Thank You for Arguing Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Summery

    Chapter 14 is all about how to spot and what is a fallacy. The book starts off with the very common concept of the seven deadly sins but he says the seven deadly fallacies. He also states that every logical fallacies come down to bad logic. There is a checklist you can use to determine if it is a fallacy. The checklist is:

1.Does the proof hold up?

2.Am I given the right number of choices?

3.Does the proof lead to the conclusion?

4.Who cares?

All of these questions should be asked anytime you feel like something doesn't add up? An ability to see a fallacy will help you protect yourself. Each step correlates to fallacies such as bad proof, wrong number of choices and disconnect between proof and conclusion. Bad choices include false comparison which is putting examples into wrong categories and bad examples and ignorance as proof. The wrong number of choices is where you are offering just two choices when there are actually more available. Disconnect between proof and conclusion is where the proof and conclusion are the same thing. The red herring is a distraction tactic that is part of the disconnect between proof and conclusion along with the wrong ending where the proof fails to lead to any conclusion.  The first deadly sin is the false comparison which is about putting two things right next to each other that don’t compare. A common fallacy is the all natural fallacy where it assumes that the members of the same family share all the same traits. Kids use this fallacy a lot when they say things along the lines of. “But everyone else is going...” and “ Mom the other parents are driving their kids there!”. This type of fallacy almost very works because of how absurd and over used it is. Clearly not every parent can drive their kids and everyone can’t go to the party. This is also can be considered reductio ad absurdum which is reducing an argument to absurdity. When you do this you become completely untrustworthy and you lose credibility. The second deadly sin is the bad example such as a hasty generalization. A hasty generalization is the argument that offers too few examples to prove their point. The third deadly sin is ignorance as proof which is more commonly known as the fallacy of ignorance. This fallacy states that what we cannot prove, then it must not exist or if we can’t disprove it,then it must exist. This fallacy does not go over super well with devout religious people or UFO believers. The fourth deadly sin is the tautology which is basically just repeats the premise. Logicians call this fallacy “begging the question” is a better term. You are basically saying the same thing twice and sometimes you need repetition and sometimes it is just too much. The fifth deadly sin is the false choice this is where it looks like you are talking about one thing b ut it really is multiple things at once.It is very deceitful to the audience but sometimes it is your only choice. You have to make the audience believe that two of more issues can get merged into one. The other one was the false dilemma which is when you think you have two choices but you really have a lot more. This is used a lot in politics where they show you one side and hide the other ones. The sixth deadly sin is the red herring which is where the speaker brings up a completely unrelated issue to distract the audience. This a very common and if not done right it can be pointed out in an instant. The seventh and final deadly sin is the wrong ending which can be known as the slippery slope where if we allow this reasonable thing to happen then it will inevitably lead to an extreme version of it. This chapter was very interesting with its talk of deadly sins and fallacies but in the end it really helped inform me of the mistakes people make.

Reflection

    This chapter was much longer than any from before but it was just as good. It really opened my eyes to all the types of fallacies and to protect yourself from fallacies you must know them. I also saw how many of them I use without even knowing it. Some of them I was already aware of such as the red herring because of how popular it is. It is also very easy and can be spotted just as easy if not done right, just like with anything. If you only do half of a job and not the other both halfs look false and deceitful and people don’t like that. Either do it with everything you have or don’t do it at all. You should also try and keep yourself updated on the latest fallacies to protect yourself because no one likes being tricked.