FALLACIES

List compiled by A.C. Snider

1. Hasty Generalization

2. Transfer fallacies:

  • Fallacy of composition: true of part is true of whole
  • Fallacy of division: true of whole is true of part
  • Fallacy of refutation: straw person

3. Irrelevant arguments non-sequiturs does not follow.

4. Circular reasoning: conclusion is restatement of claim.

5. Avoiding the issue

  • Evasion
  • Attack the person
  • Shifts in ground
  • Seizing a trivial point red herring

6. False dichotomy bring lunch OR walk to school.

7. Appeal to ignorance failure to disprove is not proof. Atlantis.

8. Appeal to the crowd bandwagon effect

9. Appeal to emotions no substitute for reasoning

10. Appeal to authority no substitute for reasoning

11. Appeal to tradition - no substitute for reasoning

12. Appeal to humor no substitute for reasoning

13. Ambiguity & equivocation - different use of words, change meaning.

14. Technical jargon.

15. Post hoc fallacy.

16. Damning the origin

17. Wishful thinking

18. Lip service

19. Personification

20. Cultural bias

21. Pointing to another wrong

22. Nothing but objections

23. Demand for perfection.

POLITICAL FALLACY/EU

FID THE FALLACY!

Compiled by A.C. Snider

Identify the fallacy (or fallacies) found in the following political arguments.

1.BUSH claimed he would fight budget deficits both in 2000 and 2004. He never changed that position, and deserves credit for that.

2.After Pahor was elected the Slovenian economy did poorly, and we should punish in the next election.

3.We are changing so fast that we are losing our true Slovenian roots. Slovenia needs to retain its traditional ways of doing things.

4.The recent attack on homosexuals in Slovenia is the fault of the police minister for not protecting them..

5.Democrats are the more liberal party in America. Therefore, their candidate will be a liberal.

6.Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson link up with WW1, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. Democrats lead the USA into wars!

7.Because X have not solved Slovenia's problems, it is time for a change, time to vote for someone else.

  1. If violence leads to more violence, Why did WW2 end? Violence does not lead to more violence.

9.America needs to move more cautiously. Uncle Sam is old and tired and needs a rest.

10.The EU is the world's foremost democracy. Other nations who want to be democratic need to copy the EU system.

11. Berlusconi vacations in Sardinia with young scantily dressed models, he cannot be trusted to govern Italy.

12.Merkel brought shame on Germany by alllowin herslelf to be photographed at the beach showing her bare butt

13.Bush [the elder]: I'm not running against Dukakis, I'm running against the Liberal ideology. Liberalism means big government and high taxes. That's why you should elect Dan Quayle and I in 1988!

14.Gordon Brown had a mental breakdown. If I told you how I found out you would all know my sources.

15.Berlusconi is a rich media man, so he won't make decisions in the interests of the common person.

16.If the Slovenian government wants to spend more on social programs, they will have to raise taxes.

17. Putin met with space aliens in 2007, and it cannot be disproven.

18. Since Obama is going to win, voting for McCain is throwing your vote away.

19.George Bush [the elder] loves the flag more than his opponent Mike Dukakis. Only patriots should be president.

20.If you are a laborer, vote for the UK Labour party!

FALLACY LIST

  1. DEMAND FOR PERFECTION
  2. CONFUSING THE PART WITH THE WHOLE
  3. POST HOC FALLACY -- MISTAKING SEQUENCE FOR CAUSE
  4. PERSONIFICATION
  5. DAMNING THE ORIGIN
  6. FALSE DICHOTOMY.
  7. PERSONAL ATTACK
  8. CULTURAL BIGOTRY
  9. FALSE ANALOGY
  10. APPEAL TO EMOTION
  11. REDUCING AN IDEA TO ABSURDITY
  12. APPEAL TO AUTHORITY
  13. APPEAL TO TRADITION
  14. APPEAL TO POPULARITY
  15. ONE TERM, TWO MEANINGS
  16. CIRCULAR ARGUMENT
  17. APPEAL TO IGNORANCE
  18. POINTING TO ANOTHER WRONG

CONSTRUCT A FALLACIOUS ARGUMENT FOR EACH OF THESE. TRY AND MAKE THEM SOUND GOOD. EXTRA CREDIT FOR MAKING THE ARGUMENT SOUND GOOD.

