Logical Fallacies

Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument. Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim.

We must learn to avoid these in our own arguments and be able to spot them in the arguments of others.


Circumstantial evidence: We cannot rely on circumstantial evidence. Even when it happens to be right, it is wrong because it is circumstantial evidence.

Slippery Slope: This is a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens, then eventually through a series of small steps, through B, C,..., X, Y, Z will happen, too, basically equating A and Z. So, if we don't want Z to occur, A must not be allowed to occur either. 
This method is often used in court to jump to conclusions.

If we ban Hummers because they are bad for the environment eventually the government will ban all cars, so we should not ban Hummers.
Eg This red apple is poisonous and will kill you if you eat it. Therefore you should not eat any red apples as they are poisonous and can kill you.
If you smoke cannabis you'll get bored and move onto other drugs. Weed is a gateway drug

Hasty Generalization: This is a conclusion based on insufficient or biased evidence. In other words, you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts. Example:

Even though it's only the first day, I can tell this is going to be a boring course.

Eg. Thinking someone is a loser judging only their looks.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc: This is a conclusion that assumes that if 'A' occurred after 'B' then 'B' must have caused 'A.' Example:

I drank bottled water and now I am sick, so the water must have made me sick.

Eg. Shawn got punched in the eye yesterday, today he's not in school and it must be because of yesterdays incident.

Genetic Fallacy: This conclusion is based on an argument that the origins of a person, idea, institute, or theory determine its character, nature, or worth. Example:

The Volkswagen Beetle is an evil car because it was originally designed by Hitler's army.

She's good at maths because she's Asian.

Begging the Claim: The conclusion that the writer should prove is validated within the claim. Example:

Filthy and polluting coal should be banned.

------------------------------------

Circular Argument: This restates the argument rather than actually proving it. Example:

George Bush is a good communicator because he speaks effectively.

She's a good athlete because she is fit.

Either/or: This is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it to only two sides or choices. Example

We can either stop using cars or destroy the earth.

One can either stop eating fast food or face obesity.

Ad hominem: This is an attack on the character of a person rather than his or her opinions or arguments. Example:

Green Peace's strategies aren't effective because they are all dirty, lazy hippies.

His lessons are so boring because he is not motivated.

Ad populum: This is an emotional appeal that speaks to positive (such as patriotism, religion, democracy) or negative (such as terrorism or fascism) concepts rather than the real issue at hand. Example:

If you were a true American you would support the rights of people to choose whatever vehicle they want.

--------------------------------------------------

Red Herring: This is a diversionary tactic that avoids the key issues, often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them. Example:

The level of mercury in seafood may be unsafe, but what will fishers do to support their families?

Straw Man: This move oversimplifies an opponent's viewpoint and then attacks that hollow argument.

People who don't support the proposed state minimum wage increase hate the poor.

Hearsay- Where you pass information which you have heard from somebody else.
I heard that she will not be coming to school for 3 weeks from Suzan.

Moral Equivalence: This fallacy compares minor misdeeds with major atrocities.

That parking attendant who gave me a ticket is as bad as Hitler.

------------------------

Wednesday 20th January '16

The logical fallacies that we are contending with right now are the beliefs that Syrian refugees are religious fanatics.
The logical fallacy is that 2 Syrians amongst the 2.1 million are religious fanatics, therefore all the Syrians are religious fanatics.

Rhetoric
Ethos starts with following the words and deeds of someone else, then it becomes theological(which are the rules and regulations of religion, e.g. how people have interpreted the book). Once religion starts to dissipate we start to talk about ethics (what is right and what is wrong).
In the world that we live in now people rely more and more on morality and ethics however doing that leads back to logical fallacies. Which leads to situation ethics. Because ethics always depend on the situation. Nothing is black and white, there is always a series of greys.

Propaganda

Propaganda is used more often than we think, it is used by many large companies as well as personalities and politicians. It can be used by any individual or organisation looking to influence human behavior.

