Strawmen/women, False Dilemma, Slippery Slope
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Fake quiz!/review
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Strawman arguments
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False Dilemmas
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Types of false dilemmas
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Slippery Slopes
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For next time: Read Chapter 7 pages 223-229
Fake Quiz!
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Diagram the following argument:
Since (1) we can conclude (2) and (3). 2 by itself
implies (4); (3) implies (5). (4) separately implies (6)
and (7). When combined, (5) and (7) imply (8). (6) also
implies (8). [Assume that (2) and (3) are separate
claims implied by (1)].
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Fake Quiz!
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What, if anything, is wrong with the following:
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(A) claims:
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1. Logical fallacies are sometimes the result of cognitive
biases
2. Studies have shown that becoming aware of cognitive
biases can reduce the degree to which you fall prey to them.*
3. :. Studying cognitive biases can help to reduce the degree to
which we resort to fallacious reasoning
*Assume that A cites articles from JSTOR for support
Fake Quiz!
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What, if anything, is wrong with B's response to the
argument by A?
(A): Sometimes, especially when there is a threat of
wide-scale bank failure, it's a good idea to
nationalize banks, at least temporarily
(B): So what you're saying is that you agree with
Hitler's economic policy? Are you crazy?
Fake Quiz!
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Scientists from a major drug manufacturer have run
limited trials on their new experimental depression
drug Plahseebow. After giving the drug to 5 patients
they discovered that 4 out of 5 report feeling 'a little
better' after taking the medication. The scientists
conclude that their new drug is improving patient's
mood and that it should be mass marketed.
What, if anything, is wrong with this reasoning?
Strawmen/women
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It's easy to beat up on a
person made out of straw:
they don't fight back!
We produce a strawman
argument when we argue
against an exaggerated or
clearly false position
instead of addressing an
actual argument or claim
Strawmen/women and other fallacies
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Strawmen arguments are often made in conjunction with
other fallacious arguments
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For example:
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(A): I believe that we should have the right to bear arms
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(B): What? So you think it's okay to walk around with
machine guns just because you're insecure and feel
threatened by everything? What a nut!
Note that B has not only strawmanned A's claim but also
committed both circumstantial and personal attack ad
hominems while leaving A's claim untouched
Strawman/woman and cognitive biases
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Strawman arguments are often made in the hopes that they
trigger your cognitive biases
We have seen the power of framing effects, for example:
how we are presented with information affects our beliefs
We have also seen how negativity biases can affect our
judgments of character and value
A strawman argument uses these biases to achieve its
persuasiveness (this is why it works) but it is still bad
reasoning
Example
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“I'm a very controversial figure to the animal rights
movement. They no doubt view me with some
measure of hostility because I am constantly
challenging their fundamental premise that animals
are superior to human beings.”*
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Why is this an example of a Strawman argument?
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*Moore and Parker. Critical Thinking. 10th ed. Page 218.
Dilemma
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A dilemma occurs when we are faced with at least two
different options which are both unattractive or
impossible
Recall the moral dilemma that we looked at in class:
'sheriff'
In the 'sheriff' case we had more than two options but all
of our available options involved sacrificing or
modifying one of two important moral intuitions
Showing that a claim leads to a dilemma can therefore
make for a persuasive argument to avoid the claim
Another Moral Dilemma
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A trolley is heading downhill
out of control
You are standing right in front
of a lever that can switch the
track the trolley is on
There are 5 people tied to the
original track, if you do
nothing they all die
There is only 1 person tied to
the other track
Do you switch tracks?
False Dilemma
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When we portray something as a dilemma when it really
is not one then we are guilty of the fallacy of false
dilemma (faulty dilemma)
Either A or B
A dilemma is faulty when there are more options available
than the ones presented (especially if the options not
presented are more attractive or sensible)
False dilemmas are often used in conjunction with
strawman arguments to persuade us in favor of one
obvious choice
False Dilemma Examples
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“You can choose to either switch to diet sodas or prepare
yourself for a lifetime of medical problems resulting from
too much sugar”
“If we don't accept the President's new bill then we are
essentially voting for a double dip recession”
“You succeed by working hard, if you don’t succeed then
you didn’t work hard enough.”
Notice that in all of these cases there are many other
reasonable options available that are not presented and that
one choice is obviously superior to the other
Slippery Slope Arguments
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If we vote in favor of new gun restrictions, pretty soon it
will be almost impossible to legally own any guns at all. If
that happens then only criminals will own guns and crimes
will go way up. You don't want that do you? Then don't vote
in favor of the new gun restrictions.
A slippery slope is a slope you want to avoid. Slippery slope
arguments work according to this principle: A implies B and
B implies C. C is terrible so let's not A.
The argument above is a slippery slope argument, do you
see why?
Avoiding the Slippery Slope
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Slippery slope arguments often imply a series of causal
relationships
A leads to B which leads to C and E then F etc
But this kind of argument becomes a fallacy when the
intermediate stages are not given arguments of their
own
If we are not given any reason for thinking that A leads
to B or that B leads to C then the argument is a fallacy
and relies primarily on belief biases to persuade
Slippery Slope Example
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We cannot relax the marijuana laws in this country
because marijuana is a gateway drug. If you use
marijuana then you are going to end up
experimenting with harder and harder drugs. We
cannot allow ourselves to create a society where
access to hard drugs becomes legal or common
therefore we must not relax marijuana laws
Why is this a slippery slope argument? What should
be done to improve it, if we wanted to improve it?
Vagueness Fallacy: Line-Drawing
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We said that concepts are vague when they admit of
borderline cases
A vague concept has clear cases of application, clear
cases of non-application, and then borderline cases
There is a fallacy that appeals to this feature of vague
concepts to support claims: the line-drawing fallacy
Line-drawing arguments claim that the existence of
borderline cases suggests that the concept itself should
not apply at all
Line-Drawing Fallacy
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(A) I can't possibly watch too much T.V. How much
is 'too much' anyway? Can you point to the minute
when I go from watching 'enough' to watching 'too
much'? No, you can't. If five hours is too much then
why isn't four hours and fifty nine minutes? So
you're wrong, I don't watch too much T.V.
Why is this a line drawing fallacy? Can we help to
respond to this fallacious argument by clarifying the
ambiguity? How?
Line-Drawing Fallacies (again)
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Most fallacies sound silly when made obvious but the linedrawing fallacy can affect important decisions
Line-drawing reasoning, for example, was behind the
acquittal of the police officers who were charged with
beating Rodney King
“...therefore, if we are to conclude that excessive force was indeed
used, then sometime during the course of the beating...there must
have been a moment—a particular blow—at which the force
became excessive. Since there is no point at which we can
determine that the use of force changed from warranted to
excessive, we are forced to conclude that it did not become
excessive at any time during the beating...”
For next time:
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Read Chapter 7 pages 223-229
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Study for midterm!