How Do We Identify Illogical Arguments?
Essay by Marry • May 27, 2012 • Essay • 939 Words (4 Pages) • 1,965 Views
Mere assertion
To make a mere assertion is a speech act in which something is claimed to hold with respect to sometime, or, of some person with respect to sometime. To demonstrate an example of mere assertion, let's take for example the "burden of proof" rule. If someone believes in religion, but isn't proclaiming their beliefs to be fact, does this affect the application of this rule?
And doesn't the mere assertion of either perspective as "true", warrant the rule? The religious can't show a "God", but those opposing religion can't say a mere lack of evidence "proves" the non-existence of any god(s) or goddess (es).
Ad hominem
Ad hominem is the act of attacking or finding reason to attack the person or facilitator that initiated the argument or claim instead of the argument itself. A good example of ad hominem would be Von Daniken's books about ancient astronauts. A lot of people feel as though Von Daniken's books are worthless because he was convicted for forging and embezzlement.
Red herring
Red herring refers to a misleading clue which draws attention away from the real evidence. For
instance, in 1970, a Green Beret medical doctor, Jeffrey MacDonald, apparently brutally and
horrifically murdered his wife and two young children in their beds as they slept. MacDonald
he was also supposedly a victim of the brutal attack claiming that it was by a bunch of
"hippies". The police spent months trying to track down this 'gang' of hippies, but couldn't find a
single clue to substantiate MacDonald's claims of their existence. Later, the police charged
MacDonald with the murders because they felt he was using the claim of the hippies to keep
them from realizing the real truth.
Pseudo-questions
The word pseudo means to be false or fake. Pseudo-question is the act in which a person that considers
themselves to be skeptic pretends to ask a question, which isn't meant honestly but often has underlined
intentions associated and can be easily disproven. I can recall a pseudo-question posted on a discussion
board from a previous class I took that stirred up quite the controversy. The question asked was "Who
feels safer with Bush and Cheney in the White House?" It is very clear that the individual that
posted this question had no intent of getting any positive answers to the question about Bush and
Cheney because it was sometime after the 9/11 attacks.
False cause
False cause is committed when the conclusion rests on the presumption of between two
phenomena, when in fact all that has been shown is a correlation. For instance, the school board
argues that our schools are in desperate need of physical repair. However the real reason our
students
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