Fallacies

When the author is trying to convince you of something:

• persuade

• author's purpose

• entertain

• describe

When the author presents you facts and statistics but they are false and misleading:

• logical fallacies

• rhetoric

• author's purpose

• logos

Which of the following is an example of "ad hominem?"

• Mary shouldn't be believed because people say she's a witch.

• Cheevers believes that people either believe him or that are witches.

• Mary Warren reminds the Proctors that she is an official of the court and can accuse anyone of witchcraft.

• Elizabeth had a doll, so the needle must be from her.

Which of the following is an example of "slippery slope?"

• One person has been accused of witchcraft, so eventually all of his/her acquaintances are also witches.

• Hale arrived just before the house burned, therefore he caused it.

• Mary misdirects the audience to change the subject.

• Danforth leads Mary to answer questions in ways that benefit him.

What is a fallacy?

• When someone cheats on someone else.

• When someone bases an argument off of faulty reasoning.

• When someone wins an argument because they had good reasons.

• When someone loses an argument because they had bad reasons.

You've got to teach the boys logic! If you don't teach them logic, they won't learn how to think, and they'll become hobos and die in prison! Don't you care about your sons? (Mother to Father)

• either/or

• post hoc ergo propter hoc

• faulty equivalence

• strawman

Bert: I've been learning about the Second World War lately. I found that America provoked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor. I don't think that was the right thing to do.

Jenny: Oh, so you are now taking the side of Axis? Do you think Germany and Japan were right to do what they did?

• false cause

• strawman

• ad hominem

• reducto ad absurdum

Interviewer: What do you think should be done about people who swear in public?

Man on the Street: I think it should be against the law.

Interviewer: Oh, I suppose you're against the right to free speech, then?

• ad hominem

• red herring

• strawman

• appeal to the popularity

You can buy the new Sensitivity perfume, or you can smell bad all day.

• false cause

• either/or

• strawman

• red herring

Identify the fallacy.

• red herring

• bandwagon

• ad hominem

• reducto ad absurdum