Western Logic Informal Fallacies- Fallacies of Relevance for NET, IAS, State-SET (KSET, WBSET, MPSET, etc.), GATE, CUET, Olympiads etc.
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Complete Video at - Western Logic Informal Fallacies: Fallacies of Relevance (Philosophy)
Informal Fallacy
- Informal fallacy occurs when there is a mistake or an error with the content of the argument.
- Informal fallacies concern themselves with the content of an inductive argument where the content is irregular, insufficient or ambiguous due to which it fails to provide a logical conclusion.
- Informal fallacies are numerous in number but they can be best understood when arranged in four main heads.
- They are;
- Fallacies of Relevance
- Fallacies of Defective Induction
- Fallacies of Presumption
- Fallacies of Ambiguity
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Fallacies of Relevance
- They occur when there is no connection between the premises and the conclusion.
- They are most common and frequently occurring fallacies in arguments, speeches, etc.
- In other words, it occurs when the premises of the argument are not relevant to the drawn conclusion.
- They are of six kinds;
- The appeal to Emotion
- The Red Herring
- The Straw Man
- The Attack on the Person
- The Appeal to Force
- Missing the Point
- Argument to Pity
- The Appeal to Emotion:
- In this fallacy, the argument is tried to be won by appealing to the emotions of the audience.
- It relies on emotions, expressive language and not on reason, evidence and rational thinking.
- Hence, the name appeal to one՚s or people՚s emotions.
- Another name for this fallacy is Argument ad populum.
- For example, the fairness cream advertisement shows that ever since the girl has started applying the fairness cream, people have started noticing her, she is getting jobs offers, etc.
- So, this argument appeals to the emotions of the dark or brown skinned people.
- In this argument, emotions are used to win an argument.
- This fallacy substitutes emotions for reason.
- This fallacy is mostly used in political speeches, advertisements of beauty products, etc.
- The Red Herring:
- It is a fallacy of relevance which is committed when some distraction is used to mislead or confuse.
- This deals with deliberately misleading the conversation on some other topic or subject which was not initially the part of the conversation.
- For example, a child tells him mother that I want a toy and the mother replies, let՚s go home early as there is a present for you at home.
- Here, the topic of discussion shifts to something else which was not the topic before.
- Similarly when A says to B, Global warming is a harsh reality. B replies saying there are so many people who die every year because of cold.
- The Straw Man:
- This fallacy is committed when one manipulates, distorts and plays with an argument and makes an argument turn over some other conflict within the discussion.
- It simpler words, it occurs when we shift the conflict to some other issue within the same conversation.
- It is a work of manipulation, it is committed when one manipulates, distorts and plays with an argument and makes an argument over some other conflict within the discussion.
- For example, when a group of people were critically analysing the drawbacks of the current government, some people shifted the focus to how bad the earlier government was.
- This fallacy deals with a deliberate action. Similarly, when A says to B, I like the rainy season. B replies, if there is no sun, crops will die and eventually we will all die of hunger.
- The Attack on the Person:
- Attacking a person is committed when one attacks a person for accepting a conclusion rather than attacking the conclusion.
- In other words, argument against the people or argument ad hominen is committed when an attack is made on the person who defends the conclusion and not on the conclusion.
- As the name rightly suggests, attack the person.
- For example, don՚t believe what Rahul says on global warming because Rahul is a dropout from college.
- Here, a personal attack is made on Rahul for being a college dropout and not on what he is stating on global warming. Or, you failed in the Hindi test, do not teach me logic.
- The Appeal to Force:
- Appeal to force or ad Baculum is committed when force or threats are used to win an argument.
- For example, if you do not vote for our party, then there will be only unemployment in the society. Therefore, the youth will have no jobs.
- Or, I want you to pay me in advance else I will see you alone.
- Here, force, coercion, or even a threat of force is used in place of reason in order to win an argument.
- Missing the Point:
- This fallacy is also know as the fallacy of irrelevant conclusion or mistaken refutation.
- Missing the point is a fallacy when there is a disconnect between the premise and the conclusion.
- It is also known as Ignoratio Elenchi.
- For example,
- There are more reports of theft reported in Delhi
- More people are moving to Delhi
- Therefore, more thefts are caused by more people moving to Delhi
- Appeal to Pity:
- It is another variety of the fallacy of appeal to emotions.
- Under this fallacy, the pity of another person is evoked in-order to win an argument.
- For example, I did not do my homework because I was really ill, I couldn՚t even lift the pencil.
- This is a fine example of appeal to pity of the teacher used by a student who failed to do his/her homework.
- Another example would be, don՚t punish the poor old man for his sins, he lives on the streets and have no one to look after him.
- It is also know as ad Misericordiam, Misericordiam in Latin means merciful heart.
- The Red Herring:
MCQ
Q-1. ad Misericordiam is also known as.
Options:
A. Attack on Person
B. Appeal to force
C. Missing the point
D. Appeal to pity
Answer: D
Q- 2. Informal fallacies occur when
Options:
A. Form of the argument has a mistake
B. Structure of the argument has a mistake
C. Content of the argument has a mistake
D. Both A and B
Answer: C
Q- 3. A says to B, I like the rainy season. B replies, if there is no sun, crops will die and eventually we will all die of hunger. This commits the fallacy of
Options:
A. Straw man
B. Red Herring
C. Missing the point
D. Attack the person
Answer: A
4. A says to B, Global warming is a harsh reality. B replies saying there are so many people who die every year because of cold. This commits the fallacy of
Options:
A. Straw man
B. Red Herring
C. Missing the point
D. Attack the person
Answer: B
- We learnt about:
#informal
#fallacies
#Relevance
✍ Manishika