EAPP: Fallacies (L3)

ability to analyze information and form a judgement; u must be aware of your own biases and assumptions; important for making judgements and forming your own argument

critical thinking

mistake in reasoning; misleading language to appear convincing while lacking true substance or validity

fallacy

types of fallacies

fallacy of relevance, fallacy of insufficient evidence

premises are logically irrelevant to conclusion; examples are not relevant to the argument at hand

fallacy of relevance

logically relevant; fail to provide sufficient evidence to support conclusion; either evidence is insufficient or weak

insufficient evidence

we call it relevant because

it is relevant, positively or negatively relevant

statement a provides a reason why statement b is true/false

relevant

SA provides reason why SB is true

positively relevant

SA provides reason SB is false

negatively relevant

types of fallacy of relevance

1. personal

2. two wrongs make a right

3. bandwagon argument

4. strawman

“ad hominem“ = against the man; rejecting an argument by attacking a person’s character than examining the claim (e.g. x is a bad person therefore x’s argument must be bad)

personal attack

justify a wrongful act (by claiming that some other act is just as bad or worse); “others are committing worse or equally bad acts. therefore my wrongful act is justified“

two wrongs make a right

peer pressure; appeals to a person’s desire to be popular and accepted rather than logically relevant reasons (e.g. most ppl believe in x therefore u should believe in x too)

bandwagon argument

arguer misrepresents another person’s position to make it easier to attack; simplistic imagined opponent that’s easy to knock down; oversimplifying, taken out of context

strawman

logically relevant to the conclusion; premises fail to provide sufficient evidence; evidence is either insufficient or weak

fallacy of insufficient evidence

types of fallacy of insufficient evidence

1. inappropriate appeal to authority

2. questionable cause

3. hasty generalization

4. slippery slope

citing a witness or authority that is untrustworthy; accepting a claim bc authority figure supports that claim

inappropriate appeal to authority

false cause or causal fallacy; one thing caused another simply bc they are regularly associated (x happened bc y happened)

questionable cause

drawing general conclusion from a sample that is biased or too small; lead to false stereotypes; we a re inclined to draw conclusions from our experience

hasty generalization

seemingly harmless action will lead to a disastrous outcome; anticipates this chain of events w/o offering any evidence

slippery slope