1. Understanding Fallacy
Review to help with assignment 4
Understanding Fallacy

2. Purpose
The School of Computing and Software Engineering has program objectives. One of these objectives is:
Students recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning
This review addresses some of this objective.
Objectives for this assignment:
Notice fallacy reasoning
Demonstrate valid logical arguments and an invalid argument
Understanding Fallacy

3. Critical Thinking Skills for Identifying Logical Fallacies in Everyday Reasoning
The term "fallacy" does not mean false statement.
It means faulty reasoning.
So it is possible for an argument to contain all true statements and still be fallacious.
Informal Logical Fallacies
Many fallacies appear in everyday reasoning.
Logicians have categorized them in ways that are convenient for us to recognize.
We refer to these kinds of fallacious arguments as informal logical fallacies.
Understanding Fallacy

4. Some Common Informal Fallacies
Ad Hominem Argument
a logical fallacy in which an argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself
Slippery Slope Argument
a consequentialist logical device in which a party asserts that a particular result will probably (or even must inevitably) follow from a given decision or circumstance, without necessarily providing any rational argument or demonstrable mechanism for the likelihood of the assumed consequence.
Fallacy of Appeal to Authority
a logical fallacy that argues that a position is true or more likely to be true because an authority or authorities agree with it.
False Cause Fallacy
a cause is incorrectly identified. Presumed a real or perceived relationship between things means that one is the cause of the other.
Begging the Question
a fallacy in which the premises include the claim that the conclusion is true
Fallacy of Composition/Fallacy of Division
when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole
Fallacy of Ambiguity
When an unclear phrase with multiple definitions is used within the argument; therefore, does not support the conclusion
Appeal to the People (Argumentum ad Populum)
concludes that a proposition is true because many or most people believe it: "If many believe so, it is so."
The Many/Any Fallacy
This occurs when one reasons from the fact that many alternatives are acceptable to the claim that any alternative is acceptable
Ex) There are many ways for a travel agent to route someone between Savannah and Kalamazoo
It doesn’t follow that any way of sending someone between these cities is acceptable
The Virtuality Fallacy
An informal fallacy of combining two premises together to prove that something is not real.
In groups of two create a skit that shows an
argument using the assigned fallacy.
Understanding Fallacy