Philosophy 6: Logic in Practice
Los Angeles Pierce College
Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology
Lecture Notes
Lecture Notes for
"Chapter Five" of Porter's The
Voice of Reason
Argument to the Person
"In this fallacy an
attack is made on the person presenting the argument rather than on the
argument itself."
So as to overcome an
opposing argument, attack the opponent instead of the opponent's argument.
Argument to the Person / Personal
"In the personal form
... the character or behavior of the person is discredited."
Argument to the Person / Personal E.G.s
"Freud was probably
addicted to cocaine, but to use this as a way of disproving the worth of
psychoanalysis is as irrelevant as discounting the formula e = mc2 because
Einstein was an atheist."
We shouldn't dismiss
Heidegger's notion of being-in-the-world because he was a card carrying
Nazi.
We shouldn't abandon Frege's Begriffsschrift because
he endorsed national socialism before his death, or because he was one of
Hitler's fanboys.
Argument to the Person / Circumstantial
"In the
circumstantial form of ad hominem, the person's position is cited as the reason
to disregard what he or she claims."
So as to overcome an
opposing argument, attack the opponent's position instead of the opponent's
argument.
Argument to the Person / Circumstantial E.G.
"Never ask a barber
whether you need a haircut."
Argument to the Person / Circumstantial / You
Yourself
"Here an argument is
discredited because the person does not practice what he preaches."
Argument to the Person / Circumstantial / Smear
Tactics
Irrelevant facts about a
person are used to attack a person's qualifications.
Argument to the Person / Circumstantial / Relevance
"This does not mean,
of course, that questions about a person's behavior or position are always
beside the point."
Argument to the Person / Biographical Fallacy
"judging the worth of
literary work in terms of the life or character of the author."
Argument to the Person / Genetic Fallacy
"the genetic fallacy
... refers to the attempt to explain away a chain of claims by referring to the
source."
Argument from Authority
"the argument from
authority (ipse dixit argument) ... [is a fallacy
that is] committed whenever we argue for some point, not because it is well
grounded in fact or logic but because of the authority of the person who
presented it."
Instead of supporting an
argument with evidence, authority is cited as evidence
Responsibly Appealing to Authority
"When we cite an
authority in an argument we must always show why the person's opinion should be
accepted, what definitive proof he or she has to offer."
Authority at What?
Authority in war
authority in politics
Authority in acting
authority in animal rights
Argument from Force
"In many ways the
argument from force is not an argument at all but the absence of an argument,
for the opponent is frightened into agreeing with some position."
Appeal to Pity
"Here we play on the
sympathy of others in order to get them to agree with us."
Appeal to Pity / Courts E.G.
In courts
Appeal to Pity / Grading E.G.
"As a student you may
have used the argument from pity at one time or another. You may have asked for a higher grade on
an exam, arguing that you had studied hard but were emotionally upset or
swamped with work. You might have
said that you have a twenty hour a week job, your car broke down, you were sick
with the flue, or that you are having trouble with your parents."
"Under such
circumstances a sympathetic professor might allow you additional time to do the
work or even let you retake the exam, but if the professor were to raise your
grade on those grounds he or she would not be acting in a professional
way. A higher grade would indicate
that you had mastered the material to a greater degree than you actually did,
thereby giving a false impression to anyone reading your transcript. Your grade should reflect your actual
level of achievement, not how much sympathy the professor felt for
you."
Relevant
"sometimes sympathy
can be a relevant consideration."
Trying it Out
II. 2
II. 4
II. 7
Straw Person Fallacy
"straw person, the
mistake of attributing to your opponents a ridiculous position they do not hold
and that is easily knocked down like a person made of straw."
Notice the steps
involved.
Straw Person Welfare E.G.
"An opponent of
welfare might argue, 'I am as generous and sympathetic as the next person, but
if you want to give handouts to lazy teenage mothers with four kids who are
getting rich on welfare payments contributed by decent, hard-working taxpayers,
then I'm afraid I cannot go along with it."
Handling Straw Person Fallacy
"Whenever an
opponent's position is described in a way that makes it ludicrous and
indefensible, we know that the fallacy has been committed."
[Really?]
Poisoning the Well
"Here one side in an
argument is placed in a position where it cannot refute the other without
discrediting itself."
Poisoning the Well / Against Pro-Choice E.G.
"'Women who support
abortion on demand are selfish and godless people. They put their own needs above
everything and everyone else, and reject the divine gift of a child's
life.'"
Poisoning the Well / Against Pro-Life E.G.
"'The right of a
woman to have an abortion, to do with her body as she pleases, is opposed only
by reactionary men who want to keep in women in their traditional roles. Every right-thinking person knows this
to be true.'"
Poisoning the Well / Divorce E.G.
"If a couple is
quarreling the husband might say, 'I find you so defensive, and your constant
denials that you are defensive only prove my point.'"
Poisoning the Well / Commercial E.G.
"'When you care
enough to send the very best.'"
Handling Poisoning the Well
"To combat it we must
reject the very form in which the issue is presented because it invalidates all
opposing views."
"We have to point out
how the system is rigged because the opposing view has been unfairly
discredited."
Slippery Slope
"thinking that if we
take one step along a certain path then nothing can stop us from sliding
inevitably to our ruin."
Slippery Slope qua Domino
Effect
Slippery Slope qua Edge 'o
the Wedge
Gambler's Fallacy
"Each time a person
enters a new lottery he or she has the same chance, not an increased chance,
and to think otherwise is the gambler's fallacy."
Gambler's Fallacy / "Maturity 'o Chances"
"A person playing
roulette, for example, will wait to see which number has not come up in one
hundred or two hundred spins of the wheel.
Then he or she will bet on that number on the assumption that, according
to statistical probability, the roulette ball is due to falling that numbered
compartment."
"at each turn of the
wheel, each number has an equal chance of being chosen."