We face propaganda multiple times a day, by manipulating the symbols of our most basic human emotions.

With the growth of communication systems and social media, propaganda has increased with them.
-The increase in propaganda and the number of messages one processes every day has lead to people trying to processes this information faster and therefore this can lead to individuals making social short-cuts. This can come as a major advantage to propagandists because many of these shortcuts blur rational thought.
-They encourage short-cuts by agitating emotion, exploiting insecurities by capitalizing on the ambiguity of language, and by bending the rules of logic. As shown through history these can be quite effective.

Propaganda analysis looks at the techniques used by propagandists and how we can resist the short-cuts they promote.

The name calling technique links a person, or idea, to a negative symbol. The propagandist hopes that the audience will reject this person or idea on the basis of the negative symbol, instead of looking for evidence.

There are more and less subtle ways of name calling. The more subtle ways of name calling posses a negative emotional charge. Eh stingy or thrifty.

When propagandists use glittering generalities and name calling symbols, they attempt to arouse their audience with vivid, emotionally suggestive words. Propagandists attempt to pacify the audience in order to make an unpleasant reality more palatable. Propaganda can be found in all sides of the political spectrum.

Propagandists often try to transfer religious prestige or the reputation of science or medicine to a particular project or set of beliefs.

Transfer- When a political activist closes her speech with a public prayer, she is attempting to transfer religious prestige to the ideas that she is advocating. In a similar fashion, propagandists may attempt to transfer the reputation of "Science" or "Medicine" to a particular project or set of beliefs.

Testimonial- citing a qualified source. The most common misuse of the testimonial involves citing individuals who are not qualified to make judgements about a particular issue. In 1992, Barbara Streisand supported Bill Clinton, and Arnold Schwarzenegger threw his weight behind George Bush. Both are popular performers, but there is no reason to think that they know what is best for this country. 

Plain Folks- 

By using the plain-folks technique, speakers attempt to convince their audience that they, and their ideas, are "of the people." The device is used by advertisers and politicans alike.

MTV Global warming advert

Analysis of the MTV Global Warming Advert

What makes the advert good?
-music
-effects grab the audiences attention
- great graphics which put the situation into perspective
What makes it bad?
-It fails to reach its demographic
-It fails to create a jump to action

INTRODUCTION- The MTV global warming advertisement was a well structured however failed to reach its demographic. In addition, the text at the end of the advert is too small and the language it uses is too complex for the audience they were aiming for. Which was the whole reason the campaign failed. Aside from that, the advert is extremely powerful. The visual effects help simplify the causes of global warming for a wider audience. Whereas the music contributes to the alarming mood, finally the graphics also aim to grab the audiences attention.

PARAGRAPH 1- positive factor
The visual effects portrayed in the advert have been well thought out and effectively serve to capture the audience's attention.
-Cartoon like cars, airplanes and clouds floating around an everyday mundane object such as the globe.
Creates contrast between a mundane object often taken for granted and the visual effects of the clouds and cars. It captivates the audience because seeing something unexpected will immediately force them to want to watch more.

PARAGRAPH 2- positive factor
The music completely fits in with the theme of the advert which is to move the audience in the hope of creating awareness and making a change.
The song is sang by a male who sings in a particularly depressed voice to add to the theme. In addition the song itself is written using minor keys which automatically makes it sad.

PARAGRAPH 3- positive factor
Lastly the graphics serve not only to grab ones attention but to simplify the situation for the larger audience to understand, as well.  Anyone person can understand that the increasing number of dark clouds and lightning means there is nothing good the future hold.

PARAGRAPH 4- negative factor
In contrast what this advert fails to do is reach its demographic. This is the point where an advert can fail completely or succeed. Especially when it comes to an advert trying to raise awareness.
The advert fails to do so by inserting text which is much to small and not using the right diction. Most people for which the simplistic style of the advert was aimed will not understand the meaning of a ''tipping point''. Which makes them likely to simply ignore it.

