Wednesday 18 November 2015

Opening my eyes to fallacies

There are many common fallacies that are used in any argument. As I went over some examples, I realized that many people use fallacies to win arguments or just to mess with me. It was shocking when I started labeling the fallacies when people started using silly reasoning.

Last week I was discussing the company Microsoft- I said “wow IB is quite challenging.” Tom (this is not his/her real name) said “| want to drop out of school…just like how Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did, if they did that, I can become a billionaire too. The result is that the conclusion of the argument is not concerned with the same thing as the premise. They dropped out of Harvard not ISL!

Another example is when someone said, if you are do not pray to god you are against him. It is an example of false dilemma where some people do not believe in god to even pray to him. It does not give any other options it is just the absolute. This is an example of a false dilemma where you have two choices. It is really funny how people use this so often. As Obi Wan Kenobi puts it in Star Wars episode III, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes!” 

Overall, learning about fallacies has been interesting. I have started noticing teachers and my parents even using similar fallacies! It has been an eye opener, I am definitely more conscious when presenting an argument to make sure I avoid fallacies.

Reference: "False Dilemma." False Dilemma. Archieboy Holdings, LLC. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.

http://www.trulyfallacious.com/logic/logical-fallacies/presumption/hasty-generalization/attachment/equivocation-2

1 comment:

  1. Funny example from your friend. Is he a genius? This is post hoc ergo procter hoc: they didn't become billionaires because they dropped out of school.

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