Stalking The Wild Fallacy

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Stalking the Wild Fallacy Last week we studied about argumentative essays, and how almost with exception, each of us, every day, argues for or against something with somebody. We learned that some argumentative essays declare the best solution to a problem. Others argue a certain way of looking at an essay. Whatever our exact purpose, our argumentative essay should be composed of a clear thesis and body paragraphs that offer enough sensible reasons and persuasive evidence to convince ours readers to agree with us. The class lecture on Monday was focused on how we must write argumentative essays with logic or our readers will reject our point of view. We went over a list of some of the most common logical fallacies. Professor Bush said a fallacy is, very generally, an error in reasoning. This differs from a factual error, which is simply being wrong about the facts. To be more specific, a fallacy is an “argument” in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. Ad Hominem (Argument to the Man): attacking the person instead of attacking his argument. An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. For example: Barry: “I believe that I should be able to obtain a hand gun carry permit because it could save my life in a dangerous situation.” David: “You are too young; you are nineteen years old and can’t even legally rent a car.” Barry’s opinion may be right regardless of his young age. Either/or is a fallacy when the writer tries to convince the readers that there are only two sides to an issue – one right, one wrong. For example: “Either you watch Super Bowl or you are not a good American.” It is irrational because it doesn’t

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