INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC
ASSIGNMENT
SUBMITTED TO: SIR OMER
SUBMITTED BY: MOMINA AYAZ
3RD SEMESTER
GROUP F
10 EXAMPLES OF FALLACIES
1. Argument Ad Populum
Example of this is the supposed fact, as presented by news media and the
present Washington Administration that the country of Iraq had 'weapons
of mass destruction' which where a threat to the national security and
safety of the United States. In fact an entire war was based on these
'weapons of mass destruction' which have been found to most definitely
'not' exist. This use of the technique of 'Argumentum Ad Populum' has been
used in the past by the government but not to this great extent or to the
cost in terms of lives that these logical fallacies perpetrated. "
2. Red herring fallacy
In a newspaper, a business that was accused of creating unacceptable levels
of pollution argued that it is generating employment for thousands of people
and that it pays millions of dollars in taxes, it is using premises that are
irrelevant to the conclusion.
3. Hasty generalization
A United States Judge indulged in a very hasty generalization when in the
recent trial of an alimony case he interjected the remark that 'any man who
gives all his salary to his wife is a fool.' Many men not fools, but wise and
prudent, turn over their earnings to their wives as the most competent
stewards of the household."
("The Wife As the Family Treasurer," The Toronto Truth.)
4. Post hoc
iPods and Violent Crime
"The Urban Institute, a research organization based in Washington, has
released an interesting report that suggests that the proliferation of iPods
helps account for the nationwide rise in violent crime in 2005 and 2006."The
report suggests that 'the rise in violent offending and the explosion in the
sales of iPods and other portable media devices is more than coincidental,'
and asks, rather provocatively, 'Is There an iCrime Wave?' "The report
notes that nationally, violent crime fell every year from 1993 to 2004,
before rising in 2005 and 2006, just as 'America’s streets filled with
millions of people visibly wearing, and being distracted by, expensive
electronic gear.' "Of course, as any social scientist will tell you, correlation
and causation are not the same thing."
(Sewell Chan, "Are iPods to Blame for Rising Crime?" The New York Times,
September 27, 2007)
5. Ambiguity
"Leahy Wants FBI to Help Corrupt Iraqi Police Force"
(headline at CNN.com, December 2006)
Union Demands Increased Unemployment
(newspaper headline)
6. Ad hominem
"Do we live in an age of hatred? Or has the language of political insult simply
become more extreme? Tap the words 'I hate Gordon Brown' into Google,
and it comes up with 1,490,000 entries. . . .
"Here is one sentence, culled from a recent national newspaper leader . . .:
'They [British voters] know their Premier to be a neurotic, dysfunctional
mediocrity; an insecure Stalinist who worships power but cannot take a
decision; a moral and political coward who tries to fill the vacuum at the
heart of his leadership with blustering rhetoric and adolescent bullying.'
"Lampooned figures in the past . . . were, from time to time, enveloped in
crises every bit as damaging as those that confront Mr Brown. But never
were they subjected to such woundingly ad hominem attacks."
(M. Linklater, "The Age of Personal Vitriolic Abuse," The Times, May 16,
2008)
7. Equivocation
The sugar industry, for instance, once advertised its product with the claim
that "Sugar is an essential component of the body . . . a key material in all
sorts of metabolic processes," neglecting the fact that it is glucose (blood
sugar) not ordinary table sugar (sucrose) that is the vital nourishment."
8. Appeal to force
If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly-
enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear
weapon in less than a year.
"And if we allow that to happen, a terrible line would be crossed. Saddam
Hussein would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his
aggression. He would be in a position to dominate the Middle East. He would
be in a position to threaten America. And Saddam Hussein would be in a
position to pass nuclear technology to terrorists. . . .
"Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering
against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final
proof--the smoking gun--that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
(President George W. Bush, October 8, 2002)
9. Straw Man
In many circles, most notably the American media, the U.N. has become a
metaphor for the potential loss of American autonomy and power.
Characterized on CNN and Fox News as an ineffective, bumbling, racist,
corrupt organization run by evil foreign leaders intent on destroying
America, very little mention is made of the fact that the United States has
more control and influence in the U.N. than any other nation, picks-and-
chooses whether to pay attention to them, and the media largely ignores the
plethora of valuable, life-saving programs the U.N. is involved in. Instead,
the reference is often invoked to scare and provoke people into backing the
contention that the United States should not pay attention to any other
world leaders with whom they disagree.
10. Appeal to Pity
Hillary Clinton spoke of trying to break into the "boys' club" when the male
candidates were attacking her. The statement, made to a women's group,
quickly got out; in today's world, after all, no statement by a public figure
can be expected to be private, much less one made on a campaign stop.
However she intended it (most likely as a catch-phrase to pander to women
who feel underrepresented in politics), the interpretation that emerged was
that people should vote for Clinton because she is a solitary woman dealing
with all the nasty men campaigning against her. Once it emerged, the
campaign had to spin the comment quickly, and Clinton stated emphatically
that she feels she is being attacked because she is leading, rather than
because she is a woman. Clinton and her staff immediately recognized that
besides being fallacious, an appeal to pity on one's own behalf is counter-
productive for a politician.