FOUR STEP ARGUMENT REFUTATION PROCESS

  1. THEY SAY
  2. WE DISAGREE
  3. BECAUSE
  4. SO THIS MEANS THAT….

SAMPLE ARGUMENTS TO REFUTE ON THIS MOTION:

This house would not allow extremely violent and sexually explicit videogames to be played by children under the age of 16.

REFUTE USING 4 STEP METHOD

1. Violent videogames lead to violent behavior.

2. Sexually explicit videogames cause young people to experiment with sex.

3. Corporations just want to sell videogames, they do not care about harmful effects to children.

4. Children are too young to know which videogames are bad for them.

5. Time spent playing videogames takes time away from education.

6. Parents are currently able to supervise the videogames that children play.

7. Videogames cause children to become isolated from their friends.

BUILD SAMPLE ARGUMENTS

BUILD TWO ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF FACEBOOK BEING GOOD

BUILD TWO ARGUMENTS AGAINST FACEBOOK BEING GOOD

NOW…

THINK OF WAYS TO REFUTE THESE ARGUMENTS

  1. YOUNG PEOPLE WASTE TOO MUCH TIME ON FACEBOOK.
  2. INAPPROPRIATE FACEBOOK POSTINGS HURT EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES. MANY BOSSES CHECK OUT YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE, OR ASK YOU TO SHOW IT TO THEM.
  3. FACEBOOK DEGRADES THE NOTION OF FRIENDSHIP-BECAUSE WE FRIEND ALMOST ANYONE.
  4. FACEBOOK DEGRADES THE TRUE SENSE OF SOCIAL ACTIVISM. WE THINK WE ARE ACTIVE BY JUST JOINING A GROUP OR GROWING AN IMAGINARY GARDEN.
  5. FACEBOOK ENABLES OTHERS TO BULLY AND HARASS OTHERS. ONE GIRL COMMITTED SUICIDE BECAUSE OF HARASSMENT.
  6. POSTING OF PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK CAN INVADE THE PRIVACY OF OTHERS. YOU GET EMBARRASSING PHOTO OF SOMEONE, YOU POST IT
  7. FACEBOOK ENABLES PREDATORY DATING ACTIVITIES. PEOPLE TROLL FOR CONTACTS AND TRY TO HIT ON THEM.

Exercises for Argumentation and Refutation for Beginners

For Argumentation:

  1. Divide the group into smaller groups of 4 persons each.
  1. Pick a simple to difficult debate motions below and give them 5 minutes to prepare 2 big arguments. Each person will prepare 2 arguments for one debate motion, which means that there will be 4 debate motions being picked by you.
  1. Ask the 1st person to speak for 5 minutes on the 2 arguments they have prepared.
  1. The 3 other persons in the group will give feedback on the effectiveness of the arguments.
  1. Everyone will do it once or twice, if time permits.

For Argumentation & Refutation:

  1. Each debate will get a new debate motion.
  1. 5 minutes for each to prepare their 2 arguments.
  1. Divide the students into groups of 2 persons.
  1. After the first person has delivered his/her 5 mins Speech, the other person will have 2 mins to rebut both the arguments made by the 1st Speaker.
  1. Repeat the process once, or twice, thrice, if time permits.

Debate Motions:

1. This House believes that the United States should end all efforts to broker peace between Israel and Palestine.

2. This House would make military service a pre-requisite to run for the office of the President of the United States.

3. This House believes that companies should be able to discriminate on the basis of risk factors such as smoking, obesity and alcoholism in hiring and retention of staff.

