LOGICAL FALLACIES

Prepared by: Arielle Arcangel Amirah Andres Trixie Magalong Hannah Velasquez

Relativist Fallacy
- also known as Subjectivist Fallacy - committed when a person rejects a claim by asserting that the claim might be true for others but is not for him/her. -This fallacy is particularly dangerous when applied to ethical issues.

Examples:
Jill: "Look at this, Bill. I read that people who do not get enough exercise tend to be unhealthy." Bill: "That may be true for you, but it is not true for me." Person A claims: "Believing in God leads to a spiritual lifestyle." Person B rebuttals: "Believing in God is understandably good for some people but not for me. Therefore, believing in God does not lead to a spiritual lifestyle."

Examples:
Many doctors are saying that smoking causes cancer, but I smoke and I don't have cancer, therefore the doctors are wrong. "Well, I think bullfighting is wrong, but other cultures don't think so, and who am I to tell them what to believe? If they think there is nothing wrong with bullfighting, then I guess it isn't wrong for them to have bullfights."

Examples:

Girl: I believe in ghosts. Therefore, they exist. Boy: I don't believe in ghosts. Therefore, they don't exist.

Argumentum ad Misericordiam
- a fallacy in which a person substitutes a claim intended to create pity for evidence in an argument. - This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because pity does not serve as evidence for a claim.

Examples:
Professor: "You missed the midterm, Bill." Bill: "I know. I think you should let me take the makeup." Professor: "Why?" Bill: "I was hit by a truck on the way to the midterm. Since I had to go to the emergency room with a broken leg, I think I am entitled to a makeup." Professor: "I'm sorry about the leg, Bill. Of course you can make it up." "I'm positive that my work will meet your requirements. I really need the job since my grandmother is sick" *videos

Slippery Slope Fallacy

-a fallacy in which a person asserts that some event must inevitably follow from another without any argument for the inevitability of the event in question -This "argument" has the following form:
Event X has occurred (or will or might occur). Therefore event Y will inevitably happen.

Examples:

Examples:

Examples:

You should never gamble. Once you start gambling you find it hard to stop. Soon you are spending all your money on gambling, and eventually you will turn to crime to support your earnings.

Genetic Fallacy A Genetic Fallacy is a line of "reasoning" in which a

perceived defect in the origin of a claim or thing is taken to be evidence that discredits the claim or thing itself. -a line of reasoning in which the origin of a claim or thing is taken to be evidence for the claim or thing. The form: origin of a claim or thing is presented The claim is true(or false) or the thing is supported (or discredited)

Examples:
Bill claims that 1+1=2. However, my parents brought me up to believe that 1+1=254, so Bill must be wrong.

Most Christians are believers because their parents were.

Examples:
My mommy told me that the tooth fairy is real. Therefore, the tooth fairy is real. Youre not going to wear a wedding ring, are you? Dont you know that the wedding ring originally symbolized ankle chains worn by women to prevent them from running away from their husbands?

Argumentum ad Populum
- popular appeal or appeal to the majority - bandwagon appeal - a claim is accepted as being true simply because most people are favorably inclined towards the claim.

Examples:

"Since 88% of the people polled believed in UFOs, they must exist." *videos

References

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ http://9gag.com http://www.tektonics.org/guest/fallacies.html