Preview

Response to "Love Is a Fallacy" by Max Shulman

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
338 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Response to "Love Is a Fallacy" by Max Shulman
After reading this short tale of two men in college, and one not-so-bright college girl, I have learned many things about fallacies. In our powerpoint presentation, it says that each generation is to learn these fallacies. This tale of the college students and the teaching of fallacies was in a much different generation than we are in now. Some fallacies I learned of in this story that were different from the ones stated in my course text were, Dicto Simpliciter, Contradictory Premises, Ad Misericoriam, Hypothesis Contrary to Fact, and Poisoning the Well.
The Dicto Simpliciter Fallacy is and argument based on an unqualified generalization. Contradictory Premises fallacy is when the premises of an argument contradict each other. Ad Misericoriam I thought was a little like Red Herring (aka Straw Man). In the story the author gave an example of how a man went for a job interview, and when asked for his qualifications, he gave him a sympathy speech. It was almost like he avoided the subject at hand. The next fallacy, Hypothesis Contrary to Fact, is when you have an untrue hypothesis and then supportable conclusions are drawn from this false hypothesis. The last fallacy learned in the story was Poisoning the Well. This was like making a generalization before anything has even happened for you to assume that.
In this story, this young man tries to use his intelligence to outwit his roommate who he had assumed was not a very bright guy. When trying to steal his roomates girl, who his roommate was what he had called a "faddist" and/or a bandwagon follower. His cleverness then turns to bite him in the butt when teaching Polly, the not-so-bright girl, logic. She turns out to learn these fallacies very well, and when he decides she's smart enough to be his girl, she has already decided to go steady with his roommate. This boy committed his own fallacies throughout the story and in the end, what goes around comes

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Fallacies serve an important role in persuasion, such as in the two documentaries arguing their views on fracking. An effective argument must have the strength to contradict the claims of the opponent in a non-aggressive but assertive manner. Unfortunately, fallacies can also be used in an overbearing manner that disenchants the viewer. Without logical fallacies in its various forms, persuasion would become a futile and rudimentary…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For this question I would first like to address the question of fallacies as while the speech has to do with a serious topic, I found the tone of the speech to be using the scare tactic technique. Sentences such as this “…or listening in the quiet of your home, to recognize that AIDS virus is not a political creature.” Using the word creature put the image of a monster or something from your nightmare into your imagination. Other scare tactics used would be “littering its pathway with the bodies of the young” and “If you do not see this killer stalking your children, look again.” These statements bring terrible over the top images to mind, with no other purpose other than to scare you into following the direction laid out by the speaker. Also such fallacies as the slippery slope are used. In the paragraph: AIDS is the third leading killer of young adult Americans today. But it won’t…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flippery Slope Analysis

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The first fallacy is an example of a Slippery Slope (Ad Nauseam or Ad Absurdum).…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The second fallacy that was enlightening was how minimum wage works. In this crazy year before the next presidential election, minimum wage has become a hot button issue. The problem with politics is that no one ever explains the economics of minimum wage. They just throw out policy ideas without actually informing the voting public on how they came to a conclusion. After learning about supply and demand of work force, it finally cleared up all the misinformation that I have heard. The greatest thing is that all the current candidates have not purposed a solution that was equal to what would actually solve the minimum wage issue. We learned that minimum wage is a government policy the artificially keeps wages higher than the market equilibrium…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fallacies are defined as deception, guile, trickery, the aptness to mislead, a deceptive or misleading argument or an error. Fallacies can be considered as defects that weaken your argument. Fallacies are used in written, oral and visual arguments by using different approaches to sway your way of thinking one way or the other.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    hum111 syllabus

    • 4190 Words
    • 33 Pages

    Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2008). The thinker’s guide to fallacies: The art of mental trickery and manipulation. Dillon…

    • 4190 Words
    • 33 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stephanie Coontz’s essay on “The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love” shows her opinion that the expectations of marriage are unrealistic based on different societies around the world in different time periods. For example in George Bernard Shaw’s theory, he believed that married was “an institution that brings together two people under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive and most transient of passions” (qtd. I’m Coontz 378). In our history all of the world marriage has been said to be a tool of survival. Emotional love played a small part in marriage and was even sometimes discouraged. Even in today’s world love is still no seen as a necessity of marriage.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    PhI 103Dq 4

