Fallacies

Over Loaded Questions

 Group Members

 Rabia Khan (07.0256)

 Ahmed Shabeeh (07.0054)

 Exposition

 A word or phrase is "loaded" when it has a

secondary, evaluative meaning in addition to
its primary, descriptive meaning. When
language is "loaded", it is loaded with its
evaluative meaning. A loaded word is like a
loaded gun, and its evaluative meaning is the
bullet.
 Fallacy: Loaded Questions

 Your father: Did you enjoy spoiling the dinner for

everyone else?
 Your mother: Well, I hope you enjoyed making a fool
of me in front of all my friends.
 Your boss: Can you begin to appreciate this
wonderful opportunity I'm making available to you?
 Your significant other: Have you finally stopped
flirting with Dana?
 Your critical thinking instructor: Aren't you ashamed
about how little effort you've made in this class?
 Examples

 Have you stopped taking advantage of your

position as an advisor?"
 Answering simply "yes" or "no" to this question, as with
most loaded questions, makes it sound as though you are
admitting that you used to take advantage of your position as
an advisor; the only difference is that in one case you've
stopped taking advantage, and in the other case you
apparently continue to do so.
To answer a complex or loaded question, you need a complex
answer, such as: "I have never taken advantage of my
position as an advisor."
 Are you happy with the mess your
interruption has created?"
 Did you interrupt? Did the interruption create a mess?
Neither of these questions can be addressed by
answering "yes" or "no" in this case, because those
responses would seem only to affirm or deny that you are
happy. To answer complex questions, avoid simple
responses. Here, you might say, "I didn't mean to
interrupt, and I can't see that I caused any
messes, but if I did, inadvertently, then I am
certainly not happy about it."
 Prevention

 Are you happy with the job that the

repairmen have done?"
 There is only one question here, about your satisfaction with
the work performed. To make this into a loaded question, we
would need to make the logical subject more complex. For
example, "Are you happy to have been the one
who prevented the repairmen from finishing
the job?"
 Loaded Questions

 Many questions, also known as complex question,

presupposition, loaded question, "trick
question", or "plurium interrogation" (Latin,
"of many questions"), is an informal fallacy or logical
fallacy.
 Types of Complex Questions

 Loaded questions: Contain an incriminating

assumption that the questioned person seems to admit to if
he answers the question instead of challenging it. For
example, "Are you still beating your wife?" A loaded question
may be asked to trick the respondent into admitting
something that the questioner believes to be true, and which
may in fact be true. So the previous question is "loaded,"
whether or not the respondent has actually beaten his wife.
 Buttering-up: Actually asks two questions, one that the
questioned person will want to answer "yes" to, and another
that the questioner hopes will be answered with the same
"yes". For example, "Would you be a nice guy and loan me
five bucks?"
 Illegitimately complex question: "Who is the
King of France?" would commit the complex question fallacy
because while it assumes there is a place called France (true),
it also assumes it has a king (false). But since this answering
the question does not seem to incriminate or otherwise
embarrass the speaker, it is complex but not really a loaded
question.
 These two types of loaded questions are not
considered as fallacies. But since, both are
included in the types of loaded questions,
therefore, here’s a brief explanation.

 Implied Dilemma A form of “trick question” to impose the

outcome of a negative response to validate the dilemma. For
example, if a boss asks an employee, “Do you have a future here?”,
even if the recipient answers with a positive response, the outcome
of the positive response was never in the recipient's control to begin
with
 Legitimately complex questions A question that
assumes something that the hearer would readily agree to. For
example, "Who is the Queen of the United Kingdom?" assumes that
there is a place called the United Kingdom and that it has a queen,
both true.
 Classical Example
 It is committed when someone asks a question that
presupposes something that has not been proven or
accepted by all the people involved. This fallacy is often used
rhetorically, so that the question limits direct replies to those
that serve the questioner's agenda. An example of this is the
question
"Are you still beating your wife?"
 Whether the respondent answers yes or no, he will admit to
having a wife, and having beaten her at some time in the
past.
 Defense

 A good response to the question "Do you still beat your

wife?" would be either "I have never beaten my wife" or
"I have never had a wife." This removes the ambiguity of
the expected response, therefore nullifying the tactic. However,
the askers of said questions have learned to get around this
tactic by accusing the one who answers with "dodging" the
question. A rhetorical question such as "Then please
explain, how could I possibly have beaten a wife that
I've never had?" can be an effective antidote to this further
tactic, placing the burden on the deceptive questioner either to
expose his tactic or stop the line of inquiry.
THANK YOU..