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HANDOUT.docxRhetorical fallacies, or fallacies of argument, don’t allow for the open, two-way exchange of ideas upon which meaningful arguments depend. Instead, they distract the reader with various appeals instead of using sound reasoning. They can be divided into three categories:
1. Emotional fallacies unfairly appeal to the audience’s emotions.
2. Ethical fallacies unreasonably advance the writer’s own authority or character.
3. Logical fallacies depend upon faulty logic.
Keep in mind that rhetorical fallacies often overlap.
EMOTIONAL FALLACIES
Appeal to Pity –Occurs when an appeal is made to pity or to one's sympathetic nature.
Example: Augusto Pinochet is an old, dying man. It is wrong to make him stand trial for alleged offenses.
The thousands of marine species killed by the BP Gulf Coast disaster show us that oil is not a reliable energy source.
Red herring –An attempt to divert attention away from the crux of an argument by introduction of anecdote, irrelevant detail, subsidiary facts, tangential references, and the like.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6VmYOFGpbM
Bandwagon Appeal –This fallacy occurs when an argument panders to popular passion or sentiment—encourage acceptance of a position because it’s popular or because others are doing it.
Example: When, for instance, a politician exclaims in a debate that her or his opponent "is out of step with the beliefs of everyone in the audience," he/she is committing the fallacy.
Slippery Slope-- a series of increasingly unacceptable consequences is drawn. The form of a slippery slope fallacy looks like this:
A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D. ... Z leads to HELL. We don't want to go to HELL. So, don't take that first step A.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIv3m2gMgUU
Either/Or--False Alternatives –A fallacy occurring when the number of alternatives is said to be fewer/less than the actual number. Common examples of this fallacy are statements containing either/or, nothing/but, or all-or-nothing elements.
Example: Is she a Democrat or a Republican? (She may be a socialist, a libertarian, a Leninist, an anarchist, a feminist or any number of other things, including one who is strictly apolitical.)
If you aren't for your country, then you are against it. (One may be neither "for" nor "against" but may occupy a position of strict neutrality or be affirmative sometimes and critical at others.)
ETHICAL FALLACIES
False Authority—An appeal to authority is ordinarily one good way to buttress a line of thought. The practice becomes fallacious when one of the following happens: the authority is not an expert in the field in which one is speaking; the allusion to authority masks the fact that experts may be divided down the middle on the subject; no explicit reference is made to the authority.
Example: To determine whether or not mountaintop removal is dangerous to the watershed, we interviewed these three miners.
Ad Hominem—A common fallacy in which someone argues against a position or claim by assailing the proponent of it. The truth or falsehood of a position doesn't depend on who does (or doesn't) espouse it.
Example: You can't trust Jones' theory of electromagnetic particles because he's a communist.
Straw Man or Straw Person—A fallacy that occurs when someone attacks a less defensible position than the one actually being put forth. This occurs very often in politics, when one seeks to derive maximum approval for himself/herself or for a cause.
Example: Opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement amounts to nothing but opposition to free trade.
Prejudicial Language—Occurs when value or moral goodness is attached to believing the author. Loaded language is emotive terminology that expresses value judgments. When used in what appears to be an objective description, the terminology unfortunately can cause the listener to adopt those values when in fact no good reason has been given for doing so.
Example: [News broadcast] In today's top stories, Senator Smith carelessly cast the deciding vote today to pass both the budget bill and the trailer bill to fund yet another excessive watchdog committee over coastal development.
Dogmatism or Invincible ignorance -- the fallacy of insisting on the legitimacy of one's position in the face of contradictory facts.
Example: I really don't care what the experts say; no one is going to convince me that I'm wrong.
LOGICAL FALLACIES
Example: Someone may ask ten women and one man what their opinion is of contemporary male-female relationships and from this sample draw a sweeping conclusion; hasty generalization would then be said to exist.
False Cause —The fallacy of reaching a conclusion based solely on the sequence of events. Implying causation when no good reason is given for doing so.
Example: The Soviet Union collapsed after adopting atheism. Therefore, we must avoid atheism or we also run the risk of collapse.
Non sequitur ("it does not follow") –A statement that does not logically follow from what preceded it—a conclusion that does not follow from the premises.
Example: If the protesters really loved America, they wouldn’t protest the Iraq war.
Because Jane Smith is a brilliant historian she must be a brilliant history teacher.
Begging the question –Circular reasoning in which a claim is assumed to be true and is then tucked in the conclusion. Occurs when the author restates the claim a different way.
Example: His lies are evident from the untruthful nature of his statements.
Faulty Analogy—An inaccurate, inappropriate, or misleading comparison between two things.
Example: Allowing prisoners early release is like absolving them of their crimes.
Two Wrongs —Justification of wrong action by pointing to other wrong action.
Example: I don’t feel guilty about cheating on the midterm; everyone does it.
