1. What Is Fallacious Reasoning? Why Identify Fallacious Reasoning?
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What Is Fallacious Reasoning?
Why Identify Fallacious Reasoning?
Tips for Identifying Fallacious Reasoning
Use the Strategy
Practice the Strategy

2. What is fallacious reasoning?
Fallacious reasoning means “false thinking.”
People reason fallaciously when they draw incorrect or false conclusions.
You hurt your nose—you’ve been in a fight!
That dog wants to paint!
Such conclusions may go against logic, or they may be based on incomplete information.

3. What is fallacious reasoning?
Fallacious reasoning means “false thinking.”
Listen to this girl’s argument for going to a concert.
Is she likely to convince her parents?

4. What is fallacious reasoning?
There are five main types of fallacious reasoning:
Hasty generalizations
conclusions drawn from weak or insufficient evidence
Your friend said this concert would have extra security. Obviously, this will be the safest concert your city has ever had.
What if the band’s reputation for rowdy fans is the reason for extra security?
Does extra security necessarily mean the city’s safest concert?

5. What is fallacious reasoning?
There are five main types of fallacious reasoning:
False cause and effect
assuming that event A caused event B simply because A came first
After Ann went to a concert, she was invited to a party. Going to concerts will make me popular.
Or did Ann just happen to get invited to a party after she attended a concert?
Did Ann’s attendance at the concert cause her to be invited to a party?

6. What is fallacious reasoning?
There are five main types of fallacious reasoning:
Either/or fallacy
the assumption that a problem or situation has only one possible cause or resolution where there may be several
If your parents don’t let you go to the concert, then they don’t trust you.

7. What is fallacious reasoning?
There are five main types of fallacious reasoning:
Stereotyping
believing that all members of a group share certain characteristics
All concerts are unsafe.

8. What is fallacious reasoning?
There are five main types of fallacious reasoning:
Name-calling
attacking the person who’s making the argument rather than the argument itself
Your parents don’t want you to go to the concert. They obviously don’t know anything about anything.

9. Why identify fallacious reasoning?
Every day, people try to persuade you to do, buy, support, or believe something.
Many of these arguments sound good, and you may be tempted to go along with them.

10. Why identify fallacious reasoning?
If you know how to identify fallacious arguments,
you can tell which arguments are good ones and which are not.
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11. Tips for Identifying Fallacious Reasoning
Look for logic, facts, statistics, examples, or expert testimony. Arguments based on these are usually sound.
Lacy Chang, President of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, says tourism was at an all-time high last year. “People love to visit our town. 85% of visitors said they would like to come back, and 20% said they were interested in moving here. One couple, the Robertsons, said, ‘We’ve been everywhere, and this is the prettiest spot we’ve found.’”

12. Tips for Identifying Fallacious Reasoning
If you don’t find these elements, look for fallacies. First, look for hasty generalizations.
Rap music isn’t really music at all. It’s just someone muttering along to a bunch of noise. No musician with any talent would choose that style.
Mr. Gutierrez was in a bad mood on Monday, and on Tuesday he gave us a quiz. He gave the quiz because he was in a bad mood.
Next, look for false cause and effect.

13. Tips for Identifying Fallacious Reasoning
Now look for either/or fallacies.
If you were really my friend, you’d try out for cheerleader with me.
Then look for stereotyping.
Never do business with a used car dealer. They can’t be trusted.
Finally, look for name-calling.
The people who support the clean water initiative are a bunch of radical dreamers with no common sense.

14. Use the Strategy
As you read “Edgar Allan Poe: His Life Revealed in His Work,” you’ll find this open-book sign at certain points in the essay: Stop at these points, and think about what you’ve just read. Do what the prompt asks you to do.
Stop and think.
Follow the prompt.
Example
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15. Practice the Strategy
1. “Every single story and poem he ever wrote is about disturbed, usually insane people” is a hasty generalization because the writer—
a. probably hasn’t read everything Poe wrote
b. is not of Poe’s generation

16. Practice the Strategy
2. “The only way he could have known is by being insane himself” is another hasty generalization because—
a. the statement assumes we all agree on something
b. there is insufficient evidence to support the statement

17. Practice the Strategy
3. By saying that Poe’s use of dashes and exclamation points suggests that a very nervous person or someone on drugs wrote the text, the writer is—
a. using false cause and effect
b. name-calling

18. Practice the Strategy
4. By implying that we shouldn’t take Poe’s stories seriously because he was always drunk, the writer is—
a. using the either-or fallacy
b. name-calling
Now use your textbook to complete Practice 2.

19. The End