4. This House believes that mothers who smoke/drink/do drugs during pregnancy forfeit their right to the child.

5. This House would legalize sex-change operations for minors.
6. This House would sanction countries that do not have sufficient forest cover.
7. This House believes that states should mandate at least one year of military training for its citizens.
8. This House believes that the US should end its military support for Israel.
9. This House would refuse to extradite suspected criminals to states where they face the death penalty.

10. This House would allow criminals who commit crimes in foreign countries to serve their sentences in their home country.

11. This House would let print journalism die.

12. This House believes that the state should subsidize print journalism.

13. This House would compel journalists to reveal their sources.

14. This House believes that social media undermines social activism rather than enhances it.

15. This House would ban the Happy Meal.

16. This House would allow terminally ill patientsaccess todrugs that haveyet to be approved by government regulators for public usage.

17. This House celebrates the rise of the Tea-Party movement in USA.

18. This House would make it illegal for minors to purchase or playviolent video games.

19. This house wouldnot allow employers to make decisions on their employees on the basis of information derived from social networking sites.

20. This house would ban fortune-tellers and faith healers

21. This house would abolish all limits on immigration.

22. This house would ban Wikileaks.

23. This house believes that armies should overthrow corrupt governments.

24. This house would not pay ransoms to the Somali pirates.

25. This house believes that the media has the right to support any political party they wish to.

26. This house believes that western liberal democracies have a moral duty to spread democracy across the world even by using force if necessary.

27. This house would remove all legal barriers to the genetic enhancement of humans.

28. This House believes that the war on drugs in Mexico will fail.

29. This House believes that citizens who pay more taxes should have a greater say in how their county is governed.

30. This House believes that that access to the Internet is a right, not a privilege.

ROLES EXERCISE FOR BEGINNERS

Divide your group into two smaller groups. Then divide each of those groups into PROP and OPP.

Give each of them a motion:

-THS quotas for women in the European Parliament.

-THW allow polygamy in Europe.

Then have them work for 20-30 minutes on thinking of major arguments for each of three positions (go around to help and advise them):

First speaker

Second speaker

Third speaker

Then have them, as a group, report on the arguments they plan to use. Make comments and suggestions to make sure they understand the role of each of gthese three speskers. Tell them to take notes on these arguments because we may well debate these motions soon. (Actually, we will debate them today).

If you have extra time, have them suggest which of these arguments are the best and should be featured in the whip speeches.

PUBLIC SPEAKING EXERCISES

Give a one minute speech trying to use your best public speaking techniques. Have observers note your use of all the delivery techniques and then make comments about where improvements are needed. Give the speech again trying to implement those improvements.

Give a one minute speech trying to use your best public speaking techniques. Have observers note your use of all the delivery techniques and then make comments about where improvements are needed. Then, pick one area in need of improvement only and give the speech again focusing on this area. Do the same for all areas. After this process, give the speech twice more attempting to improve all areas at once. Wait one hour and then give that speech again, making sure you have not forgotten what you so recently learned.

Give a thirty second speech trying to be as dramatic as possible. Obviously, you will be going a bit too far, but being more dramataic than you ever would be in a debate helps you become less boring in a real debate.

ANSWER THESE POLITICAL ARGUMENTS

Share with them th four step reutation process. Make them use it when they speak:

  1. They say….
  2. We disagree…
  3. Because… (insert refutation)
  4. Therefore….

Go around and give each student an argument. Come back to the first student and have them speak for 30 seconds. Make comments. Give them another argument from the list. Go to the next student. The result should be a constant series of arguments and comments.

Many of these arguments are based on a fallacy. See if they can point it out. You have a fallacy list and an answer sheet.

