Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Logical Fallacies: Fallacies of Relevance

Personal attacks (arguments 'ad hominem' - is ambiguous) attempt to discredit a point of view by discrediting the person that holds it. The character of the person that holds a view, though, entails nothing about the truth of that view. Such arguments therefore commit a fallacy of relevance.
Appeals to consequences attempt to persuade someone to accept a position based either on the good consequences of their accepting it or on the bad consequences of their not accepting it. There is no guarantee, though, that the position that has the best consequences is true. Again, then, such arguments commit a fallacy of relevance.

 Examples:
Arguing via threat: "I deserve a good grade, wouldn't you agree? If you don't agree, I'm afraid about what might happen: I just can't control Bruno here".

Attempting to convince by appealing to the natural desire we all have to be included, or liked, or recognized. This type of fallacy breaks down into several sub-types.
Bandwagon: Of course God exists. Every real American believes that. Other related types: Appeal to Vanity; Appeal to Snobbery ("Of course you should cheat; all the cool people are doing it").
Appeal to Common Practice. Example: "Hey, everyone speeds. So speeding isn't wrong".
From Hypocrisy: You've claimed that smoking is bad for one's health; but you smoke too. 

No comments:

Post a Comment