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Fallacies
1301 Philosophy

“There’s a mighty big difference between good, sound reasons, and reasons that sound good.” (Burton Hillis, cited in Laurence J. Peter, Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time, p.425.) A fallacy is an (as cited in “List of fallacies” from Wikipedia, pg. 1) “incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric resulting in a lack of validity, or more generally, a lack of soundness.” Knowing what defines a fallacy and how to dispute one can provide clarity on valid arguments. There are formal and informal fallacies that commonly used in arguments that are not sound. There are fallacies can be very difficult to detect because the reader has set beliefs and morals that they believe. Knowing that not all invalid argument are fallacies, fallacies are logical errors in an argument. Learning the different fallacies and what they look like will force the reader to clear all previous judgment. Detecting an argument that contains fallacies, the reader must find the fallacies that the arguer cannot explain with valid evidence and ask questions on why the arguer cannot explain the fallacy. One example of a common informal fallacy used is religion is appeal to faith, which is a rhetorical appeal. Appeal to faith is only using belief to prove a point. Faith is the belief that logical evidence is not needed. The whole point of a valid argument is a correct use of logic. If faith is not logical then, the argument can be disputed immediately. Appeal to faith seems to be one of the most used fallacies in religious debates. The reason appeal to faith is a fallacy, the fallacy does not state logic to prove or disprove the conclusion. The fallacy uses emotions to persuade then the actual reason. Formal fallacies use appeal to probability and conjunction fallacies. Appeal to probability is saying if something can go wrong it will. Conjunction fallacies assumed that multiple conditions are more probable than a single general one. By these fallacies alone, the reader can

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Equivocation: Relying on two meanings of a word to make your point; changing the meaning partway through the argument. "I'm not prejudiced. Some of my best friends are black." This argument takes advantage of different meanings of the word "prejudiced". On the one hand, it can mean actively or knowingly disliking people of a particular race or ethnic group. But on the other hand, it can also mean having under-the-surface, unconscious stereotypes. Most people probably have the second kind of "prejudice", even if it's subconscious. 


Ad hominem: attacking the person instead of the issue; name-calling. "Arnold Schwarzenegger is a muscle-bound lunkhead who doesn't know what's best for this state." This would be a personal attack on an individual that doesn't at all address any kinds of arguments or issues.

Mere assertion: Stating something but not giving any reason for it. "God doesn't exist." The most common atheist "argument" is no argument at all but simply a statement of fact. Of course, in the case of atheism, atheists are arguing from negative evidence, which is much harder than simply making the assertion.


Circular reasoning: Using the premise itself, or something that follows from the premise, in order to prove the premise. "I know God exists because the Bible says so and the Bible is the word of God." This argument is circular; in fact, nothing in the Bible can be said to "prove" the existence of God.


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