Essay About Logical Fallacies And Obvious Example

Logical Fallacies
Logical Fallacies
A logical fallacy is a predictable flaw or fault that help people
assess the soundness of an argument. Fallacies try to convince you of
something without actually proving any reason to accept the
conclusion. They can happen accidentally, but sometimes people use
them on purpose to manipulate others. There are two types of logical
fallacies. Formal fallacies are known as “structural errors in deductive
logic” (Textbook). This means the syllogism would be invalid. An
informal fallacy is one that “persuades by means other than reason”.
For example, look at the article by Keith Gilligan in the April 2,
2008 Ajax News Advertiser, titled “Ajax wants to hear from residents
on corporate strategy”. This, is a type of Fallacy of Ambiguity
(incorrect reasoning rising from the imprecise use of language), known
as an amphiboly. A Fallacy of Amphiboly happens when the
construction of a sentence creates ambiguity. For example, “Most
stores carry jeans for people with 32 waists”. This statement could be
taken either of two ways. Either most stores carry jeans for people
that have thirty two different waists, or, most stores carry jeans for
people that have size thirty-two waists. Now lets look at the News
Advertisers Fallacy of Amphiboly, “Ajax wants to hear from residents
on corporate strategy”. This could either mean that Ajax wants to
hear from residents about their corporate strategy, or it could mean
that Ajax wants to hear from residents that are on top of the corporate
strategy. The way the sentence is constructed makes it difficult to
figure out which meaning was being implied, because the language
used was not precise enough. Another example of Amphiboly is when
the author opens the article by saying “Two open houses are being
held next month” Does Keith Gilligan mean that someone is going
to hold two houses that are open, in their hands? Or does he mean
that there will be a house, open for visitation, at two separate times
during the month? More precise language would make the intended
meaning much easier to derive.
Another kind of fallacy is a Fallacy of Relevance. A Fallacy of
Relevance is a fallacy that provides no real support for the conclusion.
One type of fallacy of relevance that is evident in Keith Gilligans article
is Appeal to Force. This happens when someone who is in charge, or
in power, makes statements to force a conclusion. For example, a
teacher may say “I am the teacher, and I say that Kim Campbell was
Canadas best prime minister ever, so Kin Campbell must be Canadas
best prime minister ever.” In the News Advertisers article, a very
obvious example of this is when Marilou Murray, the assistant to Chief
Administrator Officer says “Were moving along well”. This is an
example of Appeal to Force because since Marilou Murray is in a
position of power, she can claim that the new strategy is working well,