Logical Fallacies
Round 2
Playing Dirty to Win an Argument
• “First remember that those who strive to
manipulate you always want something
from you: your money, your vote, your
support, your soul—something!” (19).
• Those who engage in “dirty” arguments do
not offer valid reasoning and sound
evidence (19).
How to inoculate against logical
fallacies:
• Ask key questions.
• Probe behind the masks, the fronts, the
fostered images, the impressive pomp and
ceremony.
• Take charge of your own mind and
emotions.
• Become your own person (remembering
this is a process and not a single action or
thought).
Accuse Your Opponent of Doing
What He is Accusing You
• This is a way to shift the focus away from
yourself; it is a move that does not have
integrity.
Assume a Posture of
Righteousness
• This fallacy assumes that the believe that
one’s intentions are pure of heart and is
often tied to begging the question/circular
reasoning.
• “American Exceptionalism” is an example.
This is the idea that if America is doing
something, then it must be inherently
“right.”
Call for Perfection
• If you remark that a proposal or claim should be
rejected solely because it doesn't solve the
problem perfectly, in cases where perfection isn't
really required, then you've committed the
perfectionist fallacy.
• Example:You said hiring a house cleaner would
solve our cleaning problems because we both
have full-time jobs. Now, look what happened.
Every week she unplugs the toaster oven and
leaves it that way. I should never have listened
to you about hiring a house cleaner.
Devise Analogies
• Many arguments rely on an analogy between two or
more objects, ideas, or situations. If the two things
that are being compared aren't really alike in the
relevant respects, the analogy is a weak one, and the
argument that relies on it commits the fallacy of weak
analogy.
• Guns are like hammers:they're both tools with metal
parts that could be used to kill someone. And yet it
would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of
hammersﾑso restrictions on purchasing guns are
equally ridiculous
• Tip: Identify what properties are important to the
claim you're making, and see whether the two things
you're comparing both share those properties
Question Your Opponent’s
Conclusions
Create Misgivings
• This one works by creating an “air” of
uncertainty about one’s opponent.
– “Obama is a Muslim.”
– “Palin doesn’t know what the Vice President
does.”
Defend or Deny Inconsistencies
Demonize His Side, Sanitize Yours
• Paint your opponent and his/her actions
negatively; paint yours positively. This can
easily be confused with double talk; the
key in this fallacy is to understand that in
demonizing his side, certain kinds of
words will be used: tyranny, violence,
subversion, plots, terrorism. In sanitizing
your own, such words might include:
civilization, human rights, honor, God’
comfort, etc . . .
Evade Questions, Gracefully
Hedge
• You are hedging if you refine your claim simply
to avoid counterevidence and then act as if your
revised claim is the same as the original.
• Samantha: David is a totally selfish person. Yvonne: I
thought we was a boy scout leader. Don’t you have to
give a lot of your time for that? Samantha: Well, David’s
totally selfish about what he gives money to. He won’t
spend a dime on anyone else. Yvonne: I saw him bidding
on things at the high school auction fundraiser.
Samantha: Well, except for that he’s totally selfish about
money.
Ignore the Evidence
Ignore Main Point
• This occurs when someone refuses to
engage in the main point. Skilled
manipulators are good at “moving” at
argument away from the main point to
something else without most people
noticing.
Attack Evidence
Insist Loudly on a Minor Point
• Is someone is insisting loudly on a minor point,
he/she is probably drawing attention away from
the MAIN point.
• Some could say that Palin’s focus on Obama’s
“connection” with Ayers was such an example.
To be clear: possible terrorist associations are
highly important to consider, yet in Obama’s
case, this information had been “out” for over
two years.
Hard-Cruel-World
• This is used to justify what is unethical.
• When a person is making this logical fallacy,
he/she is insisting that the world is a difficult
place to survive and that certain actions are
justified BECAUSE of this difficulty. This fallacy
is a way to excuse one’s one behavior (possibly
unethical) by saying anyone who is negatively
impacted by this behavior needs to quit
complaining and “suck it up.”
Sweeping, Glittery Generalizations
When someone makes positive
generalizations about a group of people.
