Fallacies
Chapter 6 of The Brief Penguin Handbook talks about verbal and visual fallacies. Focusing on the verbal ones, please think of an example when you have seen/heard people use any of those fallacies. Tell us about it:
What did they say? Which fallacy did they use? Was it effective or not? Did anyone notice the fallacy and call them on it or not? In what situations are you likely to use the same fallacy?
Posted by hristova on September 02, 2004 at 10:37 AMHi;
The "fallacy example" I'm going to talk about describes a real situation in Cyprus.
When I was a child(i.e 8-10 years ago), children were used to want different kinds of toys (usually bikes) as their birthday presents; but since then a wave of change hit the next generation Cypriots.
Now; most of the children in Cyprus (not teenagers!) have cell phones and even most of them don't know how to use it. The most weird thing in that example is that parents actually know that their children don't really need a cell phone but they just buy.
The reasoning that the children have is nothing more than a "bandwagon appeal"... That is; "my friend has one, so you must get me one". The children actually know that their parents won't allow them to get a mobile if they say they need it; because they simply do not....
This kind of reasoning is widely used by people (and sometimes by me) when they don't have a valid reason for their demand. But; in the example above, the children usually get what they want. So the fallacy seems to be working!!!
See you tomorrow...
Halil SAKA
An hasty generalization example that has applied to me these last few days is that--Nancy has gone shopping every day after clsss so therefore this is a sure sign that she is a shopaholic. When my parent call me every night they are frustrated that I am not in my dorm room and I am out somewhere where I have spent money.
In reality, I have gone shpoping every day only for necessary things that I need for class and the upcoming days. I've gone to the Co-op store, the copy shop, and barnes and noble to purchase neccessary things for class. Though I did go to the mall, I only bought a dress for an upcoming wedding that I will be going to on Sat.
I was able to call parents out on that telling them they were making a generalization, but of course they did not believe me. When the credit card statement comes in they'll realize what I did spend and what on.
Posted by Nancy on September 2, 2004 06:13 PMThe fallacy that I will talk about is the one I know we all can relate to. Its Rationalization. To start off I was going out with one of my girlfriends right when I first meet her. And I have noticed in the weeks past that my close guy friends did not like her. So I did not want to hear it from them later that day so I told then a small little lie about what I was doing. I told them that I had to run to the other side of town to see my grandmother. But my grandmother does not live in El Paso. I have forgotten that I have mentioned to my friends about my 2 grandmothers that live in other cites. When I got back with my friends later that night. They asked me about it and I told them it was a third one that lived here. But they did not by it and I had to fess up.
Jonathan