TFY, Chapter 10 summary- Fallacies: What's a Faulty Argument?

Before I started this class the word fallacy was new to me. I had never heard it before, or if I ever had then I wasn’t paying attention. I was surprised to learn that there are twenty different types of fallacies discussed in this book. A fallacy is a statement or argument that presents itself as soundly reasoned when it is not. Fallacies may be accidental or intentional, some are amusing and some are manipulative. Learning the names and the characteristics of the different fallacies will help people learn more about the rules for good reasoning, if we can learn to avoid using them, then we won’t be influenced by arguments containing them. Fallacies cause confusion and intentional manipulation. In this chapter twelve fallacies are described. They are broken up into three groups. The first group is: Manipulation through Language, 1.) Word ambiguity: seeks to gain an advantage in an argument by using vague or undefined words. 2.) Misleading euphemisms: hides meaning by creating words that make a less acceptable idea seem positive or unrecognizable. 3.) Prejudicial language: attempts to persuade through the use of loaded words that convey a bias. The second group is: Manipulation through Emotions, 4.) Appeal to fear: seeks to persuade by arousing fear. 5.) Appeal to pity: seeks to persuade by arousing pity. 6.) Appeal to false authority: seeks to persuade by citing a fake or inappropriate authority. 7.) Appeal to Bandwagon: seeks to persuade by appealing to the wisdom of popular momentum. 8.) Appeal to Prejudice: a.) Personal attack: attacks a person’s character on matters irrelevant to the issue. b.) Poisoning the Well: seeking to prejudice others against a person, group, or idea so that their arguments will not be heard on their own merits. The third group is: Manipulation through Distraction, 9.) Red herring: instead of proving a claim, diverts attentions into other issues. 10.) Pointing to another wrong: distracts attention from an admitted wrongdoing by claiming that similar actions went unnoticed or unpunished. 11.) Straw man: misrepresents or caricatures an opponent’s position, then refutes
the false replica created; also attacks a minor point in an argument, then claims this maneuver invalidates the whole argument. 12.) Circular reasoning: assumes what it is supposed to prove by reasserting a conclusion as though this claim needs no supporting reasons or by repeating the same conclusion in different words. After reading the chapter I came to the realization that although I hadn’t heard the word fallacy before this class I sure used them a great deal. For example, in the past I did not like to be called out on my wrong doings, so whenever I was in the wrong and my parents or boyfriend would called me out on it, a lot of times my response was “oh yah what about you, what about the things you do.” I was trying to divert the attention away from me and onto them. I knew I had done something wrong but hey who likes feeling cornered. I’ve also played the pity card so much that now when I fake cry to make my boyfriend feel bad he just laughs at me. I’m not the only guilty one though; he’s used some of the same tactics against me in the past. When I was younger it was hard for me to apologize because I felt like if I apologized then I was admitting guilt and essentially losing, and I hated losing, so I would always divert the attention from myself and onto someone else. As I get older and wiser it’s become easier for me to own up and apologize for my mistakes. Fallacies dirty up an argument, you fight dirty when you use fallacies.