Logic Fallacy Questions.

[mithukrishna]

Hello Friends..

I am having trouble finding the answers of these questions about fallacies. Any one can help me to find out the fallacy involved in these questions then it will be appreciated.



Fallacy Identification.Identify the fallacy , if there is one, in each of the following arguments. Note: there needn't be a fallacy present.

The fallacies are AA=appeal to authority
AC=appeal to the crowd
AE=appeal to emotion
AF=appeal to force
AH=ad hominem
AI=appeal to ignorance
AM=ambiguous
BP=beside the point
BW=black and white
CI=circular
CQ=complex question
DC=division-composition
FS=false stereotype
GF=genetic fallacy
OP=opposition
PC=pro-con
PH=post hoc
SM=straw man


1.Drinking and smoking are not harmful for anyone. This is because Winston Churchill smoked cigars and drank whiskey every day, and he lived a long life.
2.Yogi Berra was a great baseball player, and he was Italian American. This means all Italian Americans are great baseball players.
3.Syracuse will win the basketball game today because coach Boeheim is wearing an orange tie. They always win when he wears his orange tie.
4.Bishop Berkeley's theory of metaphysical idealism must be false because he wasn't even an academic philosopher - he was a priest.
S.Venus is reported to have some irregular perturbations this month, and there is a lunar eclipse later this week. Therefore, people will be caused to act crazy this month.
6.The charges that I am guilty of extortion are patently false. Why do I think this? Because m; accusers are envious of my power and seek to defame my name!
7.Lion Forests, the bowler, claimed that there are objective moral truths. But this must be false because Forests is an acclaimed adulterer.
8.If you do not give me a 0 in this class so that I can pass it, then I will not graduate this semester. My family will be very disappointed in me, and I will have to explain to everyone why I am still attending this school. Hence, you should give me a D.
9.Manager to subordinate: "You should give me a good evaluation when the CEO comes and asks about my leadership in this company. If you don't then I will be sure to keep you from getting the raise you need to help pay for your wedding."
10.Martin Heidegger argued that Dasein is a Being that cares about its very Being. But, we can be sure that his argument is bad because he was a Nazi.
11.FOR should held responsible for Truman's dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because FOR was president before Truman, causing the latter to make those fateful decision in world history.
12.I can explain psychological illness: evil spirits are able to invade and possess people's mind: making people feel mentally ill and act unusually.
13.Every person I have met from Montana is a Republican; yep, all twenty of them are Republican. It's the darndest thing! All people from Montana must be Republican!
14.I can explain phsychological illeness; evil spirits are able to invade and posses peoples mind: making people feel mentally ill and act unusually.
15.Every Person I have met from Montana is Republican, yep all twenty of them are republican. It’s the darndest thing! All people from Montana must be republican.
16.Capitalism attempts to suck out of the working class. Therefore, capitalism is bad.

[memester]

How about tacking on this one ?

""In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive; galaxies, languages, and political systems all evolve. Biological evolution ... is change in the properties of populations of organisms that transcend the lifetime of a single individual. The ontogeny of an individual is not considered evolution; individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are inheritable via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportion of different alleles within a population (such as those determining blood types) to the successive alterations that led from the earliest protoorganism to snails, bees, giraffes, and dandelions." - Douglas J. Futuyma in Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates 1986

[Emil]

Originally Posted by memester

How about tacking on this one ?

""In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive; galaxies, languages, and political systems all evolve. Biological evolution ... is change in the properties of populations of organisms that transcend the lifetime of a single individual. The ontogeny of an individual is not considered evolution; individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are inheritable via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportion of different alleles within a population (such as those determining blood types) to the successive alterations that led from the earliest protoorganism to snails, bees, giraffes, and dandelions." - Douglas J. Futuyma in Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates 1986

You fail at derailing. Obviously his question has to do with logic but your post does not. This is even an attempt to derail it at your personal crusade against evolution/random.

---------- Post added 12-18-2009 at 07:49 PM ----------

Originally Posted by mithukrishna

Hello Friends..

I am having trouble finding the answers of these questions about fallacies. Any one can help me to find out the fallacy involved in these questions then it will be appreciated.



Fallacy Identification.Identify the fallacy , if there is one, in each of the following arguments. Note: there needn't be a fallacy present.

