critical thinking: chapter 7 fallacies more · genetic fallacy •the genetic fallacy occurs when...

CRITICAL THINKING: CHAPTER 7

MOREFALLACIES

THE AD HOMINEM FALLACY

• The ad hominem fallacy rests on a confusionbetween the qualities of the person making aclaim and the qualities of the claim itself. It isa rhetorical device that attacks the arguerinstead of the argument.

Dr. Enya Ameza-Xemalordzo 2

THE AD HOMINEM FALLACY

A proposal made by an oddball is an oddball’s proposal,but it does not follow that it is an oddball proposal.

PERSONAL ATTACK ADHOMINEM• A pattern of fallacious reasoning in which we refuse to accept

another’s argument because there is something about theperson we don’t like or of which we disapprove.

PERSONAL ATTACK ADHOMINEM• Example: Are you really going to believe her about librarians’

salaries not being excessive? I’ll have you know she herself is alibrarian, or don’t you think that matters?

THE INCONSISTENCY ADHOMINEM• A pattern of fallacious reasoning of the sort, “I reject your

claim because you act inconsistently with it yourself,” or “Youcan’t make that claim now because you have in the pastrejected it.”

THE INCONSISTENCY ADHOMINEM• The double standard argument is actually the inconsistency ad

hominem.

THE INCONSISTENCY ADHOMINEM• Example: Did you ever notice how the people who favor

abortion on demand are the same people who are against thedeath penalty?

THE INCONSISTENCY ADHOMINEM• Example: It really gripes me to see Bill Clinton talking about

how cigarette smoking is a big contributor to public healthcosts. How can we trust him? Even he himself admits tosmoking cigars!

CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADHOMINEM• Attempting to discredit a person’s claim by referring to the

person’s circumstances.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADHOMINEM• Example: Of course the Task Force on Crime is going to

conclude that crime is on the way up. If they conclude it’s onthe way down, they’d have to disband the task force, wouldn’tthey?

CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADHOMINEM• Example: Of course that can’t be a legitimate proposal. They’re

just trying to get the city council to pass a regulation that willstir up some business for them.

POISONING THE WELL

• Poisoning the well can be thought of as an ad hominem inadvance.

POISONING THE WELL

• Example: I wouldn’t take a course from anyone in the Poly Scidepartment, if I were you. They are all anti-U.S., ultraliberaltypes, at least that’s what I hear.

POISONING THE WELL

• Example:The next speaker is going to speak in favor of theidea. But she works for the gun lobby Don’t even botherlistening to what she says.

GENETIC FALLACY

• The genetic fallacy occurs when we try to refute a claim onthe basis of its origin or history. Rejecting a propositionbecause it is supported by a group you don’t like is a geneticfallacy.

GENETIC FALLACY

• Example: You can’t trust the arguments you find in thatmagazine. It’s well known as a right-wing apologist for thewealthy.

GENETIC FALLACY

• Example: I don’t think postmodern expressionism is decent art.It’s another style spawned by the East Coast art establishment,and, frankly, I’m tired of that group’s dictating to the rest ofthe art world.

POSITIVE AD HOMINEMFALLACIES• If we automatically transfer the positive or favorable

attributes of a person to what he or she says, that is amistake in reasoning, as well.

POSITIVE AD HOMINEMFALLACIES• Example: The fact that in your view the NRA represents all that

is good and proper does not enable you to infer that anyspecific proposal from the NRA is good and proper.

POSITIVE AD HOMINEMFALLACIES• Example: The fact that you think your mom is clever does not

logically entitle you to conclude that any specific opinion ofyour mom’s is clever.

THE STRAW MAN FALLACY

• The straw man fallacy happens when you refute a position orclaim by distorting or oversimplifying or misrepresenting it, allthe while ignoring the person’s actual position.

• Example: Gays in the military? Yes. Maybe you favor excludingeveryone except for white Anglo-Saxon males with adolescentpersonalities, but not me.

• Example: Do I want the police department to take charge ofwriting parking tickets? You mean, do I want to get shot if Ipull up next to a fire hydrant? What do you think?