Is there “sparkle” in the generalization?
Make Much of Opponent’s
Inconsistencies
• Every human being will be inconsistent
and/or hypocritical, at times. If an
opponent can only focus on your human
failings, then he or she is making much of
inconsistencies.
• Someone who is loudly making a big deal
out of his opponent’s faults might be
drawing attention away from his/her own.
Make Opponent Ridiculous
• “Lost in the Laugh”
• Opponents strive to create situations where the
other person looks ridiculous.
• For example, when Obama supporters passed
around the picture where it seemed John
McCain was grabbing Obama’s butt. The image
made McCain look ridiculous and had the
possibility of potential voters not taking McCain
seriously.
Oversimplify
• You oversimplify when you cover up relevant
complexities or make a complicated problem appear to
be too much simpler than it really is.
• Example:President Bush wants our country to trade with
Fidel Castro's Communist Cuba. I say there should be a
trade embargo against Cuba. The issue in our election is
Cuban trade, and if you are against it, then you should
vote for me for president.Whom to vote for should be
decided by considering quite a number of issues in
addition to Cuban trade.
• When an oversimplification results in falsely implying that
a minor causal factor is the major one, then the
reasoning also commits the false cause fallacy.
Raise Nothing but Objections
• This fallacy happens when an opponent
will not let a discussion move forward
because he/she raises continually
objections.
• This can easily be confused with Call for
Perfection, but in this one, an opponent
isn’t saying certain conditions have to be
met. Instead, the opponent simply says
no, again and again.
Rewrite History
• This fallacy occurs when someone
changes the course of history to meet
his/her needs and/or to justify a current
situation based on a CHANGED version of
a historical event.
Seek Your Vested Interest
• When a person cannot or will not consider
another point of view because doing so
would mean a loss of his/her own vested
interest (Haliburton).
• A person hides his/her true motives behind
high ideals.
Shift the Ground
• Shifting the ground means that a
manipulator is subtly moving the argument
away from the main point.
Shift Burden of Proof
• The idea here concerns who has the
responsibility to PROOF a claim. When
someone shifts the burden of proof,
he/she is making an opponent responsible
for the proof.
• "You cannot prove that God does not exist,
so He does."
Spin
• This occurs when a person (or news
source) presents information with a bias.
The information is presented in such a
way as to be “spun”.
• The principles of selection and slanting
(that we have discussed in class) are a
major part of spin.
• One way to counter spin is to find another
source about the topic.
Talk in Vague Generalities
• This fallacy occurs when a speaker uses
such vague terms he/she cannot be
attacked for anything specific that is said.
• From Critical Thinking, “Forget what the
spineless liberals say. It’s time to be
tough; tough on criminals, tough on
terrorists, and tough on those who belittle
our country” (34).
Double Talk
• Also called double speak. This occurs
when we use positive language for our
own activities and negative language for
our opponent’s.
• This fallacy often involves the use of
euphemisms, words that “code” meaning.
• For example, in a war situation, people
building called, “soft targets.”
Tell Big Lies
• “All skilled manipulators are focused on
WHAT YOU CAN GET PEOPLE TO
BELIEVE, not on what is true or false.
They know the human mind does not
naturally seek the truth; it seeks comfort,
security, personal confirmation and vested
interest” (Elder and Paul, 35).
• If you lie long enough, many people will
believe you.
Treat Abstract Symbols and Words
as if Real
• When an abstract idea is given a life of its
own. It is coupled with an action verb.
The flag marches on.
Freedom supports us.
Throw in some statistics
• Because people are often impressed by
numbers, manipulators will throw in
statistics without giving the source to try
and win an argument.
• Always ask for the source for statistics and
if you cannot (because you’re reading an
editorial or something along those lines),
be on the alert.
Use Double Standards
• Not judging two people or situations by the same
standards.
• I know we will hire any man who gets over a 70
percent on the screening test for hiring Post
Office employees, but women should have to get
an 80 to be hired because they often have to
take care of their children.
• (This is a double standard if it can be presumed
that men and women should have to meet the
same standard for becoming a Post Office
employee).