slobs.

Fallacies of Logical Argument 2 - Begging the Question: Circular reasoning, claim is made based on grounds that are in questions EXAMPLE: Claim - You can’t give me a C in this class… Reason - … because I am an A student. Warrant - An A student is someone who can’t receive Cs.

Fallacies of Logical Argument 3 - Equivocation: half truths or arguments that give lies an honest appearance EXAMPLE: When someone plagiarizes and says “I wrote the entire paper myself” Yes, you physically wrote it, but you did not compose or create the paper yourself.

Fallacies of Logical Argument 4 - Red Herring: Changes the subject abruptly or introduces an irrelevant claim or fact to throw readers/listeners off EXAMPLE:"I think there is great merit in making the requirements stricter for the graduate students. I recommend that you support it, too. After all, we are in a budget crisis and we do not want our salaries affected."