Example Of A Fallacy Essay

A fallacy is defined as a mistake in an argument that arises from defective reasoning or the creation of an illusion that makes a bad argument appear good. In layman terms, Dictionary.com defines a fallacy as a deceptive, misleading or false notion, belief, etc. It is a misleading or unsound argument. Both inductive and deductive arguments may contain fallacies and if they do, they are usually uncogent or unsound. Fallacies are divided into two groups which are formal fallacy and informal fallacy. A formal fallacy is one that may be identified by merely examining the form or structure of the argument. This type of fallacy is usually found in deductive arguments that have identifiable forms. Some of these are categorical syllogisms, hypothetical

Fallacies of weak induction refer to arguments in which the premises may be relevant to the conclusion, but supply insufficient support for the conclusion. Hasty generalization occurs when a general conclusion is drawn from an atypical sample. This is one of the most common fallacies seen in daily lives. For example, a college freshman lives in a dormitory with three other individuals from North Africa. Her experiences with her roommates lead her to believe that they are religious and caring people from North Africa. Therefore, she believes that everyone she meets who is from North Africa will be religious and caring. With this belief, her sample is too small and unrepresentative to sufficiently support her argument or opinion. It is impossible to infer from her experience with her roommates that all people from North Africa will be religious or caring. While this is a simple example, many people make hasty generalizations and form fallacious arguments or opinions on people, institutions, governments, products, etc. on a daily

Slippery slope occurs when the conclusion depends on an unlikely chain reaction of causes. In this fallacy, a person asserts that some event must inevitably follow from another without any argument for the inevitability of the event in question. For example, parents of middle school students did not agree to letting college students host extracurricular activities to teach their children sex education. They argued that if their children were taught sex education, then more and more students will be intrigued by the idea of sex and engage in sexual activities. This will then lead to a complete loss of morals, and soon the students will start getting pregnant. Rape and abortion will soon be rampant and in the end, the lives of the students will be ruined. This kind of "reasoning" is fallacious because there is no concrete reason or evidence to believe that one event must inevitably follow from another without an argument for such a claim. There remains the possibility that these chain of events may not occur the way the individual thinks it will, but they still make decisions and choices based on this erroneous reasoning. The study of fallacies is extremely important. By studying logical fallacies, we are able to analyze other people’s beliefs. Logical fallacies are everywhere in our society and cannot be avoided in our daily