10/27/15 Do Now: Homework: Take a worksheet from the front. Complete logical fallacies worksheet. Content Objective: Students will gain an understanding of logical fallacies. Language Objective: Students will identify and explain the logical fallacies of various arguments.

Look Ahead: Monday: McCarthyism and Allegory Tuesday: Intro Logical Fallacies Wednesday: Review Quiz/Start Act III Thursday: Continue ACT III Friday: ?something scary?

Logical Fallacy: is an occurrence of bad or incorrect reasoning. Logical fallacies are the foundation of flawed arguments.

Logical Fallacies… Flaws in an argument Often subtle Learning to recognize these will: Strengthen your own arguments Help you critique other’s arguments

Types of Fallacies: Emotional Fallacies: (Pathos) unfairly appeal to the audience’s emotions. Ethical Fallacies: (Ethos) unfairly advances the writer’s/speaker’s authority or character Logical Fallacies: (Logos) depend upon faulty logic.

Definition/Explanation: Emotional Fallacies Fallacy: Definition/Explanation: Example: Appeal to Fear Attempts to frighten people into agreeing with the arguer by threatening them or predicting unrealistically dire consequences. If you support the president’s health care plan, you will lose your health care plan. Appeal to Pity Attempts to win support for an argument or idea by exploiting his or her opponent's feelings of pity or guilt. I was so sick last night that I couldn’t do the homework. Can I do it tonight instead? Appeal to Popularity Encourages the audience to agree with the writer/speaker because everyone else is doing it. You need an iPhone 6 if you want to fit in and be cool.

Definition/Explanation: Ethical Fallacies Fallacy: Definition/Explanation: Example: Poisoning the Well Attacks the person directly rather than examining the logic of the argument. We cannot believe the Secretary of the Treasury’s claims because he was fired from his job. Strawman Exaggerates a characteristic of a person or group of people and then uses the exaggeration to dismiss an argument. Students want it all: no work and high grades. We should not take their evaluations seriously.

Definition/Explanation: Logical Fallacies Fallacy: Definition/Explanation: Example: Faulty Cause-Effect Confuses a sequential relationship with a causal one and assumes that event A caused event B because A occurred first. Throughout the 20th century, women rallied for increased equality and independence, but equality came with a price: increased domestic violence and sexual harassment. False Dilemma (Either/or reasoning) Offers only two choices when more exist. Very rarely do only two choices exist. When someone limits intellectual possibilities, we should be suspicious and try to imagine alternatives. You are either with us or against us. Red Herring Attempts to shift away from the original focus of the argument. I might have wrecked the car, but you didn’t clean out the garage yesterday. Begging the Question (Circular reasoning) Attempts to prove a claim by using an alternate wording of the claim itself. Reincarnation is possible because I know I had previous lives. Faulty Analogy Makes a comparison between two things that are ultimately more unlike than alike. The differences between the things make the comparison noneffective or unfair, or the comparison misrepresents one or both of the things involved. A golf caddie and a football coach are a lot alike. Both are there to give advice to the players. Slippery Slope Assumes that a certain way of thinking or acting will necessarily continue or extend in that direction (like a domino effect). Such an argument suggests that once we begin down a path, we will inevitably slip all the way down. This exaggerates the effects of a particular action or idea. If the Supreme Court allows the police to set up road blocks, it will soon grant law enforcement fill license to inspect anyone at any time. Hasty Generalization Draws a conclusion about a group of people, events, or things based on insufficient examples (this often is the logical flaw behind racist, sexist, or bigoted statements) The best wine comes from California.

EXAMPLE: In support of her argument that global warming is damaging the environment, Susan cites Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth. However, Gore was a terrible Vice President and his hair looks greasy. Poisoning the well. This argument attacks to source of the claim rather than attacking the claim itself. Even if Al Gore lied about something in the past, it doesn’t mean global warming is harmless to the environment.