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Common Fallacies

Much of the material contained here comes from the text “Social Problems and the Quality of Life, 12th ed.,” by Lauer and Lauer

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Common Fallacies

Dramatic Instance Retrospective Determinism Misplaced Concreteness Personal Attack Appeal to Prejudice Circular Reasoning Fallacy of Authority Fallacy of Composition Fallacy of Non Sequitur

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Fallacy of Dramatic Instance

Using one or two cases to support and entire argument.

The tendency to overgeneralize. Argument is based partly on fact. Exceptions do exist to generalized

statements. The need for systematic studies to see if

specific instances can be generalized.

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Example of Fallacy of Dramatic Instance

Blaming the victim as in the case of poverty or racial stereotypes.

Taking such stereotypes and generalizing based upon one or two instances.

The argument that people on welfare are “ripping off” the rest of us.

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Fallacy of False Cause

Arguing that one event was caused by another event merely because it occurred after that event.

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Example of Fallacy of False Cause

Every severe recession follows a Republican Presidency; therefore Republicans are the cause of recessions."  Accidental generalizations need not always be causal relations.

Mere succession in time is not enough to establish causal connection. E.g., consider "Since hair always precedes the growth of teeth in babies, the growth of hair causes the growth of teeth.

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Slippery Slope

Slippery slope is when you take one known fact and extrapolate it to an unrealistic extreme.

It avoids engaging with the issue at hand, and instead shifts attention to extreme hypotheticals. Because no proof is presented to show that such extreme hypotheticals will in fact occur,

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Fallacy of Straw Man

Straw man is when you set up the opposing side to look unreasonable by misrepresenting what they actually stand for.

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Example of the Fallacy of Straw Man

Animal rights activists believe that we shouldn't keep animals captive and make them do our will. They would have you abandon your pets in the wilderness.

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Example of Slippery Slope

Colin Closet asserts that if we allow same-sex couples to marry, then the next thing we know we'll be allowing people to marry their parents, their cars and even monkeys.

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Retrospective Determinism

Things could not have worked out any other way.

What happened historically had to happen that way.

If you view the past in terms of determinism you have little reason to study it.

It is an acceptance of the inevitable. It can relieve you of responsibility and

can legitimize a lack of concern.

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Example of Retrospective Determinism

“Go back through history, it’s traditional, there’s no special reason, no cause for it.”

“We can’t get away from it.”

“It has just always been this way.”

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Ad Hominem, Fallacy of Personal Attack

An argument made by attacking the opponent personally rather than dealing with the issue.

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Example of the Fallacy of Personal Attack

Regarding attitudes towards poverty, many blame the poor for their plight. People who are not poor are relieved of responsibility.

Government efforts to alleviate poverty are blamed for perpetuating it.

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Fallacy of Circular Reasoning, also Begging the Question

Using conclusions to support the assumptions that were necessary to make the conclusions.

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Example of the Fallacy of Circular Reasoning, or Begging the

Question

An argument is made that certain minorities are inherently inferior (to the majority) and that their inferiority is evident because they hold only menial jobs. One may reply that this is because of discrimination in hiring. Then the retort is that they could not be hired for superior jobs anyway because they are simply inferior.

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Fallacy of Authority

The illegitimate appeal to authority. An argument by an illegitimate authority. The authority may be an expert in a field

that has nothing to do with the issue. The authority may be a celebrity, but not

a legitimate authority.

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Example of the Fallacy of Authority

A television or movie star making claims about the value of a product. He/she may not have any knowledge of the product in question.

A first rate physicist is not necessarily an expert on race relations. His/her expertise is misplaced.

Also the authority may be pursuing a bias. Example is a corporate head arguing

against government regulation of such a corporation.

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Fallacy of Composition

The assertion that what is true of the part is true of the whole.

Assuming that what is true for the individual is true for the group.

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Example of the Fallacy of Composition

Seeing one or two homeless people who appear unwilling to work may cause you to assume this is true for all or most of the homeless. This is not necessarily true.

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Fallacy of Non Sequitur

Something that does not follow logically from what has preceded it.

Commonly found when people attempt to interpret statistical data.

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Example of the Fallacy of Non Sequitur

Our product is so good, it was even given away in celebrity gift bags. (Maybe true but not logically certain.

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