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Logical Fallacies

The document discusses logical fallacies, which are manipulative techniques that invalidate arguments, categorized into evasion and oversimplification. It provides examples of various fallacies such as begging the question, non sequitur, false authority, and hasty generalization, among others. Understanding these fallacies is essential for recognizing flawed reasoning in arguments.

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17 views4 pages

Logical Fallacies

The document discusses logical fallacies, which are manipulative techniques that invalidate arguments, categorized into evasion and oversimplification. It provides examples of various fallacies such as begging the question, non sequitur, false authority, and hasty generalization, among others. Understanding these fallacies is essential for recognizing flawed reasoning in arguments.

Uploaded by

Blaise Nji
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LOGICAL FALLACIES

Just like emotional appeals, logical fallacies are another manipulative technique that makes an
argument invalid. It is worthy to note that while some of these fallacies are not always
intentional and meant to waylay the reader from facts of an argument, some are simply
committed in ignorance and shallow thinking.

Fallacies fall into two groups. Some evade the issue of the argument (evasion). Others treat the
argument as if it were much simpler than it is (Oversimplification).

A. RECOGNISING EVASIONS
The central claim of an argument defines an issue or answers a question: Should real estate
development be controlled? Should drug testing be mandatory in the workplace? An effective
argument faces the central issue squarely with relevant opinions, beliefs, and evidence. An
ineffective argument dodges the issue. The following are examples of such fallacies which
escape the issues of the argument.
1. Begging the question
A writer begs the question by treating an opinion that is open to question as if it were already
proved or disproved. In essence, the writer begs readers to accept his or her ideas from the start.
Example:
✓ When did you stop stealing? (The unanswered question here is that it has not been
established that he steals or has been stealing. The man concerned may be tempted to
ask if he has been stealing and may even go as far as seeking the proof.)
✓ During a murder case trial, the prosecuting judge asks the jury, “does it make sense for
us to release murderer for him to commit more murders? We need to lock him up so
that he does not murder any more people” (this argument begs the question since the
very purpose of the trial is to prove whether or not the defendant actually committed
the murder.)
2. Non sequitur
In a non sequitur a writer asserts or implies a connection between ideas when no logical
relation exists. Non sequitur means “it does not follow” in Latin: the second idea does not
follow from the first. Usually the problem is an unstated assumption that links the ideas but is
false, as in these examples:
Example:
✓ She uses a wheelchair, so she must be unhappy. (Unstated assumption: People who use
wheelchairs are unhappy.)

LOGICAL FALACIES MR. MULUH


3. False authority
Arguments often cite as evidence the opinions of people who are experts on the subject. But
writers use false authority when they cite as an expert someone whose expertise is doubtful or
non-existent.
Example:
✓ Jason Bing, a recognized expert in corporate finance, maintains that pharmaceutical
companies do not test their products thoroughly enough. (Bing’s expertise in corporate
finance bears no apparent relationn to the testing of pharmaceuticals.)

B. RECOGNIZING OVERSIMPLIFICATIONS
To oversimplify is to conceal or ignore complexities in a vain attempt to create a neater, more
convincing argument than reality allows.
4. Hasty generalization
A hasty generalization, also called jumping to a conclusion, is a claim based on too little
evidence or on evidence that is unrepresentative.
Example:
✓ It is disturbing that several of the school shooters were users of violent video games.
Obviously, these games can breed violence, and they should be banned. (A few cases
do not establish the relation between the games and violent behaviour. Most people
who play violent video games do not behave violently.)
5. Sweeping generalization
Whereas a hasty generalization comes from inadequate evidence, a sweeping generalization
probably is not supportable at all. One kind of sweeping generalization is the absolute statement
involving words such as all, always, never, and no one that allow no exceptions. Rarely can
evidence support such terms. Moderate words such as some, sometimes, rarely, and few are
more reasonable.
Example:
✓ Women are emotional.
✓ Cameroonian are all corrupt.
✓ Men don’t cry.

6. Reductive fallacy
The reductive fallacy reduces or oversimplifies a complicated issue to simple terms or suppress
information that would strengthen the argument.

LOGICAL FALACIES MR. MULUH


Example:
✓ Human DNA has 23 chromosomes, while dogs have 39. Therefore, dogs are more
complex being than humans. (this argument oversimplifies the difference between
humans and dogs by hinging on a simplistic definition of the word complex.)
7. Post hoc fallacy
Related to the reductive fallacy is the assumption that because A preceded B, then A must have
caused B. This fallacy is called in Latin post hoc, ergo propter hoc, meaning “after this,
therefore because of this,” or the post hoc fallacy for short.
Example:
✓ In the two months since he took office, Mayor Atangana has allowed crime in the city
to increase by 12%. (The increase in crime is probably attributable to conditions
existing before Atangana took office.)
✓ The City council erred in permitting the adult bookstore to open, for shortly afterward
two women were assaulted. (It cannot be assumed without evidence that the women’s
assailants visited or were influenced by the bookstore.)
8. Either/or fallacy
In the either/or fallacy (also called false dilemma), the writer assumes that a complicated
question has only two answers, one good and one bad, both bad, or both good.
Example:
✓ City police officers are either brutal or corrupt. (Most city police officers are neither.)
✓ Either we permit mandatory drug testing in the workplace or productivity will continue
to decline. (Productivity is not necessarily dependent on drug testing.)
9. False analogy
An analogy is a comparison between two essentially unlike things for the purpose of definition
or illustration. In arguing by analogy, a writer draws a likeness between things on the basis of
a single shared feature and then extends the likeness to other features. For instance, the “war
on drugs” equates a battle against an enemy with a program to eradicate (or at least reduce)
sales and use of illegal drugs. Both involve an enemy, a strategy of overpowering the enemy,
a desired goal, officials in uniform, and other similarities.

Analogy can only illustrate a point, never prove it: things that are similar in one respect are not
necessarily alike in other respects. A false analogy assumes such a complete likeness. Here is
the analogy of the war on drugs taken to its false extreme:
Example:

LOGICAL FALACIES MR. MULUH


✓ To win the war on drugs, we must wage more of a military-style operation. Prisoners
of war are locked up without the benefit of a trial by jury, and drug dealers should be,
too. Soldiers shoot their enemy on sight, and officials who encounter big drug operators
should be allowed to shoot them, too. Military traitors may be executed, and corrupt
law enforcers could be, too.
10. Rationalization
This is a self-serving but incorrect reason to justify one’s position. It uses reasons and sound
plausible but that are actually false.
Example:
✓ It would be bad for my health if I stopped smoking. First, I would gain a lot of weight,
and that would cause a strain on my heart, which might lead to high blood pressure.
Anyway, science is surely bound to find a cure for cancer one of these days.
11. Two Wrongs Make a Right
This fallacy is committed or used to defend wrongdoing and make it appear legitimate because
others engage in the same practice. In other words, the writer accuses the opposition of holding
the same views or behaving in the same way.
Example:
✓ During the campaign fund-raising investigations of 1997, President Clinton admitted
that the Democratic National Committee had been guilty of certain abuses (money
laundering, illegal contributions by foreigners, and so forth), but argued that the
Republicans National Committee had done exactly the same thing. (In fact, the
Republicans were in a sticky position concerning the Senate hearings; they risked
looking ridiculous if they came too hard on the Democrats for practices that both parties
had been guilty of, for years.)
Other logical fallacies include:
12. Sunk cost
13. The strawman fallacy
14. Tu que quo
15. Ad Hominem
16. Red Herring and
17. Slippery Slope

LOGICAL FALACIES MR. MULUH

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