3.1 Reasoning

Which of the following is a hasty generalization fallacy?

• Marcus wants to go to a small community college close to home, but most of the kids in his class are applying to larger colleges out of state. Marcus decides that he should also apply to those colleges.

• Marie notices that many of her friends have started eating a low-carb diet and drinking protein shakes. Marie decides that this must be the healthy way to eat, so she joins them.

• You visit a new country and the first person you meet in the airport is rude. You send a message to a friend back home that everyone in this new country is rude.

• Join the millions of neat lovers and come to MacDonald's.

Alissa has class with a football player who is a class clown. He is disrupting the class and is failing. Alissa decides all football players are not serious students.

The statement above is an example of a generalization.

• True

• False

Which of the following is a "rhetorical question"?

(Meaning a question that doesn't need to be answered.)

• Who was president of the United States during World War 2?

• Are you crazy?

• What type of animal is a platypus?

• When is lunch?

A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning.

• True

• False

What is a claim?

• Statement that something is true or correct

• Statement that goes against what the author states is correct

• Facts that support the author's argument

• Statement that summarizes the author's argument

How do logical fallacies affect an author's argument?

• They strengthen the author's argument

• They weaken the author's argument

• They do not affect the author's argument

a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong

• argument

• claim

• bias

• steretyping

A challenge to a position; an opposing argument

• emotional appeal

• logical fallacy

• slogan

• counterargument

There is a lot of commotion regarding saving the environment. We cannot make this world an Eden. What will happen if it does become Eden? Adam and Eve got bored there!

• red herring

• moral equivalence

• non sequitur

• straw man

Al Gore feels that all companies are irresponsible and should be punished for allowing emissions which causes global warming.

• straw man

• red herring

• slippery slope

• either/or (black/white) (binary)