1
II. IRRELEVANT
INFORMATION
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
IRRELEVANT
•
•
•
•
•
immaterial, unrelated, inappropriate
off-topic, extraneous, beside the point
The data is NOT germane to the present case.
One of the premises is not relevant to the conclusion.
Often diversionary.
Not related to
the argument at hand
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
DIVERSIONARY TACTICS
• They introduce ideas that are off-topic.
• Their data is NOT germane to the present case.
Diversions, Distractions
from the argument at hand
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
1) AD BACULUM:
• intimidation
• threat of harm:
– physical or psychological *
– economical, political, environmental
• extortion, blackmail
• Baculum:
– backed into a corner
– with your back against the wall
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of AD BACULUM:
• “If citizens don’t start patronizing downtown stores, then
businesses will be forced to close and then the city will be in
ruin.”
• “If you don’t (believe in God, convert to our religion,
illegalize that practice), then you’ll burn in Hell!
• “... In any case, I know your phone number and I know
where you live. Have I mentioned I am licensed to carry
concealed weapons?”
• “If we make abortions illegal, women will be getting
butchered again in back alleys.” (ad misericordiam, slippery
slope)
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
2) AD HOMINEM:
• *name calling
• personal attack, insults
attack the person, not the facts, issue, or argument/claim
• a way to avoid dealing with the issue (*diversion)
• Hominem:
“homo” = “man”
– species Homo habilis, erectus, neanderthalensis, sapiens
– foreign words for man: hombre
or hommé
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*PLEASE NOTE*
1.
A bad person does not necessarily mean a bad argument
(conclusion, point).
– (even a broken clock…)
2.
Accusations against the person are NOT a fallacy IF the
characteristics under attack are relevant to the argument.
– For example, if a politician is irresponsible & dishonest in
her/his personal life, then it is reasonable to think that s/he
may be the same in public office.
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of AD HOMINEM:
• “What does he know; look at the way he’s dressed.”
• “What can a priest tell us about marriage since he’s
never been married himself.” (AA)
• “My doctor is overweight, so why should I listen to
anything he has to say.” (Dr. Adkins)
• “I won’t see a Jayne Smith movie because she’s a drug
addict.” (private life vs. professional record)
• “Since you don’t support gay marriages, you must be a
homophobe.” (racist, sexist)
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of AD HOMINEM:
• “You claim that atheists can be moral — yet I happen to
know that you abandoned your wife and children.”
• “Hitler would be very proud of you” (in response to
practically any conclusion or decision).
• “Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to kill animals for
food. I hope you won’t argue otherwise, given that
you're quite happy to wear leather shoes.”
• “Of course you’d argue that positive discrimination is a
bad thing. You’re white.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
3) FALLACY of OPPOSITION:
• *name calling
• whatever comes from the opposition is automatically
wrong AND detrimental
• assumes nothing good could come from those we oppose
• Us vs. Them
• EXAMPLE: “Of course you’d say that, you’re an
atheist, hippie, teenager, Democrat ….” (a member of the
opposing group)
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
4) GENETIC FALLACY:
• *name calling
• assumes where the idea came from affects its validity
– country, paper, school
– usually geographic
• akin to elitism, snobbery
• we come from our genes,
– genes  genetic fallacy
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
4) GENETIC FALLACY:
*EXAMPLES:
• “The quality of those products is poor because they
come from China (any country).”
• “Cars made in the USA (any country) are junks.”
• “Because that idea comes from a community college, it
must be flawed, erroneous, or just plain wrong.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
5) GUILT by ASSOCIATION:
• birds of a feather stick together
• assumes a person’s behaviors must extend to their
friends, to those around them
*EXAMPLES:
• The Red Scare of the 1950s
• Obama attack ads: McCain with President Bush
• “Everyone who goes into a bar is an alcoholic.”
• “Sally’s promiscuous, so as her friend you must be, too.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
6) AD MISERICORDIAM:
• an abuse of emotions
– esp. fear, pity, guilt
• manipulation & obfuscation (*diversion)
• irrelevant
– evoke pitiful image or situation, without basis, to
distract from the issue
• relies wholly on pity (e.g.), instead of proof, evidence
*BAD PATHOS*
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of AD MISERICORDIAM:
• photos of kids: war, famine, AIDS, disaster
• “I couldn’t write my paper because my son, daughter,
mother, girlfriend, neighbor down the street was sick.”
• “I did not murder my mother and father with an axe!
Please don’t find me guilty; I’m suffering enough
through being an orphan.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
7) AD POPULUM:
•
•
•
•
appeals to the “populace”
biases & prejudices
appeals to tradition, halcyon days
tells people what they want to hear, what they want to believe
– “working the audience” or “pandering to the audience”
– trying to be “popular”
– NOT offering proof
• SLOGANS and SOUND BITES subvert the reasoning process
because they do not define terms
– which can mean whatever people want them to mean or
– whatever people say they mean
• what exactly are “family values”?!
