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62 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
what does background knowledge affect? |
conflicting claims |
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expert testimony |
Good reason to believe something |
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Experts |
Credentials, field experience, reputation, pro accomplishments |
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Fallacy of appeal to authority |
appeal to a non expert / expertise, popularity, tradition, |
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Dr. Eddings, a prize-winning physicist, claimed in his latest book thatcancer could be cured through the power of the mind alone. Anyone whohas such impressive physics credentials must be right. |
Appeal to authority. Wrong expert... |
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Personal Experience |
-Usually a good reason to believe -Doubt when there are internal/external impairments (weather, concussion, sick, tired, bad lighting, etc.) -very trustworthy people can still be right even if there are minor impairments |
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Gamblers Fallacy |
-previous events do not have any outcome on the probability of a current, random event -losing streak doesn't mean you're "due" for a win |
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Interpreting Evidence (3 ways) |
1. Resisting contrary evidence 2. Conformation bias 3. Availability error |
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Resisting Contrary Evidence |
-Mind is already made up -discounting other evidence |
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Conformation Bias |
-Only look for evidence we want to hear/see |
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Avaliablility Error |
Relying on memorable evidence instead of looking for the truth in facts... |
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I think I’m a really great tennis player, but keep losing my matches. Maybe one timeI was sick — another time, the court was all wrong, and some other time, there wassomething wrong with my shoe. |
Resisting contrary evidence |
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I really want to skip my evening class to go out with my friends, so I ask those friendswhether they think it’s a good idea. (Of course they say yes.) |
Conformation bias |
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Your favourite hockey team generally wins 3/4 of their games in the regular season.They are a quarter of the way through the current season, and have lost every game.You decide that they must be due to win the rest of their games. |
Gamblers fallacy |
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Tony was once bitten by a dog when he was young. So he sees it as extremelyimportant that he teach his daughter how to approach strange dogs safely. |
NOT avaliability error... Nothing wrong here even though it was memorable, he is just saying we should be careful... |
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Genetic Fallacy |
Arguing on whether or not a claim is true or false based on its origin... |
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Ad Hominem Fallacy (3 Variations) |
1. Abusive 2. Circumstantial 3. You Too (Attacking person instead of argument...) |
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Abusive Ad Hominem |
Attacking opponents personal traits instead of argument |
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Circumstantial Ad Hominem |
Trying to discredit opponents argument by citing certain circumstances... |
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You Too Ad Hominem |
Trying to make opponent sound like a hypocrite. |
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Prof. Richardson tells us that Carnap was a very important philosopher.But he’s wrong. He only says that to sell more copies of his book on Carnap.Actually, Carnap was a minor figure. |
Circumstantial ad hominem... Better argument would have been Prof. Richardson tells us that Carnap was a very important philosopher.But you might want to ask another professor for an opinion, since Prof.Richardson has a book about Carnap that he’d love to sell more copies of. |
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There was an article in Slate magazine arguing for the benefits of the Af-fordable Care Act in the US. But it’s such a typically left-wing publicationthat you can’t believe what it says about this kind of issue. |
Genetic fallacy |
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I hate my professor, so I’m pretty sure he’s wrong about everything. |
Abusive ad hominem |
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How can you say that vegetarianism is a better lifestyle choice than eatingmeat? I’ve seen you eat meat plenty of times. |
You too ad hominem |
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When do you need to be extremely clear on the conclusion? |
With Ad Hominem and Genetic Fallacys... |
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Fallacy of composition |
Invalidly transferring from parts to whole |
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Fallacy of division |
Invalidly transferring from whole to parts |
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1. Every hair on my dog is black. Therefore, my dog is black. 2. Sodium is poisonous when eaten. So is chlorine. Salt is sodium chloride,so it must be poisonous to eat. |
1. not a fallacy 2. composition fallacy |
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1. That class is entirely full of philosophy majors. Therefore, everyone takingthat class is a philosophy major. 2. Victoria is over 100 years old. So all of its buildings are over 100 years old. |
1. not a fallacy 2. fallacy of division |
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Fallacy of equivocation |
When an argument uses one word in two different ways |
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You shouldn’t complain about having to carry that crate of beer. It can’tbe heavy. It’s a light beer. All men are rational creatures. There are often cognitive differences be-tween women and men. So there’s no reason to expect women to be ratio-nal. |
Fallacy of equivocation |
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Appeal to Popularity |
must be true because a lot of people believe it... |
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Appeal to common practise |
must be true because a lot of people do it... |
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Appeal to tradition |
must be true because people have been doing it for a long time... |
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Cell phone use can’t be harmful for you. Everyone has a cell phone these days. |
appeal to common practise |
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Provincial polling indicates that many BC residents think BC Ferries shouldbecome a private company. So that’s probably the best thing for the government to do. |
appeal to popularity |
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The US has had a two-party system for most of its history, which means it must be the right system for them. |
