Informal Fallacies Controversy

A fallacy, by definition, is an argument that uses poor reasoning. Before one uses a fallacy, it’s important to have full understanding or else you risk losing your whole ethos aspect of your argument. Heinrichs gives three important parts to detecting fallacies. “All you have to do is look for a bad proof, the wrong number of choices, or a disconnect between the proof and the conclusion.” (Heinrichs 146)

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.

For my journal entry I choose to read Online Higher Education’s Individualist Fallacy by Johann N. Neem. Johann Neem is a professor of history at Western Washington University and argues that there is a value in “Institutional culture” for the student that attends traditional classes on a college campus. According to Neem, institutional culture is important because learning is a social experience and depends on relationships since under the guidance of a professor a student will prosper, and be inspired by the energy in the classroom setting. Neem also states that professors are able to adapt easily to the needs of the students that are present in the classroom versus those who attend online. Neem, contends that distance learning undercuts institutional learning due to the fact that students are not fully engaged with their professors and can miss out

An argument is an effective strategy used to persuade individuals or public that a general opinion or perception is either right or wrong. Although, as we try to create a reasonable argument, chances are we encounter logical fallacies. A fallacy is a faulty line in reasoning that hinder our ability to make an argument invalid, affecting our ability to argue effectively. Fallacies are more commonly used as a tool to influence opinion or actions of individuals or group of individuals to as to obtain a future goal while obscuring the truth of the matter. These are more commonly referred to as propagandas, which persuades the public to be “for” or “against” certain political ideas, religion, races and opinions as a whole. A propagandist wants invoke

The Purdue Owl article, Logical Fallacies, provides a simple classification, “Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points” (Weber). From my understanding illegitimate argument Logical Fallacies rely on faulty evidence or misrepresented evidence to support

The three logical fallacies I chose to discuss are ad hominem, bandwagon, and stacking the deck. I chose these three based off examples I could think of that have been placed boldly in my face.

Many people have either engaged in an argument that seemed unsolvable or witnessed such an argument between friends and family members.

Religious and non-religious people are not quite different as people may think, as they both are on their own path of figuring out what life is all about and what is their purpose in life. Often, believers and non-believers of Christ are seen bumping heads in disagreement and some may take it to the extreme with their arguments, to the point where their arguments are not credible nor logical. Bill Maher, an American comedian, political commentator, and television host, even made his own comedy documentary called Religulous, examining and challenging religion and religious belief. He argues how religion is ridiculous, as it said in the title of the documentary, while traveling the world in search for religious people’s take on why they are religious.

As for myself, I had to weigh the concept of media influence effecting my purchasing habits, as I spend the majority of my free time outdoors or engaged with a book. What I concluded, was repetitively humorous ads such as “Old Spice”, “Irish Spring” and “Dollar Shave Club” commercials, not only share unique similarities in content, they also primarily address the market for low cost, daily use items. Considering these realities and my own recollection of advertisements which motivated me to purchase a product, I would have to postulate the Dollar Shave Club commercials won the contest hands down. In fact, I have never procured any Old Spice or Irish Spring product or felt any desire too, I simply enjoyed the satire imbedded in the advertising, however, when it came to the Dollar Shave Club, I have been a member for the past 3

Not only do democrats have fallacies in their reasoning but republicans do too. At the start of the 21st century, George Bush had to make a case against the horrible terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Instead of presenting a sound argument, Bush used the fallacy of False Dilemma to persuade people to believe him. Bush said, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” ("Logical Fallacies: George W. Bush.")

A false assumption is a type of fallacy where a reputable assumption is made and can be “demonstrated to be false with facts stacked against the assumption” (McInerny 111). A false assumption can also be made when an arguer is assuming that his or her audience has a “knowledge of certain kind when in fact the audience doesn’t” (McInerny 112). An example

It would be difficult to find any two individuals on the planet who are able to agree on everything. Because of this, there are many different issues in which any two people are going to fail to see eye to eye on. Differing viewpoints lead to arguments that are created by people in order to argue their points. While some arguments that are created are based in fact, some arguments are based upon false assumptions and trickery, with these unsound arguments being known as fallacies. A study of fallacies reveal the true nature of false arguments, and better equips an individual to identify invalid arguments.

After learning about the logical fallacies, I began to notice that people use them quite a lot. This weekend I tried being on the lookout for when someone used them, but now that I reflect back I realize that I have used some too. I realized that I used the post hoc, ergom pro pter hoc, and that people around me used the appeal to tradition.

There are also many diverse kinds of fallacies. Some include, appeal to the popular, meaning to urge the listener to accept a position because a majority of people do it or believe in it. For example, the majority of people like soda. Therefore, soda is good. Or everyone else is doing it, so why can 't I? Another common fallacy is poisoning the well, this occurs when negative information is presented about a person before he/she speaks. In order to redirect the person 's point of view of that person. an example is, Frank is disagreeable, arrogant, and thinks he knows everything. So, let 's hear what Frank has to say about the subject. There are many more kinds of fallacies.

The use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or “wrong moves” in the construction of an argument are a fallacy. In a fallacious argument there might a deceptive by appearing to be better than it really is (Google). The two politicians debates, I decided to analyze were democrat Pat Quinn and republican Bruce Rauner. In these debates, I will be focusing on the fallacies that are used with what each politician is arguing. In political debates, each opponent will always use prepped material to make the other side look unsatisfactory, to earn another winning vote. Politics are won by lies, promises that are never achieved, and issues that will always remain unfixed.