summer

1. FALLACIES
How to detect erroneous statements
and arguments

2. FALLACY (…meaning)
• 7.0. Fallacy – error
in reasoning; a
product of one’s
failure to think or
argue correctly

3. Categories...
• Categories of Fallacy:
7.1.Fallacy of Relevance:
• 7.1.1. Appeal to Force/ Staff
(argumentum ad baculum) -- someone
in a position of power threatens to
bring down unfortunate consequences
upon anyone who dares to disagree
with a proffered proposition. (Ex. If you
do not agree with my political opinions,
you will receive a grade of F for this
course.)

4. Cont’n
• 7.1.2. Appeal to Pity (argumentum
ad misericordiam) -- tries to win
acceptance by pointing out the
unfortunate consequences that
will otherwise fall upon the
speaker and others, for whom we
would then feel sorry.
• (Example: I am a single parent,
solely responsible for the financial
support of my children; If you give
me this traffic ticket, I will lose my
license and be unable to drive to
work.)

5. Cont’n
• 7.1.3. Appeal to Emotion
(argumentum ad populum) --
relies upon emotively charged
language to arouse strong
feelings that may lead an
audience to accept its
conclusion

6. Cont’n
• 7.1.4. Appeal to Authority (argumentum
ad verecundiam) --involves the mistaken
supposition that there is some
connection between the truth of a
proposition and some feature of the
person who asserts or denies it; the
opinion of someone famous or
accomplished in another area of
expertise is supposed to guarantee the
truth of a conclusion. As a pattern of
reasoning, this is clearly mistaken: no
proposition must be true because some
individual (however talented or
successful) happens to believe it.

7. Fallacy cont’n…
• 7.1.5. Ad Hominem Argument -- we are
encouraged to reject a proposition because
it is the stated opinion of someone regarded
as disreputable in some way
• 7.1.6. Appeal to Ignorance (argumentum ad
ignoratiam) -- proposes that we accept the
truth of a proposition unless an opponent
can prove otherwise. (Example: No one has
conclusively proven that there is no
intelligent life on the moons of Jupiter.
Therefore, there is intelligent life on the
moons of Jupiter.)

8. Cont’n…
• 7.1.7. Irrelevant Conclusion
(ignoratio elenchi) -- tries to
establish the truth of a proposition
by offering an argument that
actually provides support for an
entirely different conclusion.
(Example:All children should have
ample attention from their parents;
Parents who work full-time cannot
give ample attention to their
children; Therefore, mothers should
not work full-time)

9. Fallacies of Ambiguity
• 7.2.1. Equivocation -- trades upon the
use of an ambiguous word or phrase in
one of its meanings in one of the
propositions of an argument but also
in another of its meanings in a second
proposition. Example: Really exciting
novels are rare; But rare books are
expensive; Therefore, expensive things
are really exciting novels.

10. Cont’n
• 7.2.2. Amphiboly -- can occur even
when every term in an argument is
univocal, if the grammatical
construction of a sentence creates
its own ambiguity. (Example: A
reckless motorist Thursday struck
and injured a student who was
jogging through the campus in his
pickup truck. Therefore, it is unsafe
to jog in your pickup truck).

11. Cont’n
• 7.2.3. Accent -- the fallacy of
accent arises from an ambiguity
produced by a shift of spoken or
written emphasis (Ex. Desert –
double meaning).

12. Cont’n
• 7.2.4. Composition -- involves an
inference from the attribution of
some feature to every individual
member of a class (or part of a
greater whole) to the possession
of the same feature by the entire
class (or whole). [Ex.: "My
philosophy course was well-
organized; therefore, college
courses are well-organized."]

13. Cont’n
• 7.2.5. Division -- involves an
inference from the attribution of
some feature to an entire class (or
whole) to the possession of the
same feature by each of its
individual members (or parts).
(Example: Tamaraws are now dying
out; Kolokoy is a Tamaraw;
Therefore, Kolokoy is now dying
out)

14. Exercises (1-10)
• What fallacies are involved in the ff?:
• 1) The suspect was begging for
forgiveness after he was apprehended by
the police in the snatching incident last
week along the University belt.
2) A certain Barbara Fields was arrested
inside a mall after she was identified as
the culprit after the victim told the
security guards that the person who took
her cell phone was wearing jeans and
black shirt..

15. Cont’n
• 3) The Barangay Captain was given
a stern warning by the Mayor of
the town not talk about the brawl
involving the latter’s two sons
during the town fiesta.
4) Manny Pacquiao would never
win in any Congressional election
because he is not highly educated
compared to his political rivals.

16. Cont’n
• 5) Where did the Governors bring the
money given them by the President during
the visit in the Palace?
• 6) All the apostles are faithful followers of
the Lord. Therefore, Judas Iscariot is a
faithful follower of the Lord being an
apostle.
• 7) The reason why the Bar topnotcher got
the plum was because she took her
undergraduate course from the Jesuit
university known for its excellent education.

17. Cont’n
• 8) Some Filipinos are servants or
domestic helpers in foreign lands.
Therefore, all Filipinos are servants
or domestic helpers.
• 9) She failed to win the World’s Quiz
Bee because she missed to pray the
novena to St. Jude.
• 10) The head of the state was mad at
his critics after the former read in
the news he was the butt of joke in
the latter’s party convention
END OF THE
TOPIC