Fallacies
of Thinking/Reasoning GNED 1003
1.
Fallacy of Dramatic Instance
- tendency to overgeneralize,
to use one or two cases to support an entire argument
- mistakes a few cases
for a general situation
- difficult to deal with
because it is factual, but not generalizable
- e.g. all welfare recipients
are not defrauding gov't
- Need systematic studies
to prove a case
2. Fallacy
of Retrospective Determinism
- the argument that things
could not have worked out any other way
- deterministic viewpoint
based on past "It's always been this way"
- history is more than
inevitable tragedies "We have to take the good with the bad" "it
had to happen"
- leads to apathy
3. Fallacy
of Misplaced Concreteness
- tendency to explain social
problem by reification(making what is abstract into something concrete)
- e.g. "Society caused
the problem" Society refers to group this denies individual responsibility
4. Fallacy
of Personal Attack
- attacking opponent and
avoiding the question; often attack on the victim
- e.g. attack poor for
laziness
5. Appeal
to Prejudice
- using popular prejudices
or passions to convince others of the correctness of one's position
- eg. "I fight poverty;
I work" appeal to "freeloaders" continues myth of poor unwilling
to work
- popular myths e.g. rape
a woman's fault because she provoked a man
6. Circular
Reasoning
- using conclusions to
support the assumptions that were necessary to make the conclusions
- eg: Minority person inferior
because they can hold only menial jobs; can't do intellectual jobs because
of discriminatory practice Reply minority person couldnŐt be hired because
inferior
7. Fallacy
of Authority
- an illegitimate appeal
to authority
- authority may be ambiguous
- e.g. Bible can be used
to take either side example capital punishment
- authority may be irrelevant
ex doctor not necessarily expert in race relations
- authority may be pursuing
a bias
8. Fallacy
of Composition
- what is valid for part
is not necessarily valid for whole
- example work and income;
farmer works hard and weather is not adverse then income may rise(farmer outperforms
other farmers); farmer works hard and weather good ; then bumper crop then
total income may drop (supply and demand)
9. Non
Sequitur
- "It does not follow"
- e.g. higher turnover
rate for women; they are undesirable
The above is a point form
summary from the text article. For further explanation see the original article.
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copyright 2003Karen
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