The Effect Of Ad Hominem Fallacies And Biases

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.

In today’s society, announcing one’s aversion towards people different from them is the fastest way receive ridicule. In general, society has progressed to a point where being xenophobic, racist, and sexist is socially unacceptable. Despite this progress, society still suffers from the effects of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. Why is that? The answer has to do with the fact that while explicit expressions of these behaviors are seen as unacceptable, implicit associations still permeate our society. These associations lead to implicit bias. Implicit bias is readily becoming the most pervasive form of bias in our society. It contributes to both micro and macro-level inequalities, and raising awareness of implicit bias is crucial in order to suppress its effects on society. This paper will start with a discussion of what implicit bias is. This will be followed by a discussion of the effects of implicit bias. It will conclude with a discussion of how implicit bias can be combatted.

Many authors tend to state their opinion very briefly in their work. This makes it vulnerable for others to agree or disagree on the opinion with facts. Common fallacies also known as logical fallacies and argumentation styles are the most critical ways an author can be debated on leading to ongoing arguments. Logical fallacies are faults in reasoning that weaken our arguments and argumentation styles are types of arguments that modify the text to create a structured essay. Logical fallacies and argumentation styles can either create a more developed essay or can make it vulnerable. This can be avoided with much revision and editing but there will always be someone to judge someone else’s work for any purpose if found. Like many novels that

In a general sense society derives much of their beliefs and indifferences from stories that are covered in the media. If the stories are being reported biased, how can we, as a society, see the whole picture? The author's purpose is to inform readers about the different biases that news and media sway by and to provide evidence that proves instances when these biases have weakened the validity of the reporter's story. "Journalist are like dogs-whenever anything moves, they begin to bark." (Gladstone, 2011/2013, P.25)

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

* Identify the informal fallacies, assumptions, and biases involved in manipulative appeals and abuses of language.

This essay is about how connotation, rhetoric, bias effect an article. The article that I chose for this essay is the LA Times article, “Trump and FDR: Meet the new fears, same as the old fears,” by Ali Swenson. The articles two main points are that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Donald Trump appeal to what people want to do about current issues; and that eople are going against Muslims now the same way that people went against the Japanese in WWII.

Bias is a common part of any type of media whether it may be social media or the news. Everyone has a right to have an opinion or a certain preference. Having the right to an opinion is what the founding fathers fought for, so exercising the right in the introduction of a book seems logical. In this introduction, Remini starts off by sharing a

An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Ad Hominem is a tactic that political has practice to discredit a person, not buy claiming something about the claim but say something negative about the person. “As nonsensical as the tactic might seem-why would exposure of embarrassing personal information counter evidence of the government deceit? Ellsberg understood it clearly: people do not want to be associated with someone who has been discredited or publicly humiliated.” For example Daniel Ellsberg, which they broke in to his office and stole a file of his sexual history. Then there was an article that stated that Julian Assange’s was bizarre and paranoid, with little grip of reality. In the article they also specified that she would check I hotels with false names, dye her hair, sleep on sofas and floors, the article also stated that crazy and delusional. (226-227)

Logical fallacies are fairly common in modern-day America. Fallacious statements are societally prevalent in mainstream media; whether televised, in print, or found electronically, the reasoning behind such arguments is erroneous. One such logical fallacy is the appeal to spite.

One of the types of fallacies is Ad Hominem, which translates as “against a human”. Ad hominem received its name because it’s an attacking argument, where the argument of the other person is rejected, based on the reputation or some irrelevant fact about that person. An example of this argument would be – “You are stupid, therefore your answer is wrong”.

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

After our first essay, we immediately began our second, “oh my God”, were my exact words that I remembered myself saying, as I took a deep breathe. In fact, during all of this mind boggling confusion going on in my head, I felt that this next essay was going to be more complicated. Which immediately lead me to recall “What is Academic Writing Myth #4” when Irvin suggested that “Some got it; I don’t – the genius fallacy” (5). Myth #4 suggests that when we begin to think of our writing flaws, we tend to blame genetics. We offer up explanations that it’s out of our control,

Bias and stereotyping can both be harmful for self-esteem and the developmental process in children. Bias is not only harmful for the target group since it lowers the self-esteem, but the group who feels superiority over the other is also harmed. The feeling of being superior disconnects a person from reality. Too much of self-esteem reduces the appreciation of others and may even slow down progress for the beholder. Stereotyping creates preconceived notions in the minds of children and adults due to which they fail to see others for what they actually are and rather judge them on the basis of information that is misguided and obsolete. Stereotyping results in developing strong perspectives of people who are different and causes prejudice.

Bias is a discernibly human quality; like all things human in nature, there lies deep in our consciousness values, axiology’s, and prejudice. These ‘biases’, rather worldviews, create within each person their own rose coloured lenses with which they perceive, and more importantly, influence the world. To look at how bias can occur both blatantly and subtly in writing, three distinct forms will be analyzed; Linguistic Biases,