philosophy
Informal Fallacies
Review
Subjectivist Fallacy: Treating something that is or could reasonably be objective as though it were only subjective.
Review
Subjectivist Fallacy: Treating something that is or could reasonably be objective as though it were only subjective.
Genetic Fallacy: An appeal to origins. The argument appeals to an origin or source of some concept or practice as though it fully explained the concept or practice.
Review
Subjectivist Fallacy: Treating something that is or could reasonably be objective as though it were only subjective.
Genetic Fallacy: An appeal to origins. The argument appeals to an origin or source of some concept or practice as though it fully explained the concept or practice.
Ad Hominem: An appeal or attack on the person in order to discount that person’s argument.
Exercises:
Andrea Dworkin has written several books arguing that pornography harms women. But Dworkin is just a bitter feminist, so why should we listen to her?
Exercises:
Doctor: Smoking is bad for your health and you should quit as soon as possible.
Sam: That may be true for some people, but Smoking’s not bad for me.
Tu Quoque (Appeal to Hypocrisy)
To reject a person’s argument because they don’t practice what they preach or are hypocritical.
Exercises:
I don’t take Anti-smoking campaigns seriously because the Nazis were the first ones to use them.
Democrat: The president should not use executive orders to pass a law. That should be left to congress to decide first.
Republican: But Obama signed more executive orders than any previous president!
Appeal to Pity (General Appeal to Emotion)
When emotions felt about some claim/belief are wrongly treated as evidence of that claim’s truth.
I’ve worked so hard on this paper, and I will be on academic probation if I don’t get an A. So, you should give me an A.
Appeal to Ignorance
When lack of evidence is taken to prove something.
Teacher to student: Why on earth did you throw a chair out the classroom window!?
Student: You didn’t tell us not to, so I figured it was ok.
Appeal to the People
To argue that a belief is true/false because the majority or certain types of people endorse it.
“I’d hate to see something like that get in [Ted Cruz’s] way, but a lot of people are talking about it, and I know that even some states are looking at [his eligibility] very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a double passport,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post at the time.
Appeal to Unqualified Authority
It is wrongly assumed that because a person is an authority in one area, they must be an authority in an unrelated area, too.