  1. President Bush should be congratulated for always speaking out against budget deficits.
  2. The USA economy is doing well so George Bush should be supported.
  3. Europe is changing so fast that we should slow down before we lose our traditional way of life.
  4. USA presidents Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson link up with WW1, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. Democrats lead the USA into wars!
  5. Angela Merkel has not solved Germany’s problems. We need a new leader.
  6. North and South Korea should unify. It worked for Germany!
  7. America needs to move more cautiously. Uncle Sam is old and tired and needs a rest.
  8. The EU is the world’s best democracy, so others should copy the EU’s form of government.
  9. Angela Merkel does not want to break mirrors because it will cause bad luck. We cannot have such an illogical person as our leader.
  10. The conservative’s won Canada’s election. They want a softwood trade deal with the USA, so it will be passed.
  11. Merkel is an East German, and is thus unfit to govern all of Germany.
  12. Berlusconi met with space Aliens in 2003 and it cannot be disproved.
  13. Berlusconi has been seeing a psychiatrist for depression. If I told you how I knew you would all know who told me.
  14. Berlusconi is a rich media tycoon, and thus cannot effectively represent the mass of the people.
  15. If the International University Breman is going to reduce its budget deficit it will have to raise tuition.
  16. Since the next prime minister of the UK will be either from Labour or the Conservatives, voting for Liberal Democrats is like throwing your vote away.
  17. If UK voters want to protect labouring people, they need to vote for Labour.
  18. When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns.
  19. If immigrant French Muslims are not happy in France they should go back to where they came from.
  20. Pictures of Angela Merkel’s butt at the beach appeared in the UK press. We cannot have a leader who embarrasses the nation in such a way.
  21. Merkel’s party supports controlling spending, so all of her party members do as well.
  22. Many people like to eat at McDonald’s, so it must be the best food.
  23. Experts from major banks say Prodi’s policies will be better for Italy. They must be right.
  24. If German politicians work together, Germany will be much better off.

ARGUMENT DEVELOPMENT EXERCISES

Give them a motion below.

Give them five minutes to development ONE argument.

Have them speak for 2 minutes developing just that argument using the technique from the lecture.

Give them feedback.

Tell them to develop a second argument for that motion and do it again.

TOPICS:

European Parliament should act to condemn the centralization of media outlets.

European Parliament should act to promote the legalization of marijuana for personal use in the European Union.

European Parliament should act to condemn all smoking in public places in the European Union.

European Parliament should act to condemn the expansion of nuclear power to generate electricity.

European Parliament should act to promote the expansion of wind power to generate electricity.

ARGUMENT EXERCISES

Here are some arguments to analyze and critique. You might want to look at them and cross off the ones you do not lke.

You can do these as a group.

Or…

You can assign them to individual people in your group and then go around the room, have them analyze the argument, make comments to them, assign them a new argument, and then move on to the next person.

SAMPLE ARGUMENTS TO CRITIQUE

  • Since 1990 crime in country X has been increasing rapidly. During the same period the number of violent movies shown has increased equally rapidly. Therefore, the increase in crime results from violent movies.
  • In the last few years we have improved the educational system and more people are getting better and better educations. In those same years, however, the per capita crime rate has been increasing. One of the evils of education, despite all its great benefits, is that education does produce a higher crime rate.
  • Crimes among immigrants have increased since they have been given better educational privileges. Therefore, the growth of crime among immigrants results from the growth of education among the immigrants.
  • She is all wet; it must be raining outside.
  • In order to make sure that we have enough and better qualified teachers, we must pass the new minimum wage law calling for much higher salaries for teachers.
  • Obviously our laws against serving alcohol do not carry severe enough penalties. Look at the great number of cases where alcoholic drinks are sold to young people.
  • There is a great deal of corruption in our police force. If we were to increase salaries for police, we would have less corruption among our police.
  • There wouldn't be so much reckless driving on our roads if our laws carried heavier penalties.
  • I have taken a course in argumentation. It must inevitably follow that I am now a more logical person.

b.Mister Y, the football star, says, "Smokies are the least harmful of all cigarettes."