example and defnation

Logical Fallacies

III. Scapegoating: Unfair blame placed upon a person or group of people. (aka appeal to emotions)

Example: Augurs were official diviners of ancient Rome. During the pre-Christian period, when Christians were unpopular, an augur would make a prediction for the emperor about, say, whether a military attack would have a successful outcome. If the prediction failed to come true, the augur would not admit failure but instead would blame nearby Christians for their evil influence on his divining powers. The elimination of these Christians, the augur would claim, could restore his divining powers and help the emperor. By using this reasoning tactic, the augur was scapegoating the Christians.

IV. False Analogy: A conclusion is draw from two seemingly or superficially like or similar objects/things/observations that really are different. Analogies are not true or false; the range is near identity (similarity) to extreme dissimilarity.

Example: Oranges are fruit and have vitamin C. Apples are also fruit; therefore, apples have vitamin C.

The book Investing for Dummies really helped me understand my finances better. The book Chess for Dummies was written by the same author, was published by the same press, and costs about the same amount, so it would probably help me understand my finances as well.

Sources: http://www.iep.utm.edu/f/fallacies.htm#H3

http://www.rhetor.com/compete/fallacies.htm

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