THE FALSE DILEMMA FALLACY

• The false dilemma fallacy occurs when you limit considerationsto only two alternatives although other alternatives may beavailable. A straw man is often used as part of a falsedilemma.

• Example: Overheard: “I don’t know why Barbara won’t go outwith me. She must think I’m too intense for her.”

• Example: Gays in the military? Either let them in, or keep out allminorities; take your choice. I’m for letting them in. thealternative is ridiculous.

THE PERFECTIONIST FALLACY

• The perfectionist fallacy is a subspecies of false dilemma anda common rhetorical ploy. This principle downgrades policy Xsimply because it isn’t perfect.

• Example: No, I don’t believe we ought to reinstate the deathpenalty in this state. Doing it isn’t going to prevent all crime,and you know it.

• Example:Don’t stay in the army. You were ROTC instead ofgoing to one of the academies, and that means they mightpromote you for a while, but you’ll never get above lieutenantcolonel.

THE LINE-DRAWING FALLACY

• Another version of the false dilemma is called the line-drawingfallacy, the fallacy of insisting that a line must be drawn atsome point when in fact it is not necessary that such a line bedrawn.

• Example: All this talk about secondhand smoke causing cancer,I just don’t get it. How does it happen? WHEN does it happen?The first time you take a breath in a smoky room? The secondtime? You can never pin it down exactly.

• Example:What do you mean, I broke my curfew? All I did waswalk to the curb. You wouldn’t cite me if I stood on the porch,would you? And if I’d just stepped off the porch, that wouldn’tbe any different. So what’s so magical about the curb?

SLIPPERY SLOPE

• A form of fallacious reasoning in which it is assumed thatsome event must inevitably follow from some other, but inwhich no argument is made for the inevitability.

SLIPPERY SLOPE

• Example: No, I don’t believe in “three strikes and you’re out”for convicted felons. Next thing it will be two strikes, then onestrike. Then we will be sticking people in jail for life formisdemeanors. It’s not good policy.

SLIPPERY SLOPE

• Example:Gays in the military? If we allow that, then next timewe’ll be letting women into the men’s barracks. And the nextthing you know, women, men, gays, everyone--they’ll all beshowering together and sleeping in the same bunks. Get real.

MISPLACING THE BURDEN OFPROOF• Misplacing the burden of proof occurs when the burden of

proof is placed on the wrong side of an issue.

MISPLACING THE BURDEN OFPROOF• 1. The less initial plausibility a claim has, the greater the

burden of proof we place on someone who asserts that claim.

MISPLACING THE BURDEN OFPROOF• 2. Other things being equal, the burden of proof falls

automatically on those supporting the affirmative side of anissue rather than on those supporting the negative side.

MISPLACING THE BURDEN OFPROOF• When someone claims that we should believe in such-and-such

because nobody has proved it isn’t so, we have a subtypeknown as appeal to ignorance.

MISPLACING THE BURDEN OFPROOF• 3. Special circumstances like courtor contracts will specify where theburden of proof lies so there areno doubts or confusion about whoneeds to prove what.

MISPLACING THE BURDEN OFPROOF• Example: I beg to differ, Officer, but

sometimes you people go overboard talkingabout the dangers of fast driving. If you canprove that there’s actually a child near thestreet right now, and that the child wouldhave stepped out in front of my car, then I’llgrant you that going fifty-five wasdangerous.

MISPLACING THE BURDEN OFPROOF• Example: Preferential treatment in hiring is something we must

support; after all, can you think of a reason why we shouldn’t?

BEGGING THE QUESTION

• We are guilty of begging the question when we ask ouraudience to accept premises that are as controversial as theconclusion we’re arguing for and are controversial on the samegrounds.

• Example: The ACLU? Yeah, I know about them, and I don’t likethem very much. They’re the ones who furnish free lawyers forcriminals.

• Example: No, I don NOT believe that a murderer ought to beallowed to live. No way! Murderers have forfeited the right tolive because anyone who murders another person has lost thatright.

critical thinking: chapter 7 fallacies more · genetic fallacy •the genetic fallacy occurs when...

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