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Week 5 Reading

Moore−Parker: Critical Thinking, Eighth Edition

6. More Fallacies

Exercises

© The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2007

EXERCISES

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Personal attack ad hominem—thinking a person’s defects refute his or her beliefs Circumstantial ad hominem—thinking a person’s circumstances refute his or her beliefs Inconsistency ad hominem—thinking a person’s inconsistencies refute his or her beliefs Poisoning the well—encouraging others to dismiss what someone will say, by citing the speaker’s defects, inconsistencies, circumstances, or other personal attributes Genetic fallacy—thinking that the origin or history of a belief refutes it Straw man—”rebutting” a claim by offering a distorted or exaggerated version of it False dilemma—an erroneous narrowing down of the range of alternatives; saying we have to accept X or Y (and omitting that we might do Z) Perfectionist fallacy—arguing that we either do something completely or not at all Line-drawing fallacy—requiring that a precise line be drawn someplace on a scale or continuum when no such precise line can be drawn; usually occurs when a vague concept is treated like a precise one Slippery slope—refusing to take the first step in a progression on unwarranted grounds that doing so will make taking the remaining steps inevitable or insisting erroneously on taking the remainder of the steps simply because the first one was taken Misplacing burden of proof—requiring the wrong side of an issue to make its case Begging the question—assuming as true the claim that is at issue and doing this as if you were giving an argument

Exercise 6-1
Working in groups, invent a simple, original, and clear illustration of each fallacy covered in this chapter. Then in the class as a whole select the illustrations that are clearest and most straightforward. Go over these illustrations before doing the remaining exercises in this chapter, and review them before you take a test on this material.

Exercises...

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