Eight Everyday Reasoning Errors By Stephen Law: Chapter Analysis

In the chapter “How to Spot Eight Everyday Reasoning Errors,” in the book Philosophy Gym by Stephen Law, the author points out common fallacies that people make every day. A fallacy is an error in reasoning, and reasoning is the use of argument (Law 267). Everyone uses logic and reasoning in their everyday lives, so this chapter is important because it can help people spot common reasoning errors, and help one not to make them. In this chapter, the author discusses the eight most common reasoning errors people use on a daily basis. The first one is the ‘Post Hoc Fallacy,’ which is a fallacy that most superstitious people use. An example of this would be if someone gave another a rabbit’s foot for luck on a test, and when they end up doing well

‘Designer babies’ would be an example of this, supposing that if we let people pick the sex of their babies that they would pick the hair color, eye color, etc., but there is no justification to supposing that this would happen. Another common fallacy is ‘False Dilemma’. The common argument for this is either A or B. Not A, therefore B. This argument is often true, but one needs to be careful because A and B can both be false, resulting in a fallacy. A fallacy similar to this is called Affirming the Consequent, an example being if A, then B. B. Therefore A. This is false because it is affirming the consequent, therefore making it false. The fifth most common fallacy is ‘Trying Only to Confirm.’ This is a favorite of politicians, as they will often use evidence to support their claims, when there could be even more evidence to disprove their claims. When testing a hypothesis, not only does one need to look for supporting evidence, but disconfirming evidence as well. The ‘Gambler’s Fallacy’ is another common fallacy discussed in this chapter. An example of this would