7-10 & 41 Fallacies

1. 7-10 & 41 Fallacies By: Lauren Smith

2. 7:Appeal to emotion • This fallacy is committed when someone manipulates peoples' emotions in order to get them to accept a claim as being true. This sort of "reasoning" involves the substitution of various means of producing strong emotions in place of evidence for a claim. • If the favorable emotions associated with X influence the person to accept X as true because they "feel good about X," then he has fallen prey to the fallacy.

3. 8:Appeal to fear • Y is presented (a claim that is intended to produce fear). • Therefore claim X is true (a claim that is generally, but need not be, related to Y in some manner). • This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because creating fear in people does not constitute evidence for a claim. • An example:"You know, Professor Smith, I really need to get an A in this class. I'd like to stop by during your office hours later to discuss my grade. I'll be in your building anyways, visiting my father. He's your dean, by the way. I'll see you later."

4. 9:Appeal to flattery • The basic idea behind this fallacy is that flattery is presented in the place of evidence for accepting a claim. this sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because flattery is not, in fact, evidence for a claim. This is especially clear in a case like this: "My Bill, that is a really nice tie. By the way, it is quite clear that one plus one is equal to forty three.” • Example: "Might I say that this is the best philosophy class I've ever taken. By the way, about those two points I need to get an A..."

5. 10:appeal to novelty • X is new. • Therefore X is correct or better. • This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because the novelty or newness of something does not automatically make it correct or better than something older.

6. 41:straw man • The Straw Man fallacy is committed when a person simply ignores a person's actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position. • This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because attacking a distorted version of a position simply does not constitute an attack on the position itself. One might as well expect an attack on a poor drawing of a person to hurt the person.