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Fallacies 2
| Fallacy | Example |
|---|---|
| Bandwagon | At least 70% of all Americans support restrictions on access to abortions, so it is acceptable to pass those laws. |
| False Authority | Tiger Woods selling Buick automobiles, and Jessica Simpson selling Pro Active |
| Appeal to Nature | Marijuana grows naturally. Prohibiting the harvesting and utilization of any of mother Earth's natural resources is simply wrong. |
| Scare Tactics | "I think there is great merit in making the requirements stricter for the graduate students. I recommend that you support it, too. After all, we are in a budget crisis and we do not want our salaries affected." |
| Ad Hominem | "She asserts that we need more military spending, but that is false, since she is only saying it because she is a Republican." |
| Appeal to Pity | "I should receive an 'A' in this class. After all, if I don't get an 'A' I won't get the fellowship that I want." |
| False Cause | Professor Redding's students received A's and B's last semester. He must be an excellent teacher. |
| Legitimate | A student is like an oyster--it is the job of education to open them up and discover what is inside. |
| Slippery Slope | "We have to stop the tuition increase! The next thing you know, they'll be charging $40,000 a semester" |
| Legitimate | If you don't brush your teeth, you could get cavities. |
| False Cause | I took antibiotics yesterday. I've been feeling sick today. The antibiotics have made me feel sick. |
| Legitimate | Yesterday I saw a stray cat in my yard. I have never seen any other cat in my yard. Today I found paw prints in my yard that look like they were made by a cat. The stray cat probably created the paw prints I found in my yard. |
| False Authority | The US Surgeon General uses a PC. Therefore, PCs are better than Macs. |
| Legitimate | Professor Smith, who has taught medicine and biology for the last 15 years and is considered a top researcher in the field, believes that using pesticides in the home increases the risk of cancer. Therefore, we should cut back our use of pesticides. |
| Legitimate | President Jones is an untrustworthy person because she lied about her whereabouts, and has a history of stealing. |
| Hasty Generalization | Political life must lead to excessive drinking. In the last six months, the paper has written about five members of Congress who have either confessed to alcoholism or have been arrested on DUI charges. |
| False Cause | Donna will surely get a good grade in physics; she earned an A in her biology class. |
| Slippery Slope | If we allow the government to register handguns, next it will register hunting rifles; then it will prohibit all citizen ownership of guns, thereby creating a police state and a world in which only outlaws have guns. |
| False Dilemma | The Federal Reserve System must lower interest rates, or we will never pull out of the recession. |
| False Cause | The upsurge in crime on Sundays is the result of the reduced rate of church attendance in recent years. |
| Hasty Generalization | You'll enjoy your Volvo; foreign cars never break down. |
| False Dilemma | Either we improve the city's street lighting, or we will fail to reduce crime. |
| Faulty Analogy | DNA research today is just like the study of nuclear fission. It seems important, but it's just another bomb that will one day explode on us. When will we learn that government must control research? |
| False Dilemma | We must reject affirmative action in hiring or we'll have to settle for incompetent employees |
| Slippery Slope | Coming to the aid of any country engaged in civil war is a bad idea. Next we'll be sending American troops, and soon we'll have another Vietnam on our hands. |
| False Cause | My grandmother lived to the age of 98 because she ate chocolate every day. |
| Red Herring | The senator is an honest woman; she loves her children and gives to charities. |
| Strawman | Those who favor gun control just want to take all the guns away from responsible citizens and put them in the hands of criminals. |
| Strawman | Those crazy liberals at the ACLU just want all criminals to go free. |
| Bandwagon | There's nothing wrong with fudging a bit on your income taxes. After all, everyone does it and the government expects everyone to cheat a little. |
| Legitimate | English 101 is a required class, so if I fail English 101, I won't be able to graduate. If I don't graduate, I probably won't be able to get a good job any time soon, and I may very well end up doing temp work or flipping burgers for the next year |
| Red Herring | Gold's book doesn't deserve a Pulitzer Prize because she has been married four times. |
| Strawman | We shouldn't listen to Colman McCarthy's argument against liquor ads in college newspapers because he obviously thinks young people are ignorant and need guidance in everything. |
