Instructions: Create an argument that commits the fallacy listed below. If necessary, provide the context for each of your examples.
1. False dilemma
2. Slippery slope
3. Argumentum ad baculum
4. Argumentum ad hominem, abusive
5. Reductionism
6. Anthropomorphism
7. Tu quoque
8. Equivocation
9. Argumentum ad populum
10. Red herring
11. Shifting the burden of proof
12. Petitio principii
13. Appeal to consequences
14. Complex question
15. Fallacy of composition
Instructions: In the following, identify the informal logical fallacy or fallacies committed.
1. Marriage is just natural. It is a fundamental component of human life and it springs from human nature. To oppose marriage is to oppose human nature.
2. Plato was one of the first great philosophers. Plato taught that democracy was inherently flawed. It follows then, that all philosophers are opposed to democracy, and one should be cautious when reading their works.
3. The day after I broke up with my girlfriend, my car would not start. I am sure that she sabotaged my car engine.
4. Why am I supporting candidate Mulhauser for governor? Because Chuck Norris supports him! Chuck Norris is a very successful actor and he must know what he is talking about.
5. My dog is so much smarter than your cat. Ignorance is written all over your cat’s face.
6. Seventy-three percent of all those surveyed outside the Bentonville Thrift-Mart opposed abortion. Therefore, it is safe to say that the majority of Americans oppose abortion.
7. I ate breakfast at the Greasy Spoon two years ago. The coffee was terrible. The Greasy Spoon is an awful restaurant.
8. Are you a college student or are you a drop-out?
9. Our new president is secretly a Socialist. How do I know this? Because my uncle Ricardo told me and my uncle is an honest man.
10. Boss: I need the report by Tuesday.
Employee: Why do you need it by Tuesday?
Boss: Because if I don’t have it on Tuesday, you’ll be out of work on Wednesday!
11. Christians say that God is love. Love is an emotion. So, God is simply an emotion.
12. Ken argues that the Iraq War is morally wrong. But, Ken is just bitter because his wife left him. He is just being emotional.
13. Keith: War is always caused by intolerant religious fanatics.
Owen: Really? What about the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War?
Keith: Exactly! You have proven my point.
14. After the young man read Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion, he took his own life. It is clear that Dawkins’ book caused the man to commit suicide. Furthermore, Dawkins should be held responsible for the young man’s death.
15. The Founding Fathers argued that all people are created equal. This is clearly untrue. Some people are better athletes than others; some are more intelligent than others. So, the Founding Fathers must have been wrong.
16. Either God created the world as stated in the book of Genesis, or life is a product of random chance. Both options cannot be true. If God created the world, then the Bible is true. If God did not create the world, then life is meaningless.
17. Bumper sticker: You can either save the trees or use plastic toilet paper!
Instructions: In the following, identify the informal logical fallacy or fallacies committed. Also, identify the type of fallacy committed, i.e., linguistic, omission, intrusion, built-in assumption, or causal.
1. It is perfectly ethical to experiment on animals. Animals are not human beings, so ethics do not apply to them.
2. Since we cannot come to a universal consensus concerning the definition of pornography, we should reject the entire discussion and move on to a more easily defined topic.
3. Communism is defined as the control of the masses by a fascist dictator who simply wants power and control. In Communist countries people have to wait in long lines for food and no one gets health care. Furthermore, the media is censored in those countries. For these reasons I reject Communism.
4. Laws against under age drinking are worthless. Teenagers are going to drink no matter what. It is time we get rid of under age drinking laws.
5. The only reason Professor Clark requires students to buy the book he wrote is so that he will make money.
6. I will not vote for a politician from the Bay Area. The last time I voted for a politician from the Bay Area, the economy collapsed!
7. Why should I listen to you when you tell me not to join the Army? You joined the Army when you were eighteen years old!
8. Lawyer: Why did you accept the bribe?
Politician: Well, everyone in Washington is a little corrupt.
9. Emma: I was abducted by aliens two years ago.
Kristopher: How do know that this is true? How can you be sure that it wasn’t a hallucination or a dream?
Emma: Well, prove that it isn’t true!
10. Professor to students: What do you think? Was Bill Clinton a great president or was he the greatest president?
11. There must be a universal, objective framework for ethics. If not, then everyone would just do whatever they pleased.
12. Crime is either caused by ignorance, a poor economy, or both. If ignorance is the cause, then a good education is the answer. If a poor economy is the cause, then Karl Marx was right and Capitalism should be replaced by a more just economic system.
