Logical Fallacies Essay Example for Free

logical systemal Fallacies EssayThe followers is an physical exercise of the said argument taken from the website, www.fallacyfiles.comJoe McCarthy announced that he had penetrated Trumans iron curtain of secrecy and that he proposed straightway to present 81 cases Cases of exactly what? I am only giving the Senate, he said, cases in which it is clear there is a definite Communist radio linkpersons whom I consider to be Communists in the State Department. Of Case 40, he said, I do non have much information on this besides the general statement of the agencythat there is nothing in the files to dis record his Communist connections. AnalysisThe fallacy exists in the assumption that the burden of the evidence is to prove that Trumans communist connections are not true when it was never established to be true in the first place. This type of error of logic is commit when the lack of evidence is utilize to prove something and this is false because the lack of evidence is not evidence in itself. Ones ignorance or lack of fellowship cannot be used to prove or disprove something.2. Begging the questionThis fallacy, also known as circular reasoning, occurs when a premise is used as the conclusion or when a claim that is yet to be established or proven occurs as the conclusion. The fallacy is illustrated in following example taken from the book, The Abortion Controversy by Helen AlvareTo cast abortion as a solely private moral question,is to lose touch with common signified How human beings treat one another is practically the definition of a public moral matter. Of course, there are many private aspects of human relations, still the question whether one human being should be allowed fatally to harm another is not one of them. Abortion is an inescapably public matter.AnalysisThis generator sees more than one point of flawed reasoning in the given example. Firstly, there is the assumption that the idea of morality is dependent on whether the issue at hand should be considered a public or private matter. Second, there has been no attempt to expound what qualifies as the private aspects of human relations and it necessarily contradicts the given definition of a public moral matter which is how human beings treat one another. To say that something is practically the definition of something else does not prove that it is. Thirdly, the synthesis that equates abortion to allowing humans to fatally harm another is but another assumption and does not prove the conclusion, because that premise itself is in need of proof.3. Common stampThis fallacy occurs when people hinge the truth of a claim or proposition on what is believed by many or popular judgment. Popular belief is simply statistics. The prevalence of an opinion does not account for the truth of a claim.For example just because many people believe there is a beau ideal or just because certain cultures believe that illnesses are caused by bad spirits does not make both claims tru e. The truth of a claim cannot be proven by sheer popularity.4. DivisionThis error in logic occurs when the characteristics of the parts are assumed to be true for the whole. Take for example the following statements from the website www.fallacyfiles.com1. The universe has existed for fifteen billion years. The universe is made out of molecules. Therefore, each of the molecules in the universe has existed for fifteen billion years.AnalysisWhile it may be true that certain characteristics can apply to both the parts and the whole, this is not an absolute truth. In the example given, although it is possible that age (i.e. fifteen billion years) may be a shared characteristic, it is not the case for the example given because although the universe has been in fact been in existence for fifteen billion years, not all of its molecules has been existing since then.List of referencesEngel M. With Good Reason An Introduction to Informal Fallacies (Fifth Edition). St. Martins, 1994Krabbe, E. Appeal to Ignorance, in Fallacies Classical and Contemporary Reading. USA Penn State Press, 1995Rovere R. Introduction to Logic (Fourth Edition). USA 1960.Walton, D. The Essential Ingredients of the Fallacy of Begging the Question, Fallacies Classical and Contemporary Readings. USA Penn State Press, 1995.