PARAGRAPH 5- negative factor
Due to the small text at the end of the advert, it fails to create a jump to action. All the animation and sad music which was leading up to it completely dies down because there was no distinct moment when one would say they need to make a change.
Towards the end of the advert we skip to a shot of an alarm clock counting down, this would have been very effective if I knew what we were counting down to. Which is why the message portrayed by the small text should have been bigger.

Essay structure

INTRODUCTION

What goes into an introduction.
1. Topic (cop21, India)
2. Context -------> what will be discussed and analysed

How + using what tools/sources  it will be analysed.


Eg.
MTV GLOBAL WARMING ADVERT

TEXT- video commercial
Purpose- raise awareness and cause action

All media texts aim to- Inform, Entertain and Persuade

The MTV add is informative and it aims to persuade however it is also entertaining in order to raise awareness(to inform) and cause action (to persuade).

When analyzing this advertisement we will use: -AIDA
                                                                              -Language



What goes into the introduction?
- We mention that the advertisement was not a success because it does not reach its demographic..

Only 2 types of stories

-comedy (happy ending)
-tragedy (sad ending). Tragedy often falls upon the main character because of hubris.

Hubris- Hubris, Greek hybris,  in ancient Athens, the intentional use of violence to humiliate or degrade. The word’s connotation changed over time, and hubris came to be defined as overweening presumption that leads a person to disregard the divinely fixed limits on human action in an ordered cosmos. 

Critical thinking

Independent- is independent of bias (mostly)
Telegraph- Conservative (big c) newspaper
The Guardian-  Labor, Unions, Environment (left wing)
Economist- free trade (only newspaper arguing that Europe's borders should be open)
The NY times- for Americans this newspaper counts as left wing. Because Americans are in general very conservative. However for Europeans it is somewhere in the middle.
The economist was also the first paper which was concerned with the environment and global warning. It was skeptical until all the other sources proved that it was a real thing

How it all ends: global warming video (1-3)
PART 1
Pascals Wager- Risk management
National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
The Royal Society- The English scientific association (you have to be invited to become a part of it)

All these scientific organisations have said that the likelihood of Global warming to be true is much much higher than it not being true. Therefore the consequences if we do not take any actions will be much higher.

Even a lot of oil companies nowadays are admitting to global warming.
Do we even know enough to be debating the validity of climate change? (eg like the Manhattan project)


Key words;
-> risk management
-> Running the experiment
->Tipping point-  the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place
-> Global climate Destabilisation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
People are prone to conformation bias. Confirmation bias is our Achilles heel.
Conformation bias- when you have an idea in your head and later go search for the evidence. This is bad because your brain will always negate the things you do not want to believe.
However we must be aware of it and we must avoid it!

Scientific thinking and critical thinking are the same thing.
Don't firstly look at what you believe and try to find evidence for it. Look at the evidence and then form your belief.

Where do we get the evidence? 
From a reliable source.

How do we find a reliable source?
All newspapers speak to their audience. Newspapers are reliable if you understand the bias or the stance of that newspaper.

Whatever you have been taught has a cultural bias. If they do not teach you what cultural bias is, you walk out of the classroom always believing that what they have taught you is completely true.

Evidence needs expertise to interpret it.

PART 2

Every idea or belief has uncertainties
If it its given for criticism it can be analysed which will either:
- make it stronger and more truthful
or
- it will be disavowed


PART 3- a summary

-Science is never 100% accurate.
- Every person is sometimes wrong. It is inevitable. Fallibility is a part of our DNA.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The more you know the more you realize how little you know.

Rhetoric- Is the language of persuasion. There are 3 types of rhetoric. Pathos.logos and ethos
Pathos- is emotion
Logos- is reason (eg listing, repetition)
Ethos-  Appealing to the deeds and words of great people, whether real or legendary. The following of great successful people.
Eg. transference back and forth of someone who has been successful.

Sarcasm is the tool of the weak and the dammed.