13. I spent three years taking college classes and all I ended up with was a bunch of debt. I couldn’t even get a decent job afterwards. College is a joke.
14. Nashmin: I believe that rape is wrong and it should carry a life sentence.
Randy: Rape has always been a part of human existence. We find examples of it in every society that has ever existed. Since it is a natural part of life, it shouldn’t carry a life sentence.
Nashmin: That is not a good argument.
Randy: Well, neither one of us is really right. What is true for you isn’t necessarily true for me.
15. Susan: Why should I vote for Senator Clark?
Paul: Because everyone knows that he is the best candidate.
16. My philosophy professor said that religion comes from a deep fear of not being able to explain our natural world. So, religion is bunk.
17. Love is simply a chemical reaction in the brain.
Instructions: Identify the fallacy or fallacies committed in the following. If the example does not contain a fallacy, explain.
1. People who believe in God are like little children who believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. When will they outgrow these childish beliefs?
2. I reject Senator Williams’ proposal because he is an idiot!
3. Only Holmes and Watson investigated the crime. Either Holmes or Watson solved the crime. Holmes did not solve the crime. Therefore, Watson must have solved the crime.
4. We conclusively know that the Iraq War is immoral, because it is clearly unethical. And, anything that is unethical is certainly wrong.
5. Tests on Mr. Brown have not found any physical cause for his illness. Therefore, his illness must stem from a psychological disorder.
6. If we really believed in freedom and equal rights, then we would tear down all of the prisons in America. Inmates do not have freedom and equal rights.
7. The new car dealership occasionally has a good sale. If you go there to buy a car, they may or may not be having a sale.
8. It must be an excellent book. It has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for ten weeks!
9. Student: What should I do to succeed in your class?
Professor: The answer is simple: You need to get an A!
10. Detective: How do you know that Mr. Johnson is guilty?
Woman: I can’t think of anyone else who would have committed the crime, so Mr. Johnson must have done it!
11. Studying symbolic logic is necessary in order to think clearly and coherently. Therefore, you ought to study symbolic logic.
12. Harvey: It is obvious that people have free will.
Bruno: How can you prove this?
Harvey: This is proven by the fact that people freely make choices everyday.
13. Dogs and cats are mammals. Max is a cat and Rex is a dog. Therefore, Max and Rex are mammals.
14. Ever since the rise of the Internet in the nineties, the number of marriages in the United States has gone down. It is clear that the Internet is damaging traditional marriage.
15. Punk rock music is dangerous because it causes young people to question authority figures. If young people question authority figures, then it will be impossible for a true democracy to exist.
16. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Joan, who works at the mini-mart, has obviously never examined her life. Therefore, her life is worthless.
17. People who convert to Catholicism just do so because they have an unconscious need for order and structure.
Instructions: Answer the following questions about information presented in this book.
1. Which fallacy incorporates irrelevant information into the argument in order to distract?
2. Which fallacy presents the listener with only two options to choose from, when in fact there are more than two?
3. What type of argument assumes that the whole is identical with its parts?
4. What type of communication is often the easiest?
5. Which fallacy conflates truth with belief?
6. What type of argument contains an assumption that non-human things have human characteristics?
7. What types of fallacies involve the confusion of cause and effect?
8. Which argument simply restates its premise in a different way in its conclusion?
9. Which argument misrepresents another’s position in order to dismiss it?
10. Which fallacy involves the assumption that a prescriptive statement can be derived from a purely descriptive statement?
11. Which fallacy incorporates name-calling or slander in order to manipulate the listener?
12. What attitude simply refuses to consider alternate possibilities and interpretations?
13. Which fallacy uses an appeal to pity?
14. Which fallacy is also known as the “democratic fallacy”? Why?
15. What type of argument incorporates threats or scare tactics?
16. Which fallacy involves a charge of hypocrisy?
17. Which fallacy occurs when a word that has more than one meaning is used in two different ways in an argument?
18. Which argument appeals to something unknowable as evidence for its conclusion?
19. Which fallacy appeals to money or wealth?
20. Which fallacy occurs when one assumes that two consecutive but independently occurring events are causally related?
Instructions: Identify the valid argument forms in the following examples (from Appendix I: Five Argument Forms).
1. If I am late to work then I will lose my job. I am late to work. Therefore, I will lose my job.
2. Either we win the game or we lose. If we win, then we stay in Atlanta. If we lose, then we go home to Chicago. So, either we stay in Atlanta or we go home to Chicago.
