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09-23-2008, 04:57 PM #1
Logical fallacies
Here's a list of things to avoid doing when arguing. I've added a personal touch to the examples.
If I make the statement, "I believe the Gators will win the SEC championship this year," here are examples of several fallacies that someone might try to use as a counter-argument:
Accent: “I don’t know...all these stories we hear about backroom dealing, THEY just SUCK the life out of sports.”
Accident: “You live in Orlando. You must be a UCF fan.”
Ad Hominem: “You’re ugly. Therefore the Gators suck.”
Ad Hominem Tu Quoque (Personal Inconsistency): “I saw you wearing a Bulldogs hat last week, so you must really want the Gators to lose.”
Ad Nauseum (Repetition): “No they won’t. No they won’t. No they won’t. No they won’t. No they won’t.”
Affirming the Consequent: “If you don’t live in Gainesville, you can’t like the Gators. You don’t live in Gainesville, so you must not like the Gators.”
Amphiboly: “Maybe. They have good offense and defense.”
Appeal to Authority: “Britney Spears says Georgia will win.”
Appeal to Common Belief (Bandwagon): “No way. Eight out of ten people think LSU will win.”
Appeal to Common Practice: “Everyone else supports Vanderbilt, so you should too.”
Appeal to Emotion: “I’m much more comfortable thinking Auburn will win.”
Appeal to Fear: “If the Gators win, I’ll find out where you live and beat the crap out of you.”
Appeal to Novelty: “Mississippi State has never won the SEC championship, so it would be better for everyone if they won.”
Appeal to Pity: “The Gators always win! Don’t you feel bad for all the other teams who never win?”
Appeal to Ridicule (Ad Absurdum): “Ppbbphph, the Gators win? And maybe chickens will lead a bloody revolt against the poultry industry.”
Appeal to Tradition: “We’ve always given the title to Arkansas in the past, and that’s worked just fine. Why should we change?”
Argument from Ignorance: “Urban Meyer looked particularly angry in the last game, and Phil Fulmer looked particularly happy. So Tennessee must be a shoe-in for the title.”
Assertion: “No, they’ll lose because I say they’ll lose.”
Begging the Question: “The Gators are a morally inferior team, so they don’t deserve to win.”
Complex Question: “Will you be a pal and support Alabama?”
Composition: “The Gators are from Florida, and Florida is full of old people. So the Gators must all be 90 years old!”
Conspiracy Theory: “LSU is the better team, but you wouldn’t know that because of all the cheating and backroom-dealing going on in the high offices of SEC.”
Denying the Antecedent: “If they score 13 touchdowns, they will win. They did not score 13 touchdowns, therefore they lost.”
Division: “All UF students are jerks, so their football players must be jerks too.”
Ecological Fallacy: “Studies have proven the average Gator fan has below-average intelligence. You therefore must be an idiot.”
Equivocation: “I heard the Gators like to run up the score, so anyone who can slow them down will beat them.”
Exception Fallacy: “You predicted that wrong last year, so all Gator fans must suck at predicting sports.”
Excluded Middle: “They’ll either go 13-0 or 0-13.”
False Analogy: “The Gators wear orange jerseys. Oranges are squishy. Therefore the Gators are also squishy.”
False Cause: “The last time the Gators won, it was because the year ended in a 6. This year does not end in a 6, therefore they will not win this year.”
False Compromise: “Well, it wouldn’t be right for them to win or not win. So let’s find a way for them to kind of win.”
False Dilemma: “Well, the Gators can win, or we can cure cancer. Your choice.”
False Effect: “Just wanting them to win won’t make them actually win. So you shouldn’t want them to win.”
Four Terms: “All the Gators’ players are athletes. All gators are reptiles. So the Gators’ players must be reptiles.”
Gambler’s Fallacy: “Auburn hasn’t won in five years, so this must be their year!”
Hasty Generalization: “Two of them cut ahead of me in line at Subway last week, so they must all be jerks.”
Illicit Major: “All the Gators’ players are athletes. No smart people are atheletes. So all the Gators’ players must be idiots.”
Illicit Minor: “All the Gators’ players are athletes. All the Gators’ players have never won a championship. So all athletes must never have won a championship.”
In a Certain Respect and Simply: “The Gators have a kicker, so the entire team must be made up of nothing but kickers.”
Insignificance: “They only won their last championship because of that one field goal in the first quarter! Without it, they wouldn’t have won by 27!”
Logical Inconsistency: “The Gators are better than the Tigers. The Tigers are better than the Gamecocks. The Gamecocks are better than the Gators.”
Missing the Point: “Well, the Gators’ offense, defense and special teams are all far beter than any other team in the conference, so South Carolina must be going to win.”
Many Questions: “What makes you think that and who agrees with you and how are they qualified to judge and why should I believe any of you and what good will it do me even if I do?”
No True Scotsman: “A real college football fan would never support the Gators!”
Poisoning the Well: “Steve would agree with you, but of course, he’s a serial killer who dances around in a suit made of live puppies.”
Post Hoc: “The Gators’ won their last championship after 9/11. So 9/11 must have caused them to win.”
Red Herring: “The Gators? Sure, they...OH GOD, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!”
Slippery Slope: “If the Gators win, then we’ll have children killing their parents and delicious nachos magically turning into dog crap! Is THAT what you want?”
Social Conformance: “You won’t think that if you want me to keep hanging out with you.”
Strawman: “Then you want all the other schools in the SEC to lose their entire athletic programs.”
Style Over Substance: “No, Arkansas will win because they have better-looking jerseys.”
Undistributed Middle: “All the Gators’ players are athletes. All ping-pong players are athletes. Therefore all the Gators’ players must play ping-pong.”
Unrepresentative Sample: “I asked four people I met across the street from Doak Campbell Stadium, and found that no one actually thinks the Gators will win.”
Wishful Thinking: “I want South Carolina to win, so South Carolina is going to win.”
Further info: http://changingminds.org/disciplines.../fallacies.htm
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