| Bandwagon | Since so many cheat the welfare system, it should be abolished. |
| Guilt by Association | Real Americans understand that free trade agreements are evil. Let your representatives know that we want American goods protected. |
| Legitimate | My roommate said her philosophy class was hard, and mine is too. So philosophy classes must be tough for some students. |
| Appeal to Pity | "You may think that he cheated on the test, but look at the poor little thing! How would he feel if you made him sit it again?" |
| Red Herring | I know I forgot to deposit the check into the bank yesterday. But, nothing I do pleases you. |
| Ad Hominem | Frank is pompous, arrogant, and thinks he knows everything. So, let's hear what Frank has to say about the subject. |
| Begging the Question | God exists because the Bible says so. The Bible is inspired. Therefore, we know that God exists. |
| Guilt by Association | Hitler liked dogs. Therefore dogs are bad. |
| Genetic Fallacy | The Nazi regime developed the Volkswagen Beetle. Therefore, you should not buy a VW Beetle because of who started it. |
| Appeal to Tradition | The Catholic church's long history demonstrates that this doctrine is true. |
| Appeal to Pity | You owe me big time because I really stuck my neck out for you. |
| Guilt by Association | Your family is weird. That means that you are weird, too. |
| Faulty Analogy | "No one objects to a physician looking up a difficult case in medical books. Why, then, shouldn't students taking a difficult examination be permitted to use their textbooks?" |
| Tu Quoque | The Romans kept slaves. Therefore, we can keep slaves too. |
| Tu Quoque | Bob: "Smoking and alcoholism are well-known risk factors for cancer." Alice: "But you yourself smoke and drink a lot! You're wrong!" |
| Dogmatism | Your evidence of racism in the Church of the Royal Feline just shows that you don't clearly understand our beliefs. Your evidence is wrong, and the Church of the Royal Feline is flawless. To suggest otherwise is evil. |
| Appeal to Ignorance | Although we have proven that the moon is not made of spare ribs, we have not proven that its core cannot be filled with them; therefore, the moon's core is filled with spare ribs. |
| Appeal to Ignorance | She hasn't said she doesn't like you, right? So she's probably interested. Call her up. |
| Substituting Personal Authority for Evidence | Teacher: Believe me, this is the best school. |
| Guilt by Association | Secretary of State Dean Acheson is too soft on communism, as you can see by his inviting so many fuzzy-headed liberals to his White House cocktail parties. |
| Begging the Question | Public nudity is immoral because it is just plain wrong. |
| Tu Quoque | Some people defend capital punishment on the grounds that the state is killing people who have killed. |
| Appeal to Ignorance | You can't prove that there aren't Martians living in caves under the surface of Mars, so it is reasonable for me to believe there are. |
| Strawman | "A candidate citing the First Amendment, allows for an adult-only movie theater. An opponent claims the candidate supports pornography." |
| Begging the Question | I believe that Frosted Flakes are great because it says so on the Frosted Flakes packaging. |
| False Dilemma | If you don't vote for this candidate, you must be a communist. |
| Slippery Slope | Helping refugees in the Sudan today will force us to help refugees across Africa and around the world. |
| Appeal to Tradition | You can't wear a blush wedding dress. Everyone knows that wedding dresses are have always been white. |
| Red Herring | Moderator to Democratic Candidate: Did you vote for Barack Obama? Candidate: What I did six years ago is not relevant to the challenges facing our area today; we need to focus on our children's future, not the past. |
| Faulty Analogy | Getting a divorce is just like changing the tires on your car. When people's marriages get worn out, they should be able to change partners just like changing a worn-out tire. |
| Legitimate | Offshore oil exploration is safe in the Canadian Artic because precautions are taken to prevent accidents. To avoid catastrophic spills, Canada requires oil companies to be ready to drill relief wells within months of starting exploration. |
| Tu Quoque | How can you argue for vegetarianism when you wear leather shoes? |
| Legitimate | Drs. Hagedorn and Smith (2003) noted that the link between maternal caffeine consumption and irritability of newborns in rats is "quite strong" |
| Legitimate | Let's fix the tear in the tent flap now while it's small. Otherwise, it will just keep getting larger and let rain in. |
Created by:
MissSlattery
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