appeal to tradition |
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Appeal to ignorance |
Stating something is true because it hasn't been proven false |
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Nobody has ever been able to disprove the existence of extraterrestrial life. So there must be aliens out there. Nobody has ever been able to prove that there is extraterrestrial life. Sowe must be alone in the universe. |
Appeal to ignorance |
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Burden of proof |
Side of an argument responsible for proving their claim... Example: For instance, when we say that someone is innocent until proven guilty, we put the burden of proof on the prosecution. NOT A FALLACY |
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Appeal of emotion |
Tries to CONVINCE you of something by invoking emotions (sympathy, fear, pity, guilt... etc.) |
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1. If I don’t make a sale today, I’m going to get fired from this job, and you’rethe only customers I’ve had all day. Surely you agree that this television isthe best TV on the market! 2. If I don’t make a sale today, I’m going to get fired from this job, and you’rethe only customers I’ve had all day. Please help me by buying something! |
1. appeal to emotion (pity) 2. appeals to pity, not a fallacy however |
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1. Someone holding a knife: “Give me your wallet!” 2. Someone holding a knife: “I deserve your wallet!” |
1. appeals to fear, not a fallacy though 2. fallacious appeal to emotion |
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Red Herring Fallacy |
introduces an irrelevant but somewhat related issue... a distraction |
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A lot of people say that eating locally is better for the environment, butthey’re wrong. Many imported cheeses are delcious and amazing. Andthere’s so much exotic fruit that only grows in tropical climates. You’d bemissing out if you didn’t try them. |
Red Herring Fallacy |
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Straw Man Fallacy |
Distorting/weakening opponents argument before arguing against it (the new 'straw man' argument is in place and is weaker) |
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Suppose someone is responding to an editorial that says a needle exchange should beopened in downtown Victoria. They say: “I can’t believe what I just read in the paperabout the needle exchange. You can’t hand out drugs and encourage their use amongaddicts and the general population, and expect there to be no bad consequences.What a terrible idea.” |
Straw Man Fallacy |
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Fallacy of begging the question |
When the conclusion assumes the premise... explicitly or implicitly... circular arguments beg the question a lot |
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That inductive argument is strong, because the premises make the conclusion more likely. |
Begging the Question fallacy (strong premise and likely conclusion here are equals) |
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Foucault was the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. All the smartestcontemporary scholars agree that his work was the best this century hasseen. We know they must be the smartest, since they are clever enough tounderstand that Foucault was the greatest. – Foucault is the greatest, because the smartest scholars say so. – They are the smartest because they say Foucault is the greatest. |
begging the question |
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False Dilemma (3 types, all same name) |
1. Unsound disjunctive syllogism 2. Unsound modus ponens (affirming the antecedent) 3. Invalid disjunctive syllogism ( Either A or B.B. Therefore, not A.) |
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Either you get an A+ in all your classes, or you’ll be stuck in a dead endjob for the rest of your life. So you’d better get all A+’s, since you don’twant to be stuck in a dead end job. |
Unsound disjunctive syllogism |
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If you don’t get an A+ in all your classes, you’ll be stuck in a dead endjob. Since you’re not getting straight A+ grades, you’re going to be stuckin a dead end job. |
Unsound modus ponens |
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You can support universal healthcare or a balanced government budget. Since youwant a balanced budget, you have to come out against universal healthcare. |
Invalid disjunctive syllogism |
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Slippery Slope Fallacy |
Cites an unlikely chain of causes and effects as support for theconclusion. If A then B. If B then C. If C then D. [etc] D is undesirable. Therefore not A. |
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1. The school district should deny the request for bilingual education in French.Because if you provide French programs, you’ll have to provide Spanishones. And then you’d have to provide Portuguese. And then all kinds ofother requests that couldn’t be accommodated. 2. It’s unreasonable for professors to give content warnings for disturbing ma-terial in their classes. Once a few professors start giving these warnings,students will begin to request them from their other professors, and thismay lead to a cascade of caution among the rest of the faculty. Last year,seven humanities professors from seven colleges penned an Inside HigherEd article stating that this movement is already having a chilling effect ontheir teaching and pedagogy. 3. If you get bitten by a wild animal, you should get a tetanus shot. If you don’t get the shot, you might develop the disease, and that can be fatal. |
1 and 2. Slippery Slope Fallacy 3. Not a fallacy |
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Hasty generalization |
Faulty generalization—it may be based on a sample whichis too small or unrepresentative. |
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The deer around UVic are not afraid of people. So deer as a species mustnot be afraid of people. |
hasty generalization |
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Faulty Analogy |
Faulty argument by analogy—perhaps because it cites too fewsimilarities between the things compared, or irrelevant similarities. |
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Eddie and Skipper are both black and white dogs rescued by the sameorganization. Eddie loves to swim. So Skipper probably loves to swim aswell. |
Faulty analogy |
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Studying Philosophy in university will never get you anywhere in life. Thatguy who works at McDonalds was a Philosophy major, and look at whathappened to him. |
Hasty generalization |
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My sister said she read a study saying that a glass of red wine every dayis good for most people. But I don’t believe it. I mean, if people drank toexcess every single day, everyone would be too hung over to get to work inthe mornings. |
Straw man fallacy |