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of AD POPULUM:
• sound bites, slogans, bumper stickers, tee shirts
• appeals to patriotism, change for change’s sake
• political cartoons, late-night-TV monologues or punch lines,
Comedy Central shows
• if it appears on a poster, tee shirt, bumper sticker
• “If guns are outlawed, then only outlaws will have
guns.”
• “Zippo. It’s the grand old lighter that’s made right
here in the good ol’ USA.…” (patriotism)
• “Freedom isn’t free.” “No blood for oil.”
• “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”
• “Just say no.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
8) BANDWAGON:
• Argumentum ad numerum
• right/valid because popular
– popularity over proof
– appeals or refers to NUMBERS
• jump on the bandwagon, join the parade
• do because others do:
– peer pressure, group or mob identity, conformity
• BUT you can be correct even if no one else agrees with
you (Copernicus, Columbus)
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of BANDWAGON:
#
• “Sixty million people can’t be wrong.”
• “Over 5 million Americans have already switched to
Grizzly Insurance.”
• “Last December, over 100 million people worldwide
tuned in to see a television phenomenon: don’t be left
out when Knucklehead TV returns in March.”
• “Everybody’s doing it anyway, so we might as well
legalize it (lower the age).”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
• *Similar to: Argumentum ad numerum AND to Argumentum ad
populum. It consists of asserting that the more people who
support or believe a proposition, the more likely it is that that
proposition is correct. For example:
– “The vast majority of people in this country believe that
capital punishment has a noticeable deterrent effect. To
suggest that it doesn’t in the face of so much evidence is
ridiculous.” Or “All I'm saying is that thousands of people
believe in pyramid power, so there must be something to it.”
• *Similar to: Appeal to Tradition: right/valid because it’s old;
since it’s lasted this long, it should continue. ex: “Since the Fiesta
Club has been an exclusive male-only society since its founding at
the turn of the 20th century, it should continue to exist in the same
manner & form.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
9) PLAIN FOLKS and SNOB APPEAL:
• valid/right because appeals to a
certain social class
• valid/right because it is popular with a certain class
– opposite of the Genetic Fallacy
• These are 2 different fallacies, but same “coin.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
9) PLAIN FOLKS and SNOB APPEAL:
Plain Folks Appeal:
• do because the ordinary person does
– (& avoid the pretensions of snobs)
– poor, working classes =
• unpretentious, modest, humble,
unspoiled, salt-of-the-earth
• Family Values, hard working,
“bootstraps,” patriotism
– False Dichotomy:
• Poor = simplicity, virtue, and
humility
• Rich = excesses, greed, and
immorality
– one of the boys, one of you, regular
guy, meat-&-potatoes
– keepin’ it real, down home, down on
the farm, boondocks
– appeal to poverty
Snob Appeal:
• do because rich/popular/beautiful do
– (*celebrity endorsements)
– rich, upper classes =
• refined, sophisticated, elegant,
classy, chic, stylish
• Money as a sign of superiority,
success
– the more expensive something is =
the better it is
– the more money a person has = the
better, smarter, more successful s/he
is
– uptown, bling, jiggy (originally),
looks like we made it or arrived
(success)
– appeal to wealth
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of PLAIN FOLKS & SNOB APPEAL:
• “Why pay fancy salon prices for a shampoo?”
• “Family values will return America to world prominence.”
• “Mark Twain said, ‘The clothes make the man. Naked people
have little or no influence on society.’ So, if you want to be a
winner, you’ve got to look like a winner, which means you need a
Rolex watch, Italian shoes, and a Lexus to be successful.”
• “Use the deodorant that professional athletes like Illiterate Joe
use.” (appeals to reader’s vanity)
• Joe the Plumber ads
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of PLAIN FOLKS & SNOB APPEAL:
• Think of 2 diametrically opposed musical genres.
• also known as: Argumentum ad Lazarum: The fallacy of
assuming that someone poor is sounder or more virtuous than
someone who's wealthier. This fallacy is the opposite of the
Argumentum ad Crumenam (which assumes they’re right
because of they’re wealthy). For example: “Monks are more likely
to possess insight into the meaning of life, as they have given up
the distractions of wealth.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
10) AD VERECUNDIAM:
• inappropriate use of authority
• assumes that because a person is an expert in
one field that s/he is an expert in another
• poor or irrelevant (“unwarranted”) credentials
– wrong field of expertise
– *celebrity endorsements
OR
• the use of an obscure, hard to find source
• hard to find = hard to refute
*BAD ETHOS*
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of AD VERECUNDIAM:
Bad:
• “I play a doctor on TV, so take this new OTC pill.”
• “Isaac Newton was a genius and he believed in God, so you
should, too.”
