In other words, people are lying to you ALL THE TIME… Rhetorical Fallacies In other words, people are lying to you ALL THE TIME…

Remember the Syllogism?

This is how it Falls Apart. Major Premise: The engineer is good with numbers. Minor Premise: The stock market is made of numbers. Conclusion: The engineer should be good with the stock market. Flawed Logic? Yes? No?

How about This? Major Premise: A cloud is 90% water Minor Premise: A watermelon in 90% water. Conclusion: If a plane can fly through a cloud, it can fly through a watermelon. There are problems with this, right? What facts are being ignored to make the point?

There’s some logic here, but…. the reasoning is flawed, so the conclusion in illogical!

Logical Fallacies These types of flawed arguments are called

First Up: Emotional Fallacies

Red Herring An emotional issue brought into the picture to divert the listener’s or reader’s attention from the issue being discussed.

For example Why should we worry about pandas becoming an endangered species when there are so many homeless in this city? Why should I care about a gender-neutral bathroom when there are people all over the world who don’t have clean drinking water?

Why is this a Fallacy as opposed to a Counterargument? These two issues have nothing to do with one another, therefore the first claim cannot justify the second. The second claim is only there to CHANGE THE CONVERSATION.

Scare Tactics-ad baculum The claim makes use of threats. The threats are unrelated to the claim. Therefore the claim is fallacious.

Examples

Bandwagon-ad Populum Used to solicit group identity Put pressure on individuals to follow the crowd.

Next: Ethical Fallacies Like Emotional Fallacies, these are meant to: distract and divert attention from the main issue The difference is that they also act to discredit the reputation of the speaker’s or writer’s opponent, while unfairly elevating their own authority.

Ad Hominem or “Against the Person”

Guilt By Association Don’t date that girl! My brother dated her cousin and she made him pay for everything and stole his cat. He hangs out with people who do drugs. He’s probably high right now! Don’t vote for Kennedy! Wasn’t his nephew convicted of murder a few years ago?

Strawman Oversimplification of an argument to make it easier to argue against. Example: People who favor gun control laws don’t believe in self-defense and want everyone to be at the mercy of the criminals among us or to depend solely on the government for protection.

Logical Fallacies Operate in the same fashion as previous categories but these often masquerade as logical statements, and when used artfully, can be hard to detect and easy to fall for!

Hasty Generalization This one is going to sound familiar! Major Premise: Feminists hate men Minor Premise: She said in a class discussion that she’s a feminist Conclusion: She hates men The Hasty Generalization gets used when there’s not enough evidence to support a claim. It leaps to a conclusion without strong enough evidence.

Post Hoc ergo propter Hoc In English: If Event B happened after Event A, then Event A must have caused Event B. This makes some logical sense until you start to apply it to every situation: For Example….

Circular reasoning or “Begging the Question” In the terminology of the syllogism: The conclusion is rephrased as either the major premise or the minor premise. The argument proves itself. Logical Form: X is true because of Y. Y is true because of X.

Example Pvt. Joe Bowers: What are these electrolytes? Do you even know? Secretary of State: They're... what they use to make Brawndo! Pvt. Joe Bowers: But why do they use them to make Brawndo? Secretary of Defense: [raises hand after a pause] Because Brawndo's got electrolytes.