The fallacies are AA=appeal to authority
AC=appeal to the crowd
AE=appeal to emotion
AF=appeal to force
AH=ad hominem
AI=appeal to ignorance
AM=ambiguous
BP=beside the point
BW=black and white
CI=circular
CQ=complex question
DC=division-composition
FS=false stereotype
GF=genetic fallacy
OP=opposition
PC=pro-con
PH=post hoc
SM=straw man


1.Drinking and smoking are not harmful for anyone. This is because Winston Churchill smoked cigars and drank whiskey every day, and he lived a long life.
2.Yogi Berra was a great baseball player, and he was Italian American. This means all Italian Americans are great baseball players.
3.Syracuse will win the basketball game today because coach Boeheim is wearing an orange tie. They always win when he wears his orange tie.
4.Bishop Berkeley's theory of metaphysical idealism must be false because he wasn't even an academic philosopher - he was a priest.
S.Venus is reported to have some irregular perturbations this month, and there is a lunar eclipse later this week. Therefore, people will be caused to act crazy this month.
6.The charges that I am guilty of extortion are patently false. Why do I think this? Because m; accusers are envious of my power and seek to defame my name!
7.Lion Forests, the bowler, claimed that there are objective moral truths. But this must be false because Forests is an acclaimed adulterer.
8.If you do not give me a 0 in this class so that I can pass it, then I will not graduate this semester. My family will be very disappointed in me, and I will have to explain to everyone why I am still attending this school. Hence, you should give me a D.
9.Manager to subordinate: "You should give me a good evaluation when the CEO comes and asks about my leadership in this company. If you don't then I will be sure to keep you from getting the raise you need to help pay for your wedding."
10.Martin Heidegger argued that Dasein is a Being that cares about its very Being. But, we can be sure that his argument is bad because he was a Nazi.
11.FOR should held responsible for Truman's dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because FOR was president before Truman, causing the latter to make those fateful decision in world history.
12.I can explain psychological illness: evil spirits are able to invade and possess people's mind: making people feel mentally ill and act unusually.
13.Every person I have met from Montana is a Republican; yep, all twenty of them are Republican. It's the darndest thing! All people from Montana must be Republican!
14.I can explain phsychological illeness; evil spirits are able to invade and posses peoples mind: making people feel mentally ill and act unusually.
15.Every Person I have met from Montana is Republican, yep all twenty of them are republican. It’s the darndest thing! All people from Montana must be republican.
16.Capitalism attempts to suck out of the working class. Therefore, capitalism is bad.

Since this isn't an "post your homework and we do it" forum, I shall not do it for you. But since I am knowledgeable about the topic, I will help you if you can show me that you have tried to answer the questions yourself. Which one are you having trouble with?

[mithukrishna]

Actually it is not my homework.. I have taken some logic classes before. but i never studied much about fallacies. I was wondering i can do these question when i got it. But i couldnt.

[Emil]

Originally Posted by mithukrishna

Actually it is not my homework.. I have taken some logic classes before. but i never studied much about fallacies. I was wondering i can do these question when i got it. But i couldnt.

It still comes in the form of homework. I could probably answer all the questions for you, but why would I? If you need help identifying fallacies, then maybe you should take a look at each fallacy here.

[mithukrishna]

i have gone thru all that.. it is still confusing.. its ok if u dont like to help... thank you though.......

[kennethamy]

Originally Posted by mithukrishna

Actually it is not my homework.. I have taken some logic classes before. but i never studied much about fallacies. I was wondering i can do these question when i got it. But i couldnt.

Try them. .....................

[Zetherin]

You can't expect people to just give you the answers. You must attempt to do the work.

[Emil]

Originally Posted by Zetherin

You can't expect people to just give you the answers. You must attempt to do the work.

Mr. Mod. I tried to play nice this time.

1 is a fallacy of hasty generalization. I don't know which one that is in the list above, maybe "false stereotype"?

[mithukrishna]

• Appeal to Force: the reader is persuaded to agree by force
• Appeal to Pity: the reader is persuaded to agree by sympathy
• Appeal to Authority:the authority is not an expert in the fieldexperts in the field disagreethe authority was joking, drunk, or in some other way not being serious
  
• Ambiguity the same term is used with two different meanings
• Tu quoque
  Literally, you too. This is an attempt to justify wrong action because someone else also does it. "My evidence may be invalid, but so is yours."
• Straw Man
  Arguing against a position which you create specifically to be easy to argue against, rather than the position actually held by those who oppose your point of view.
• Post-hoc ergo propter hoc
  This fallacy follows the basic format of: A preceded B, therefore A caused B, and therefore assumes cause and effect for two events just because they are temporally related (the latin translates to "after this, therefore because of this").
• Ad hominem
  An ad hominem argument is any that attempts to counter anothers claims or conclusions by attacking the person, rather than addressing the argument itself. True believers will often commit this fallacy by countering the arguments of skeptics by stating that skeptics are closed minded. Skeptics, on the other hand, may fall into the trap of dismissing the claims of UFO believers, for example, by stating that people who believe in UFO's are crazy or stupid.

Fallacies*[The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]