• “Dr. Housenick claims stem cell research for the development
of cures for various diseases is (is not) a worthy venture.”
• “Because my parents were unavailable, I asked my English
teacher for permission to stay out late.”
Good:
• “Dr. Stephen Hawking has concluded that black holes give off
radiation; therefore, there is a strong chance that they exist.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
11) RED HERRING:
• *diversion
• skirt the issue; obfuscate the truth
• use an irrelevant point or a side issue to lead away from
the issue at hand
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of RED HERRING:
• “Sure, the Chargers had a bad year, but what about the
Redskins.”
• “While it may be true that we withheld vital information
from the public regarding the dangerous side effects of
our products, while it may be true that we sought ways
to enhance our products with addictive substances, and
while it may be true that we profited immensely from all
this, have you taken into consideration the fact that we
have given bottled water to disaster victims and other
acts of community involvement?”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of RED HERRING:
• Past students have brought up crime shows, mysteries,
and even some horror movies that use the Red Herring
as a literary device to divert readers’/viewers’ attention
away from the real killer:
– They set up one character to be the criminal and then
(surprise!) it turns out to be someone else.
– A Pup Named Scooby-Doo even had a character called
Red Herring because of this:
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
12) STRAWMAN ARGUMENT:
•
•
•
•
a.k.a. Weak Opponent
a.k.a. Scarecrow Argument
*diversion, name calling
Think of a person beating up a scarecrow.
– not much of a fight
– setting up an easy target to make yourself look good
•
like:
– Tu Quoque
– Ad Hoc
– False Dilemma
– Reductio ad Absurdum
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
(A) EASY TARGET
•
invent or use a convenient opponent that can be attacked (or applauded)
without fear of retaliation
– an easy target
• Britney Spears, KKK, Nazis or Hitler, POTUS
– a label
• refer to a generic/vague group or label as proof, illustration
 no real person involved
• no true subject of the argument is identified
• no proof is offered
– (make statement as if it were an established fact without establishing it as
fact)
 label = unfair, inaccurate, manufactured solely for the argument
• stereotypes, overgeneralizations
– (*based on personal biases/prejudices)
 could be positive group:
– the heroic war dead, brave immigrants
 (**no specific person indicated**)
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
(B) EXAGGERATION or CARICATURE:
• set up merely to attack or to make yourself look good (right, smarter, stronger)
an exaggerated or caricatured version of your opponent's position,
• set up to attack your opponent’s weakest argument, one s/he is not even offering
– put words into the opponent’s mouth **
– like Reductio ad Absurdum
– EX: think Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley or Donkey
– EX: Responding to an opposing politicians assertion that the country
should no longer fund the “Star Wars” program, the junior
congresswoman from Missouri used the following Straw Man argument: “I
strongly disagree with Senator Smith’s argument to rescind our funding. I
can't understand why she wants to leave us defenseless like that.”
– EX: Not only is it a False Analogy and Loaded Language argument, but it
is also a Straw Man argument to exaggerate or twist the opposition’s
position in order to draw a connection or comparison between
s/he and Hitler.
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of STRAWMAN:
• Richard Nixon’s 1952 Checkers speech
– (weak argument)
• “kids/students today”
– (no real kid/student)
• “moral majority”
– (who are these people?)
• “welfare cheats”
– (do they really exist?)
• “liberal media”
– (is it really? all? proof?)
• “To be an atheist, you have to believe with absolute certainty that there is no
God. In order to convince yourself with absolute certainty, you must examine
all the Universe and all the places where God could possibly be. Since you
obviously haven't, your position is indefensible.” (weakest argument)
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
13) TU QUOQUE: (too kwo-kway)
• “you did it too”
• justify actions because accusers are supposedly guilty of
same crime
• 2 wrongs make 1 right (see AD POPULUM)
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of TU QUOQUE:
• “You did it too when you were my age.”
• quote: “It’s ok that I dis white people on my show
because they’ve been doing it to us for years.”
• “How can you criticize my driving when you’ve had five
accidents yourself?”
• “Why shouldn’t I cheat on my taxes? Everyone else
does.”
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
14) OVERSIMPLIFICATION:
•
•
•
•
•
like: Post Hoc, Overgeneralization
overlooks the complexity of an issue
*no critical examination of the issue
narrows complex issue down to single cause
BUT an issue has more than 1 side (more than 2 sides)
– legal, moral, religious, political, racial, philosophical...
• an effect always has more than one reason/cause
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IRRELEVANT INFORMATION
*EXAMPLES of OVERSIMPLIFICATION:
• “Kids are fat because they eat too much McDonald’s.”
• “The only reason we’re at war with Iraq is over oil.”
– An ad populum statement may say, “No Blood for
Oil!”
• “It’s as simple as that.”
• “Today’s college students can’t spell because
of spellcheckers on computers.”
END
PART 3B