Logical fallacies is a term that depicts the mistake of the reason of premise followed by a conclusion. The error is basically due to wrong reasoning either because of false inference, emotional belonging, mistake of reasoning or conscious / unconscious masquerade. The study of fallacies enables us to unleash the false reckoning and the reason behind the reading. From academic perception, the information greatly attributes in the development of authentic research that is constructively aligned with associated research and information.
In the course of our day to day activities there are chances that we commit many fallacies without noticing. However, knowledge of the common fallacies could be useful in avoiding those fallacies. For example, there are various fallacies perpetuated in both electronic and print media. A case in point is a ‘Wiki How’ tutorial over the subject of ‘How to get rich?’ The article presents five basic for the achievement of riches. These include saving money, reducing living expenses, investing, enriching oneself through career and going mortgage free. The author of the article commits ‘dicto simpliciter’. Max Shulman defined dicto simplifier as an argument based on unqualified generalization. Evidently, the illustrated points in the article may have supported some of the individuals to accumulate wealth, yet the rule cannot be applied to every individual to establish the authenticity of the findings. At the same time, the article does not support the readings with exceptional scenarios like inheritance or lottery winning to illucify other factors of riches. Hence, if an analysis will be performed to establish the accuracy of finding an observation of unqualified generalization will eventually be instituted over the ground that the people who have attained riches may not advocate he illustrated factors or financial guidelines.
False analogy is another common analogy. Max Shulman gives an example that alludes that false analogy is the use of different situations to make an analogy between them. During the 2010 World Cup, an octopus named Paul became popular because it could supposedly predict the outcome of the game ahead of the kickoff. Writing for the Guardian, Marcus Christenson wrote that Paul had predicted that Spain would win the world cup. The predictions were based on the food that Paul chooses to eat. The foods were wrapped in the colors of the playing team and the color of the food that Paul ate would be predicted as the winner of the match. The authenticity of the finding presented no connection to the premise and is an obvious fallacy as no link could be established between the food choice of an octopus and the result of a field match. It is obvious that eating food wrapped in national colors and playing in a match are two entirely distinct and independent functions. The fallacy is committed because Paul allegedly predicted many of the matches correctly.
Lastly, ‘poisoing the well’ is another fallacy that is evident in international relations. Max Shulman gave an example that portrays the poisoning the well occurs when an opponent discredits what the other side is going to say even before they say anything. A case in point is the Russia-Ukaraine crisis. Writing for the Washington post, John Curran says that Russia accused Ukraine of failing to act in the interest of its citizens, especially in the Crimea,while it was evident that Russia had already violated the Ukranian territorial integrity by ending its troops to takeover Crimea. Here, Curran points out the logical fallacy in the Russian argument by illustrating how Russia discredited Ukraine by accusing it of failing to act in interest of Russian citizen and sent troops to Crimea even before Ukraine could reply through an appropriate channel. This is a classical example of poisoning the well, which very popular in international relations.
In particular, there are three times of fallacies that are evident in the course of study. These could be segmented in fallacies resulted from an influence of emotions, fallacies resulted from an influence of diversion and fallacies resulted from wrong concepts and perceptions.The appeal to emotions results in a false fallacy by hindering the reading with fear,threat, force, etc. These are confronted with an interaction of an element that is of massive importance of an individual. For example, the obvious logical fallacy presented to scare kids. Like,if you don’t eat vegetable you will not grow or the one can be noticed in chain mails referring to forward a mail to 10 more mail recipients or otherwise badluck ill fall. Hence, in such cases, proof cannot be provided to establish the reading. Likewise, the other reasons of logical fallacies could be enclosed with the influences as flattery, peer pressure, appeal to numbers, bandwagon, peer pressure, influence of pity, aversion, Ad-Hominem, false dilemma or simple distraction.In lieu of such statements, the existence of UFO can be remarked as an obvious chronological logical fallacy. The supporting facts have acclaimed theories and conceptions but no concrete information has yet been attained to establish the truth. Such a logical fallacy can be termed as an appeal of the Burden of proof/Appeal to ignorance.
