1. Living in the Media Age (Fallacies)
Chapter 1 (Unit A)
Living in the Media Age (Fallacies)

2. Essential Question What can we believe in the media?
How does the media deceive us?

3. Definitions LOGIC: The study of methods and principles of reasoning
ARGUMENT: A conclusion together with the premises that support it
PREMISE: set of facts or assumptions; reason offered as support for another claim
FALLACY: deceptive argument, fails to make a compelling case for its conclusion and may contain some error in reasoning. Fallacies are often persuasive

4. Common Fallacy: Appeal to Popularity
The fact that large numbers of people believe or act some way I used inappropriately as evidence that the belief or action is correct
Example 1: “Lots of people have that phone, it must be good”
Example 2:

5. Common Fallacies: False Cause
One event came before another is incorrectly taken as evidence that the first event CAUSED the second event
Example 1: I ate poptarts for breakfast and got an A on my test so poptarts make me smarter
Example 2:

6. Common Fallacies: Appeal to Ignorance
Lack of knowledge about the truth of a proposition to conclude the opposite
Example 1: You can’t prove that ghost don’t exist, so it’s reasonable that I believe they do
Example 2:

7. Common Fallacy: Hasty Generalization
Conclusion is drawn from an inadequate number of cases or cases that have not been sufficiently analyzed
Example 1: I’d like to use you as my TA, but you had a lot of suspensions in eight grade and statistics show that once a trouble maker, always a trouble maker
Example 2:

8. Common Fallacies: Limited Choice
Artificially precludes choices that ought to be considered; “you’re wrong, so I must be right”
Example 1: “You don’t like math so you must be junk at school”

9. Common Fallacies: Appeal to Emotion
Attempt to evoke an emotional response as a tool of persuasion
Example 1: There must be objective rights and wrongs in the universe. If not, how can you possibly say that torturing babies for fun could ever be right.

10. Common Fallacies: Personal Attack
Resort to attacking the person you are arguing with rather than arguing logically
Example 1: Don’t listen to Kaji’s arguments on studying, she’s an idiot
Example 2:

11. Common Fallacies: Circular Reasoning
Premise and conclusion say essentially the same thing
Example 1: The Bible is the word of God. We know this because the Bible itself tells us so.

12. Common Fallacies: Diversion (AKA Red Herring)
Attempts to divert attention from the real issue by focusing on another issue
Example 1: Accused of cheating a husband says, “nothing I ever do pleases you. I spent all last week repainting the bathroom and then you said you didn’t like the color.”

13. Common Fallacies: Straw Man
Based on a distortion of someone’s worlds or beliefs
If a teacher doesn’t really enforce the dress code because they believe other things are more important and another teacher says, “That teacher may not think girls dressing like prostitutes is a problem, but I do.”