    • 894 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One rich source of fallacies is the media: television, radio, magazines, and the Internet. The arguments you experience in your daily life (work, family, shopping) are another source of fallacies. Identify three distinct informal logical fallacies you have experienced in the media or in your life. Explain how the fallacies were used and the context in which they occurred. Then, explain what the person presenting the fallacy should have done to ensure that he or she was not committing a logical error. You must post to this discussion on at least four separate days of the week, and your posts must total at least 500 words as you address this discussion. This means that, in order to receive full credit, your first post must be completed by Friday at the latest (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday would satisfy the four-day requirement). However, we encourage you to get into the discussion early in the week and begin interacting with your classmates and professor. Remember to post on at least four separate days during the week.…

    • 894 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Alix Kates Shulman is an author whose work includes fiction, memoirs, and essays written predominately from her perspective as a feminist. Shulman hails from Cleveland, Ohio and is best known for the novel “Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen”. She is also listed in Who’s Who in America and in Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975 (Shulman, Psychology Today: Alix Kates Shulman). In 1970, Shulman’s document, “A Marriage Agreement”, was published in a feminist journal but became so popular and controversial that it was later reprinted in several other publications including Harvard University’s contract law textbook (Behrens). Shulman’s idea of introducing a concrete treaty into matrimony, above and beyond marriage vows, was completely unheard of at the time. She felt the only way her and her husband could live a more balanced family life was by following a strict contract that divvied every household responsibility equally between the two of them. Men and women typically assumed the gender roles society afforded them even when they themselves didn’t agree with the typecast standards. As Shulman and her spouse experienced, fulfilling these automatic roles can lead to a dissatisfying marriage (Shulman, A Marriage Agreement 304). Although I was too young to have been aware of the wave of feminism erupting through American history, I agree that men and women were created equal and should share the same human rights as well as household responsibilities. Although Shulman was very creative in balancing her marriage and ultimately achieving her rank amongst men in the working class, I disagree with her method. Learning the true meaning of love and marriage dissipates the need for feminism, especially in today’s society.…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fallicies

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages

    used in writing, oral, and visual arguments to sway individuals to their point of view. Fallacies are…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are no prerequisites for love and belonging, we are deserving of love and belonging simply by reason of existence. This is one of the abounding stunning ideas found in Brené Brown’s work. However, this was such a foreign idea to my way of being and of relating to the world that I had no salutation node towards it nor an A-ha moment. Only after repeated readings and listening did the clouds disperse. Theoretically I recognized its truth, but at some level I felt this truth did not refer to me.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Assumptions and Fallacies

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Fallacy derives from two Latin words; fallax (deceptive) and fallere (deceive). Fallacies are stratagems for gaining influence, advantage, and power (over the sheep of society). (The thinker guide to fallacies, by Dr. R. Paul and Dr. L. Elder). Fallacies are used in written and orally by national and international news, by governments, by politicians these types of media write speeches, news…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Fallacy is a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning, in other words, fallacies are caused by the technical flaws in reasoning. Heuristic is the well-known set of rule that intended to increases the probability of solving specific problems and encourage us to develop the rules of thumbs or shortcuts in reasoning.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Even though love and marriage was a major ideal in Shakespearean England, we can get views from Much Ado about Nothing which oppose this idea. From the two main ‘couples' in this play we can understand their different views on commitment throughout and because of this we as readers and viewers can learn about each relationship separately and watch the thoughts and ideas change throughout the play.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    LOVE IS A FALLACY

    • 378 Words
    • 1 Page

    “Love is a fallacy” tells us about the not-so-brilliant idea of a self-conceited law student named Dobie to steal the girlfriend of his stupid roommate Petey by luring him to accept the raccoon coat which all he ever wanted in exchange of dating and marrying his beautiful dumb girlfriend, Polly. He believes that he would become a lawyer someday and observes that successful lawyers are decorated with beautiful, graceful and smart wives. He believes that under his guidance he could smarten up Polly and will soon match his criteria. His overconfidence that he could change Polly to become an intelligent girl by teaching her the logic of fallacies backfired to him when he confessed his love for her. Unfortunately, Polly rejected his intentions to be his girlfriend by refuting his words with every fallacy that he taught her. In the end, Polly chose Petey because he has a raccoon coat.…

    • 378 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays