Fallacy identification exercises
- 1. Fallacy Identification Exercises Most of the following exercise examples are from Hurley’s Concise Introduction to Logic. Try to identify the fallacy each commits and be able to support your choice. 1. DeLay argues that stem-cell research is immoral. But DeLay is an ultra right-wing lunatic who’s incapable of thinking objectively. Obviously his argument is non-sense. 2. Barbara Striesand, Paul Newman and Julia Roberts are Democrats. Therefore all Hollywood stars are Democrats. 3. The ship of state is like a ship at sea. No sailor is allowed to protest orders from the captain. So no citizens should be allowed to protest presidential policies. 4. Eat your liver and carrots. Don’t you want to grow up to be big and strong like the X-men? 5. Poet Allen Ginsburg argued in favor of legalizing pornography. But Ginsberg’s arguments are just trash: He was a marijuana-smoking homosexual and advocate of the drug culture. 6. The garment workers have signed a petition arguing for better ventilation on the premises. Unfortunately, air conditioning is expensive. Air ducts would have to be run through the factory, and a massive heat-exchange unit installed on the roof. The cost of operating it in the summer would be astronomical. In view of all this, the petition must be rejected. 7. There’s a lot of talk these days about getting the pesticides out of our fruits and vegetables. But many of these foods are essential to our health. Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A, broccoli is rich in iron, and oranges and grapefruits have lots of vitamin C. 8. The position open in the accounting department should be given to Frank. He’s got six hungry children to feed and his wife needs an operation to save her eyesight. 9. President Bush argues that we should open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. But Bush just wants to reward his rich cronies in the oil industry, so we can’t take his arguments seriously.
- 2. 10. Whoever puts a knife in another person deserves togo to jail, so surgeons should be locked up. 11. You should read An Inconvenient Truth. It’s been on the N Y Times Best Seller list for 29 weeks. 12. Senator Barrow advocates increased Social Security benefits for the poor. It’s regrettable that he finds it necessary toembrace socialism. Socialism defeats initiative, takes away promised rewards and leads to inefficiency and big government. It was tried and failed in Europe. Clearly socialism is no good. 13. Animal rights activists say that animals are abused in biomedical research labs. But actually, pets are abused by their owners every day, and probably about 25% of pet owners neglect their pets. Some cases of abuse are enough to make you sick. 14. The Free-Lance Star carried a report about three teenagers arrested on drug charges. Teenagers these days are just a bunch of junkies. 15. If a car breaks down on the freeway, a passing mechanic is not required to stop and provide road service. Likewise, if a person has a heart attack on the street, a passing physician is not obligated to render emergency medical care. 16. There’s probably life on Mars, because Pat Robertson says God told him there is. 17. The secretaries have asked for lounge areas where they can take their coffee breaks. We’ll have to turn down this request. If we give them the lounge areas, next they’ll want a TV, and then snack machines, a spa and a swimming pool. We can’t afford all that. 18. Paris Hilton says that “Scary Movie” is excellent, so it must be worth seeing. 19. No one can prove that extrasensory perception doesn’t happen, so therefore it’s a legitimate theory. 20. When water is poured over a pile of rocks, it always trickles down to the very bottom. Similarly, when rich people make lots of money, we can expect this to trickle down to the less fortunate.
- 3. 21. “I see nobody on the road,” said Alice. “I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “Tobe able to see nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light.” Alice in Wonderland 22. I’ve always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off the shot tower, and spread himself out so that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say. Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn 23. But can you doubt that air has weight when you have the clear testimony of Aristotle affirming that all the elements have weight, including air, and excepting only fire? Galileo, Dialogues 24. Order is indispensable to justice because justice can be achieved only by means of a social and legal order. Ernst Van Den Haag, Punishing Criminals 25. “I would like to ask the learned gentleman, on which side he is descended from a monkey, his mother’s or his father’s? 26. We must believe in God’s existence because it is taught in the Holy Scriptures, and we must believe the Holy Scriptures because they have come from God. Descartes, Meditations 27. Your food section often features recipes with veal, and you say that veal is a wholesome and nutritious dish. I disagree. Do you know how veal comes to be on your plate? How a baby calf is separated from its mother, chained up in a dark enclosure so it can’t move, to limit its muscular development so it’s tender? And then it’s kept in the dark until it’s slaughtered for you. Letter tothe Editor, Cascade News
- 4. Choose youranswersfromthe followingfallacies Ad hominem Ad hominem Appeal to Pity Ad Hominem Appeal to Authority Appeal to Authority Appeal to Ignorance Appeal to Authority Appeal to Pity Band Wagon Begging the Question Begging the Question Equivocation False Cause False Dichotomy False cause or Begging the Question? False cause or Red Herring Hasty generalization Hasty Generalization Red Herring Red Herring Slippery Slope? Red Herring? Straw man Slippery Slope Weak Analogy Weak Analogy Weak Analogy