Student Material
Chapter 7: Pseudo-reasoning
Students’ material
A
Indicate whether the following claims are true or false.
- All fallacies have at least one false premise.
- An argument with a prescriptive conclusion but no prescriptive premises is fallacious.
- No fallacy has a true conclusion.
- Ad hominem fallacies are ‘substantial’ fallacies.
- No causal fallacy is a ‘formal’ fallacy.
- The perfectionist fallacy is committed when an argument is not perfect.
- There is a fallacy called the Smokescreen Fallacy.
- It is conceivable that a fallacy could be rationally persuasive for some person.
- An argument of the form is fallacious:
P1) If P then Q.
P2) Q
C) P
- No valid arguments are fallacious.
B
Say whether each of the following is fallacious/a good argument/a rhetorical ploy
- You shouldn’t wear fur; fur comes from dead animals some of which have been skinned alive.
- Paul McCartney’s daughter says you shouldn’t wear fur. She knows about fashion. That’s enough to stop me.
- When
it’s below 30 degrees outside and the hairs inside your nostrils are
freezing, fur is the best way to keep warm. Everyone here in Northern
Russia says so.
- Even though clothing is our core business, my company does not want to undermine its brand values by expanding into fur coats.
- Climate ‘change’ is just a con dreamed up by the environmental lobby to take us back to the Stone Age.
- Rick
Idlewild is well-known for advocating carbon minimization schemes, but
he would say that, wouldn’t he? He’s got business interests in a carbon
trading scheme.
- If we don’t do everything in our
power to abate carbon emissions, sea levels will rise and whole
counties will be inundated. We cannot allow this to happen and must do
whatever we can to prevent it. We must stop using our cars and taking
international flights.
- Most people are
counter-suggestible when it comes to Government diktats. Whenever the
Government tells people to change their behaviour – eat less of that,
do more of that, spend more, consume less – they do the opposite. So
the best approach the Government could take to preventing disastrous
climate change is to stop trying to get people to change their
behaviour.
- If we don’t take action against
climate change now, sea levels will rise to dangerous levels. Sea
levels have already risen to dangerous levels, so clearly we haven’t
taken any action against climate change.
- The President says he’s committed to finding solutions to tackling climate change, but there he is jetting around in Air Force One, pumping out carbon emissions like they’re pure oxygen. Why should we take any notice of what he says?
C
Name each of the following fallacies
- I’m not sure if my sister’s new partner, Frances, will like
the gift we have bought her. We’re giving her a fishing rod. She lives
in Canada and most people who live in Canada live near a river, a lake
or the ocean and most people who live near water like to fish.
- If it’s raining, we can’t play tennis outdoors. We can’t play tennis outdoors, so it must be raining.
-
Playing tennis outdoors is much better for you because you get to
breathe fresh air instead of that stale stuff in the stadium. You
should always play outside if you can.
- I really
want to learn to fish. It must be a great way to spend your holidays
and weekends. The vast majority of people here in New Zealand enjoy
fishing.
- So the Government wants to make carbon
offset payments compulsory for all domestic and international air
travel. What’s the point? That approach alone won’t solve global
warming.
- I think she’ll make an excellent
Vice-President. After all, she’s clearly a devoted mother and she knows
how to shoot straight.
- Yes, but you would say
that, wouldn’t you? If your cousin’s elected Vice-President, you’ll
have a direct line to the President.
- Indian food is the best. Sachin Tendulkar says so and he’s probably the best batsman in the world right now.
-
Medical researchers have detected a correlation between the medication
I’m taking for osteoporosis and cancer. I’m not taking any chances. I’m
going to stop taking it it causes cancer.
- Of course carrying a little bit of cannabis for your own use is immoral. It’s illegal, isn’t it?
D
Name each of the bad argument techniques exemplified in the following.
- It would be wonderful if this year the television companies
complied with the spirit as well as the letter of the law regarding
advertising on Christmas Day. Normal people, like myself, consider
promos to be advertising. [ … ]
M. J. Drummond, Freemans Bay, New Zealand Herald, 24/12/08 (adapted and shortened)
- Look, there’s really no alternative here. Either we buy food or we buy beer, we can’t have both.
-
You say that it’s a straight choice between beer and food, but I simply
don’t agree that those are the only two options, and, anyway, you
always drink more than I do.
- If you think I’m
going to let you have a cell phone at your age, you’ve got another
think coming. Once you’ve got a cell phone, you’ll want an iPod, then
it’ll be an iPhone and before I know it you’ll be demanding that I buy
you a sports car.
- (Said by child addressed by argument above) My mum’s so unreasonable and unfair. I asked her for a cell phone and she said she won’t buy me anything I ask for, ever!