3. If the professor is late, then the class will be canceled. The class is not canceled. Therefore, the professor is not late.
4. If the unexamined life is not worth living, then I’d better start examining my life. If I start examining my life, then I’ll need to question my beliefs. So, if the unexamined life is not worth living, then I’ll need to question my beliefs.
5. Either empiricists are correct or rationalists are correct. If empiricists are correct, then all knowledge is acquired through the senses. If rationalists are correct, then some knowledge is innate. So, either all knowledge is acquired through the senses or some knowledge is innate.
6. If Aristotle was Plato’s student, then he was familiar with Plato’s philosophy. Aristotle was Plato’s student. So, Aristotle was familiar with Plato’s philosophy.
7. Either Hegel was influenced by Marx or Marx was influenced by Hegel. Hegel was not influenced by Marx. Therefore, Marx must have been influenced by Hegel.
8. If we remain complacent, then we will be safe. If we fight for what is right, then we be persecuted. Either we will remain complacent or we will fight for what is right. So, we will either be safe or we will be persecuted.
9. Understanding logic is necessary if one wants to recognize valid and invalid arguments. If understanding logic is necessary, then one will study it. Studying logic can be difficult, but if one wants to recognize valid arguments, then one will study logic.
10. If it is permissible for human beings to hunt animals for sport, then it is permissible for extraterrestrials to hunt human beings for sport. Humans have a long history of hunting animals for sport. It is permissible for humans to hunt animals for sport. Extraterrestrials do not hunt humans for sport, but it is permissible for them to do so.
11. Either Smith died from a gunshot wound or he died from a knife wound. It is not the case that Smith died from a knife wound. Therefore, despite the evidence, Smith must have died from a gunshot wound.
12. If we continue to consume oil at our present rate, then we will run out by the year 2040. If we run out of oil by the year 2040, then we will need to design new technology or begin to use technology that does not rely on oil. So, if we continue to consume oil at our present rate, then we will need to design new technology or begin to use technology that does not rely on oil.
Instructions: Identify the fallacy or fallacies committed in these quotations.
1. Men should either be treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries—for heavy ones they cannot.1
Niccolo Machiavelli
2. There are no facts, only interpretations.2
Friedrich Nietzsche
3. Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a Democracy that did not commit suicide.3
John Adams
4. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opium of the people.4
Karl Marx
5. All religions, with their gods, demigods, prophets, messiahs and saints are the product of the fancy and the credulity of men who have not yet reached the full development and complete possession of their intellectual development.5
Mikhail Bakunin
6. If nature does not wish that weaker individuals should mate with the stronger, she wishes even less that a superior race should intermingle with an inferior one; because in such a case all her efforts, throughout hundreds of thousands of years, to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being, may thus be rendered futile. History furnishes us with innumerable instances that prove this law.6
Adolf Hitler
7. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.7
Winston Churchill
8. What they have to discover, what all the efforts of capitalism’s enemies are frantically aiming at hiding, is the fact that capitalism is not merely the ‘practical,’ but the only moral system in history.8
Ayn Rand
9. How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.9
Ronald Reagan
10. Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible. But I told the grand jury today and I say to you now that at no time did I ask anyone to lie, to hide or destroy evidence or to take any other unlawful action.10
Bill Clinton
11. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.11
George W. Bush
12. John McCain once opposed these tax cuts—he rightly called them unfair and fiscally irresponsible. But now he has done an about face and wants to make them permanent, just like he wants a permanent occupation in Iraq.12
Barack Obama
1. Jay, Antony. (Editor) Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. p. 250.
2. Ayer, A.J. & Jane O’Grady. (Editors) A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. p. 318.
3. Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, p. 3.
4. A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations, p. 285.
5. Bakunin, Mikhail. God and State. New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association. 1916. Chapter 2. From: www.marxists.org.
6. Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Translated by James Murphey. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1939. Chapter 11. From Project Gutenberg: www.gutenberg.org.
7. Churchill, Winston S. (Editor) The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches. New York: Hyperion, 2003. p. 446.
8. Rand, Ayn. Capitalism: The New Ideal. New York: New American Library, 1966. p. 8.
9. Remarks at the Annual Convention of Concerned Women for America, Sept. 25, 1987.
10. Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations, p. 97.
11. Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, Sept. 20, 2001.
12. Quoted by Answini Anburajan in “Obama: McCain Represents a Third Bush Term.” From: www.msnbc.com. March 20, 2008.