what is fallacious reasoning? why identify fallacious reasoning?

Fallacious Reasoning

What Is Fallacious Reasoning?

Why Identify Fallacious Reasoning?

Tips for Identifying Fallacious Reasoning

Use the Strategy

Practice the Strategy

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Fallacious reasoning means “false thinking.”

People reason fallaciously when they draw incorrect or false conclusions.

What is fallacious reasoning?

Such conclusions may go against logic, or they may be based on incomplete information.

You hurt your nose—you’ve been in a fight!

That dog wants to paint!


Fallacious reasoning means “false thinking.”

Listen to this girl’s argument for going to a concert.

Is she likely to convince her parents?



There are five main types of fallacious reasoning:

Hasty generalizations

conclusions drawn from weak or insufficient evidence

Your friend said this concert would have extra security. Obviously, this will be the safest concert your city has ever had.


Does extra security necessarily mean the city’s safest concert?What if the band’s reputation for rowdy fans is the reason for extra security?


False cause and effect

assuming that event A caused event B simply because A came first

After Ann went to a concert, she was invited to a party. Going to concerts will make me popular.



Did Ann’s attendance at the concert cause her to be invited to a party?

Or did Ann just happen to get invited to a party after she attended a concert?


Either/or fallacy

the assumption that a problem or situation has only one possible cause or resolution where there may be several

If your parents don’t let you go to the concert, then they don’t trust you.




Stereotyping believing that all members of a group share certain characteristics

All concerts are unsafe.




Name-calling attacking the person who’s making the argument rather than the argument itself

Your parents don’t want you to go to the concert. They obviously don’t know anything about anything.




Every day, people try to persuade you to do, buy, support, or believe something.

Why identify fallacious reasoning?

Many of these arguments sound good, and you may be tempted to go along with them.


[End of Section]

Why identify fallacious reasoning?

If you know how to identify fallacious arguments,

you can tell which arguments are good ones and which are not.



Look for logic, facts, statistics, examples, or expert testimony. Arguments based on these are usually sound.

Lacy Chang, President of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, says tourism was at an all-time high last year. “People love to visit our town. 85% of visitors said they would like to come back, and 20% said they were interested in moving here. One couple, the Robertsons, said, ‘We’ve been everywhere, and this is the prettiest spot we’ve found.’”



If you don’t find these elements, look for fallacies. First, look for hasty generalizations.

Rap music isn’t really music at all. It’s just someone muttering along to a bunch of noise. No musician with any talent would choose that style.

Next, look for false cause and effect.

Mr. Gutierrez was in a bad mood on Monday, and on Tuesday he gave us a quiz. He gave the quiz because he was in a bad mood.



Now look for either/or fallacies.

If you were really my friend, you’d try out for cheerleader with me.

Then look for stereotyping.

Never do business with a used car dealer. They can’t be trusted.

Finally, look for name-calling.

The people who support the clean water initiative are a bunch of radical dreamers with no common sense.


As you read “Edgar Allan Poe: His Life Revealed in His Work,” you’ll find this open-book sign at certain points in the essay: Stop at these points, and think about what you’ve just read. Do what the prompt asks you to do.

Stop and

think.

Follow the

prompt.

Example [End of Section]

Use the Strategy



1. “Every single story and poem he ever wrote is about disturbed, usually insane people” is a hasty generalization because the writer—

a. probably hasn’t read everything Poe wrote

b. is not of Poe’s generation



2. “The only way he could have known is by being insane himself” is another hasty generalization because—

a. the statement assumes we all agree on something

b. there is insufficient evidence to support the statement



3. By saying that Poe’s use of dashes and exclamation points suggests that a very nervous person or someone on drugs wrote the text, the writer is—

a. using false cause and effect

b. name-calling



4. By implying that we shouldn’t take Poe’s stories seriously because he was always drunk, the writer is—

a. using the either-or fallacy

b. name-calling

Now use your textbook to complete Practice 2.


The End

what is fallacious reasoning? why identify fallacious reasoning?

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