In present days, such logical fallacies are discernible in every aspect of life. Last night, I viewed in the news that the result of football matches is being predicted by an elephant at German wildlife park. The bulletin further claimed that the animal have provided accurate readings of the earlier played five matches. Such a false legacy an be reviewed as an impression of redherring/smokescreen. The fact in such a case are presented under such hazy support that the reading is inflicted by unrealistic reason.
A very obvious type of logical fallacy is evident in our everyday life under the claims of advertised products. Such a type of logical fallacy utilizes the influence of fear / flattery to establish their influence and insist over the product purchases. These could be created claiming to buy and use the product for certain benefits. For example, buy a particular brand of engine oil for long life of your vehicle or use a specific cream to treat antiaging skin,etc. Such a tactic is an obvious false legacy cast or a benefit with the utilization of the influence of flattery and fear.
One such reflection from my personal life reminds me of an event , I remember unwillingly committing poison awell fallacy by accusing a good friend a mine,’a snitch’, although that was not true. I just wanted to say something hat would hurt my friend in the heat of the moment. Again, I remember committing history generalization when I made a comment some time back that ‘online payments are not safe’, when I got to know tat some people’s credit cards were hacked after making online payments. Lastly, I remember doing a dicto simplifier when I said that the use of hormonal contraceptives are bad. Recently, a very interesting event made me ponder over the extent of the impact and existence of false legacies in our personal lives. It was that one of my friend achieved a really good grade in studies. Me and my friends were discussing his performance in a group and inquiring his tricks to get a better hold over the lessons. After a discussion of some half an hour we all were convinced that his Linux is the route to his achievement and in order to attain the same we should also purchase and use a Linux. Every other person in our group had that sudden shift of thought that if we want to achieve the same grade we should must use the same software a well. Such a reflection made me estimate the extent of the influence and appeal of false legacy in our real life. This response could be segregated under the category of Appeal to number /Bandwagon / peer pressure. The discussion made each of us assert over the finding that we could never achieve the desired grade / target without using a Linux. Hence, it is essential or us to use the software.
Similarly, before a while in our campus a dispute broke between management and student over the discussion of leniency on rules. It was quiet a stiff movement that made the students retaliate over certain rules. However, the management never even bothered to have a discussion with the students for a review of regulations. When indulged, I figured it out that the appeal of Slippery slope /domino theory resulted in the action. It is obvious in this case that the management was not interested to communicate with students due to the fear that even if a middle road will be developed for the students than it will eventually grant them an upper hand in decision making.
All these scenarios depict that as human we are prone to make logical fallacies. Hence, the important thing is the skill to reform our way of thinking and recognize these kinds of logical fallacies early in our thought process. We should try as far as possible to avoid these kind of logical fallacies because they distort our perception of reality and make us say or do things based on the distorted reality, which we come to regret later. Henceforth, in my own case I intend to apply this course of rational thinking in my own life to integrate the element in the thought process of my daily life.
Precisely, it can be concluded that logical fallacies are an obvious fact of utterance. The same can be witnessed in every dimension of human handling in different forms. Likewise, various reasons and prophecies have been provided by scholars to depict the psychological aspect of the element. However, the preservance of occurrence is the obvious attribute of human psychology which cannot be denied but controlled only with the support of authentication of probability judgement.
References;
Cha, Meeyoung, et al. " "Measuring User Influence in Twitter: The Million Follower Fallacy." ." ICWSM 10 (2010): 10-17.
Quah, Danny. ""Galton's fallacy and tests of the convergence hypothesis." ." The Scandinavian Journal of Economics (1993): 427-443.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. "Extensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment." Psychological review, 90(4), (1983): 293.
Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. " "Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases." ." science 185.4157 (1974): 1124-1131.
Umbro. "Elephant Nelly predicts football World Cup results!" 18 Jun 2014. http://www.times.com. 2 Jul 2014 <http://www.hindustantimes.com/audio-news-video/av-fwc/Elephant-Nelly-predicts-football-World-Cup-results/Article2-1226305.aspx>.
