Introduction to Fallacies

Fallacies

An Introduction to Faulty Reasoning

Emotional Fallacies – (pathos) appeal to the audience’s emotions

• Scare Tactics / Appeal to Fear

• Bandwagon

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

Scare Tactics / Appeal to Fear

• try to frighten people into agreeing with the arguer by threatening them or predicting unrealistically dire consequences.

• Example – If you support the president’s healthcare plan, you will lose your own health care plan and end up broke and on the streets.

• He has come here to overthrow the court!

Bandwagon

• encourage an audience to agree with the writer/speaker because everyone else is doing so.

• Example: Over 100 billion people have eaten at McDonald's. Therefore, it must be the the best place to eat, and we should go there, since everyone else seems to.

• Eight other women have confessed to witchcraft, so you should too!

False Dilemma (Either/Or)

• reduce complicated issues to only two possible courses of action.

• Example: America: Love it or leave it!

• A person is either for this court or he is against it. There be no road between.

Slippery Slope

• Exaggerating the likely consequences of an action

• (Another type of fear tactic)

• Example:

Multiple Choice

Danforth: Will you drop this charge?

Proctor: ... I cannot

Danforth: Then your purpose is somewhat larger!

• Appeal to Fear

• Bandwagon

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

Multiple Choice

Parris: "We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house."

• Appeal to Fear

• Bandwagon

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

Multiple Choice

Parris: All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem!

• Appeal to Fear

• Bandwagon

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

Multiple Choice

Danforth: Do you know that near to four hundred are in

the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?...And seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature?

• Appeal to Fear

• Bandwagon

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

Ethical Fallacies – (ethos) unfairly advances the speaker’s authority or character (or attacks the character of the opponent)

• Appeals to False Authority

• Ad Hominem

Appeal to False Authority

• Relying on disreputable authorities, people who aren't experts in the area

• Example: Brad Pitt was seen wearing Tom Ford sunglasses, so they must be the best sunglasses to wear.

Ad Hominem (Personal Attack)

• a personal attack on the individual making the argument rather than the individual's reasoning.

• Example: You're wrong because you're ugly.

• Abigail calls Goody Proctor a "gossiping liar" when Rev. Parris questions why she was fired, in an attempt to weaken Goody Proctor's credibility.

Multiple Choice

Cheever: When we come to take his wife, he damned the court and ripped your warrant... He plow on Sunday, sir... I think it be evidence... (106-7)

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to False Authority

Multiple Choice

Danforth: "I have seen marvels in this court. [...] I have until this moment not the slightest reason to suspect that the children may be deceiving me."

• Ad hominem

• Appeal to False Authority

Logical Fallacies – (logos) depend upon faulty logic

• Circular Reasoning

• False Cause

• Red Herring

Begging the Question / Circular Reasoning

•  Any form of argument where the conclusion is assumed in one of the premises. Claim X assumes X is true. Therefore, claim X is true.

• Example: I have experienced what can only be described as paranormal activity, therefore paranormal activity is real.

• The Bible mentions witches, therefore witches exist

Post Hoc (False Cause)

• a faulty assumption of causal relations:

   X happened before Y, therefore X caused Y.

• Example: Every day the rooster crows as the sun rises. Therefore, roosters cause dawn.

• Mary Warren had a stomachache after Goody Osburn mumbled at her. Therefore, Goody Osburn witched her.

Red Herring

• an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. Topic A is under discussion.Topic B is introduced under the guise of being relevant to topic A (when Topic B is actually not relevant to Topic A). Topic A is abandoned.

• Abigail claiming that Mary Warren is witching her in the courtroom in order to divert the questioning of her honesty.

Multiple Choice

Proctor: "Why, what did she do to you?"

Mary Warren: "Last month--a Monday, I think--[Goody Osburn] walked away, and I thought my guts would burst for two days after"

• Circular Reasoning

• False Cause

• Red Herring

Multiple Choice

Martha Corey’s Voice: I am innocent to a witch. I know not what a witch is.

Hathorne’s Voice: How do you know, then, that you are not a witch?

Martha Corey’s Voice: If I were, I would know it.

• Circular Reasoning

• False Cause

• Red Herring