Ad Hominem Fallacy

shows his or her claim or problem to be invalid; the assumption is that anyone with a

A fallacy is defined as a kind of error in reasoning. They can be persuasive and be created both unintentionally and intentionally in order to deceive others from the truth. Fallacies often indicate a false belief or cause of a false belief (dowden, 2006). An argument or situation commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion. This defeats the purpose of the argument since its point is to give reason to support the conclusion. Fallacies affect the outcome of our everyday decision making process. There are three types of logical fallacies discussed in this paper along with the importance of utilizing critical thinking skills.

Implicit bias is bias in one’s judgment or behavior that results from one’s unconscious associations. In order to thoroughly discuss implicit bias, implicit associations must first be examined. Implicit associations refer to one’s unconscious associations between a group and how one feels about said group. For example, a person may subconsciously associate straight people as “normal” and homosexuals as “wrong”. They may have this unconscious association even if they do not express this opinion

three logical fallacies that are used in this paper are Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc, Far-Fetched Hypothesis, and False Dilemma. What is a fallacy? A fallacy is viewed as an error in reasoning. To be more exact, a fallacy is an "argument" in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. A logical fallacy is an error in logical argument which is independent of the truth of the premises. When there is a fallacy in an argument it is said to be invalid. The presence of a logical fallacy in an argument does not necessarily imply anything about the argument's premises or its conclusion. Both may actually be true, but the argument is still invalid because the conclusion does not follow.

of the most common fallacies, named Bandwagon, is usually seen in a lot of stories. Bandwagon

I do take full responsibility for my actions when I am the only one who engages in that act. However, if someone else is involved and he or she does not get punished, I start to blame the condemner. The reason for this is because the condemnation is unfair since it does not include everyone involved. I remember when I was 16 years old, I managed to get a scratch on my dad’s car. Of course my parents were not happy about this and scolded me for it. I believed that it was unfair because there was a huge dent in the car that my brother caused. However, he was not punished because he is the oldest and I should have learned from his mistakes. I honestly thought that reasoning was injudicious and tried to “turn” the blame around on my parents. As mentioned in the article, this condemnation was unacceptable because someone else who did the same thing was not punished. This is why I believe that this technique of neutralization is relevant to

In the third paragraph, Hillary Clinton appealed to the emotions of her audience by using the fallacy of ad misericordiam, which appeals to pity, while describing the treatment of LGBT youth in the inner city and suburbs. The presidential nominee argued, “You can get married on Saturday, post your pictures on Sunday and get fired on Monday. That's why we've got to continue the forward march of progress” (para. 5). That is an example of Clinton making a hasty generalization. She informed her audience of an isolated case and presented it as normal, recurring event. The majority of Clinton’s sixth paragraph employed the fallacy of ad populum. She only explained her plans for office as it pertained to her audience. Her audience was at a fundraiser for leaders and supporters of LGBT rights, thus she only explained her plans to uplift the LGBT community and nothing else. Clinton used the bandwagon appeal to refer to Donald Trump’s supporters when she called to put half of them in a group called the “basket of deplorables” (para. 7). Donald Trump’s supporters are often the subject of attention because of their colorful tactics and Hillary Clinton tried to cash in on that. Lastly, the Democratic presidential nominee also employed the logical fallacy of faulty cause and effect. It is evident when she said, “We will win if people turn out to vote. There is no doubt in my mind that we will win” (para. 10). Hillary Clinton is trying to

When people condemn others, the accuser affect themselves the most. Marc and Dianna MacYoung, the authors of No Nonsense Self-Defense, in their article “Blaming Justifies Your Own Bad Behavior” writes, “Unfortunately, blame is

Appeal ad Populum fallacy argues that something must be true because the majority believes it to be right. Just because many people believe something to be right does not mean it is. J.B Sanford uses this fallacy when he says that “courageous, chivalrous, and manly men and the womanly women, the real mothers and

Sometimes people get blamed for wrongdoings that they did not participate in. This was shown in Salem, Massachusetts, during the salem witch trials in the play The Crucible. The play was based in 1692, when a community of Puritans started accusing each other of of being witches and wizards. Innocent people that did not practice witchcraft were getting hanged and accused of being witches. Scapegoats have also been used in modern day with McCarthyism, which was a campaign against communist. Many people were blacklisted and lost their jobs even though many of these people did not belong to the communist party. This took place in 1950-1954 carried out by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Using scapegoats blames innocent people for wrongdoings, and accuses people of wrong doings.

Ad Hominem: Latin for “against the man,” and refers to the logical fallacy (error) of arguing that someone is incorrect because they are unattractive, immoral, weird, or any other bad thing you could say about them as a person. (https://literaryterms.net/ad-hominem/)

The use of logical fallacies is directly connected to the “Idol of the Cave,” where the individual believe in false notion based off their background and relationships amongst one another. Indirectly stating how individuals’ personal understanding was influenced by others and criticizing, exemplifies how he had the ability to agree with the ideal of the “Idols of the Cave” through this understanding of how influential of

In political races in the United States logical fallacies are a staple in political ads. The 2012 election was no exception to this convention, especially being true in an advertisement with ex-steel plant worker Joe Soptic, speaking in Obama-affiliated Political Action Committee Priorities. The advertisement included many logical fallacies to argue against the Romney campaign. Those include post hoc reasoning, ad hominem, and slippery slope.

For most individuals, the thought of blaming the victim of a tragic experience for their own pain and suffering, seems preposterous. However, ascribing at least some of the blame to the victim is not uncommon (Niemi & Young, 2014). Victim blaming refers to individuals finding reasons to hold the victim of an incident responsible for the crime that took place (Hayes, Lorenz & Bell, 2013). For victims of sexual assault, who may already be experiencing self-blame and distrust of others, being blamed adds insult to injury (Harber, Podolski, & Williams, 2015). According to Harber et. al, victim blaming can also have long-term effects on victims, such as, increased anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In an effort to increase support and resources for survivors of sexual assault researchers must determine why individuals are prone to blaming the victims rather than the perpetrator of a crime.

Where one of the parties has either expressly or impliedly assumed responsibility for the other in some way, or where such responsibility arises