Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments - Report Example

Running Head: Making Strong Arguments Ad-populum Ad-populum is also referred to as bandwagon, appeal to popularity, appeal to the mob and democratic appeal. It is a type of fallacy that usually makes a claim to attract the attention of the majority and gain their support or favour. It gives various attractive reasons that will lure people into believing it (Damer, 2004). To some extent ad-populum can be viewed as seductive because the claims made promise to extend a feeling of belonging, safety and security. Such claims capture the attention of the uncritical thinkers who feel safe when they follow or believe in what the majority believes in. They always believe that the majority is always right and thus are doing themselves justice by believing in their claims (Damer, 2004). ICICI uses ad-populum to attract the public by claiming that the premier financial institution in the country not only offers excellent financial services but also value added services. ICICI claims that the institution offers love and affection into its financial services. It claims appeal for popularity because they assure clients that the institution will treat them like family members and friends. Therefore, by eliminating emotions in the ICICI advertisement the fallacy can be fixed. ICICI should focus more on advertising their friendly services by including facts to support their claims. Ad Baculam or Appeal to Force Ad baculum are claims made with the aim of threatening psychology or physical nature of people who do not comply with certain rules or regulations. These claims are made with the intention of making people accept certain conclusions without arguing. Logically speaking such conclusions or claims are usually irrelevant and do not make sense. This is because no evidence is usually offered to ensure that the threat will occur (Damer, 2004). However, it should be noted that many ad baculum claims are not false. Such claims are referred to as non-fallacious ad baculum. Such claims come into existence when the claims made are logical because the punishments or threat elaborated actually exists. Therefore, the main aim of the claim is not to force people to accept certain conclusions but to warn them. For instance in most countries it is illegal to drink and drive. If caught one is liable to face severe consequences. Therefore, a claim such as drunk drivers will be imprisoned is an example of a non-fallacious ad baculum (Damer, 2004). The statement made by the teacher during the orientation day is definitely a fallacy. The statement can be categorized as ad baculum because it threatens the students. The claim instils psychological fear to the students in that if they do not behave in class they will fail. The statement is illogical because grades are usually determined by the performance of the students in class and not by their behaviours. This is also evident in the course outlines which stipulate that marks will be awarded in accordance to student performance in the units and not in accordance to their behaviour. The teacher’s statement will be logical if the teacher assigns certain marks to the behaviour of the students. In that if the students misbehave in class they lose those marks which negatively affect their grades. This way the teacher’s statement will be non-fallacious because in reality students who do not behave in class will have bad grades. Post-Hoc Fallacy Post-Hoc fallacy is also referred to as a false claim. This fallacy is mostly associated with erroneous and superstitious beliefs. Such claims tend to explain results for a certain event. For instance, one can explain the results achieved in the first event are influenced by the second event which occurs consecutively. Such events usually occur in sequences that are not related. Therefore, such events should not define a probability of occurrence because most just occur through coincidental means. Thus they cannot be used to explain the results emanating by the first event. Post-Hoc fallacy relies on intuitions thus does not ultimately rule out other factors or reasons that could have caused the results in the first event to occur (Damer, 2004). Therefore, by blaming failure to the hatred that the teacher emanates is a post-Hoc fallacy because there are various reasons that could have led to failure, for instance nervousness in the exam room which makes one to forget what they had read especially if they had crammed. Thus to correct this fallacy the hatred emanated by the teacher should be given as one reason that could have caused failure. The claim should therefore be that one of the reasons that could have made me fail in the exams, despite thoroughly reading for it, might have been allocation of marks that I did not deserve because the teacher hates me. Fallacy of Amphiboly This fallacy spells out ambiguity that is statements or claims made can be interpreted into various meanings that are justifiable. Such statements usually raise absurd conclusions because they are usually misunderstood. Such statements are usually used by politicians with the aim of satisfying the public because each will interpret the statement in their own understanding. This ensures that politicians lure the majority to vote for them (Damer, 2004). The fallacy of amphiboly is also used when deriving oracles and fictions. This gives the oracles some sense of truth thereby validating its physic (Damer, 2004). Therefore, the statement made by Caltex is a fallacy of amphiboly because it can be interpreted into various justifiable meanings. For instance the statement could be asking the audience what motivates them or what is used to drive them. Therefore, this fallacy can be corrected by simply making the statement to be more direct in that it will not bring any confusion or misunderstanding. Instead of Caltex asking people what drives them they can simply say Caltex drives you. The latter statement definitely eliminates any chance of doubt or confusion. Fallacy of Complex Question Fallacy of complex question refers to wording of questions in a way that they will make people assume that something or a certain conclusion is false. Therefore, the answer of the question usually presents an implicit or explicit response. Fallacy of complex questions comprises of one or more questions which are answered by one conclusion. Such questions are usually considered as statements which have implicit truth values. In most instances fallacy of complex question is used to make people admit to situations or crimes that they have committed but do not want to acknowledge them (Damer, 2004). In the given situation, the question is asked in such a way that either if we answer the question in affirmative or negative, the writer will get their point proved. This is a technique of answering questions to get one in a win-win position. This is a fallacy because it does not tell you what people really want by answering the question and hence the arguments will only take us to pre-determined conclusion that the writer wants to prove. This fallacy can thus be corrected, if the question reflects the true aspirations of the people or what they really want. The question can be as simple as “Do people want continuity in Leadership?” The answer to this question will reflect what people really want, rather than the above question which gives a pre-determined conclusion. Fallacy of Affirming the Consequent Fallacy of affirming the consequent is commonly referred to as converse error. It is emanated when arguments that tend to explain the occurrence of a certain situation lead to the occurrence of the second situation. The argument is illogical because it is not definite that the conclusion drawn by the argument is valid. The second situation could have been caused by another consequence other than the first situation (Damer, 2004). Thomas L. Friedman report contains a fallacy of affirming the consequent. The writer argues that if China starts producing environmental friendly electricity, pollution problems would be solved. However, this argument denies the fact that it is not just China that should stop burning fossil fuels but the whole world to stop environmental pollution. This fallacy can be corrected if the writer changes his claim and includes the word “countries instead of “China”. Similarly, he should also state that it’s not just the electricity production that is contributing to the environmental pollution but there are various other sources that should be taking into account to effectively solve environmental pollution. Fallacy of Denying the Antecedent Fallacy of denying the antecedent is a type of propositional logic. Statements that depict fallacy of denying the antecedent usually comprise of a condition with a bi-conditional proposition therefore arising confusion. Such statements deny the truth of a certain condition. These statements explain that if a certain situation failed to occur then the second situation could definitely not have occurred (Damer, 2004). However, this does not justify the fact that if the first situation is false the second situation is also false. These statements provide other reasons for the occurrence of a certain situation other than the given reasons or the reasons that are believed to be true. Fallacy of denying the antecedent is mainly used by lawyers to prove the innocence of their clients (Damer, 2004). For instance the query about Michael Jackson’s health is a fallacy of denying the antecedent because the reasons given in the argument do not guarantee that he was healthy. Michael Jackson could have been suffering from psychological diseases or conditions. This fallacy can be corrected by providing other facts that are relevant about his last few days. One can improve the argument by looking at his medical reports and his lifestyle during the last few days. Comments about Michael Jackson’s health can only be made after both his medical and psychological conditions are assessed. Word Count: 1605 References Damer, T. E. (2004). Attacking faulty reasoning: A practical guide to fallacy-free arguments. 5th Edition. Australia: Thomas/Wadsworth.   Read More