11 August 2009

Logical Fallacies...

1. The best place for a child to live is with his or her biological parents.

2. Unless gays are banned from the military, no heterosexual military personnel will be safe.

3. Making condoms available in high school is like giving a thief a license to steal.

4. His repeated failure to find a job indicates that he lacks ambition.

5. Either you support anti-abortion legislation, or you're not Christian.

Just a few logical fallacies as thought provokers. Adapted from the Prentice Hall Handbook for Writers (1995).

16 comments:

lawgur said...

Ive got a feeling you're preparing to teach a law class?? No?

Katadia said...

this was the first short story i remembered from esl: http://www1.asknlearn.com/ri_Ilearning/English/631/elang-ilearning/page3a.htm

boneman said...

Ah yes. The further arguments of doing what's right versus doing what's said to be right.
Quite a torrent to swim up at, but, dang! Red Salmon still do, despite pollution, fisherman, bears, and morons with guns (yeah. They're out there, blatantly shooting the fish as they leap upward against the current)(and I'm sorry to give a bad name to "morons", only the other choices of words are way too harsh for someone with a child in his household)
Wishing you all luck, my friend. It's a hard course to travel.

Rob Baiton said...

Lawgur...

Nope.

Reading a book, Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking (3rd Ed.) by Ruggero J. Aldisert.

Katadia...

Thanks for the link. What do you remember about it (just as a matter of interest)?

Boneman...

Way too deep for me :D

I guess it depends on what you believe in and how strongly you believe in it. That is not to say that it is never a hard course to travel, but rather the decisions that have to be made are generally clearer albeit not necessarily any easier.

Interesting analogy with the red salmon.

You comment sparingly, but the comments when they do come are worth the wait.

Thanks!

Katadia said...

I forgot the raccoon coat. I think hasty generalization is the only one I remembered. Good thing I didn't go to law school.

Rob Baiton said...

KD...

I don't know, you probably would have been good at lawyering too!

David said...

one more -

If you abhor abortion but condone the death penalty, you are a hypocrit

David said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David said...

I mean, hypocrite :-)

Rob Baiton said...

David...

Interesting thought.

What about the other way?

What if, for example, someone believes in the right of a woman to choose what is best for her with respect to abortion, including the right to terminate, yet simultaneously is against the death penalty?

Are you still a hypocrite?

David said...

Rob,
That would be introducing a completely different thing altogether which, in the course of arguing the case for my example being a logical fallacy or not, would be a red herring that could easily steer the train of thought right off track :-)
The two could not possibly be dealt with together as the fundamental assumptions of both parties would be mutually exclusive. Now that's heavy :-)

Rob Baiton said...

David...

Heavy indeed.

Although, the subject matter seemingly lends itself to heavy discussions, don't you think?

David said...

Rob, yes. It does deserve heavy discussion. I once had such with a colleague in my staff room in Jakarta who couldn't comprehend that I (playing devil's advocate of course, as I'm still not 100% certain myself) could be anti-abortion yet pro-death penalty (though not necessarily in such a black and white dichotomy) . It was an interesting discussion :-)

Rob Baiton said...

David...

Must have been an interesting discussion.

For the purposes of clarity. I am not pro-abortion. I am pro-choice. I believe, and believe strongly, that a woman must have the right to choose.

I am fervently anti-death penalty.

David said...

Rob,

And thus we differ greatly and no doubt we both begin with quite different assumptions about human life :-)

Rob Baiton said...

David...

Maybe and maybe not.