Free Essay on Fallacies and Argumentation

Drafting Two Original Fallacies to Be Identified by Classmates

The first original fallacy for this paper would be a situation where one of the arguing parties resorts to using the crowd to win the argument by making his side of the argument appealing to the interests of the crowd. For instance, if a majority of the listeners were Christians, one would support his idea using biblical evidence, hoping to win the hearts of the crowd.

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Another fallacy would be a situation where one dismisses his or her opponent's view on the grounds that the targeted party is not intellectually qualified to give opinions on the topic. For instance, if one disagreed with a doctor over a medical issue, the doctor could largely find defense in the assumption that the opponent knows nothing in the medical field.

Overgeneralization Fallacy

Arguably one of the most prominent fallacies (Walton, 2005), the overgeneralization fallacy is the tendency to use one or two past or present experiences, to form an opinion of the group to which the opponent belongs. For instance, if a person witnesses a case of robbery performed by a gang of African American males, such a person may create the assumption that all African American males are somewhat connected to organized crime. That assumption, according to Shapiro (1996), constitutes overgeneralization because in the practical world, not all African American males are thugs.

Why it's a bad way of reasoning

The overgeneralization fallacy has quite a number of downsides with the most prominent being that it creates a class society with deceptive assumptions (Labossiere, 2010). For instance, if we all resort to this fallacy in our arguments, the emergence of a class society would be inevitable, with every African American citizen seeing the white American as an oppressor, if this is the stereotype associated with them because of one past experience. Overgeneralization does not support coexistence because some of the stereotypes could be offensive, triggering hostility. It is a kind of reasoning that ignores the opponent in his individual capacity, and instead focuses on the group with which they are affiliated.

An Original Fallacy Argument of That Type

An original fallacy argument of that type would be reflected in a situation where a person walks into a shop vending high end luxurious products. Inside the shop, two attendants hold a brief conversation regarding the shopper.

Attendant 1: Hey lets attend to the customer, he needs our guidance around.

Attendant 2: I do not think so. He cannot afford anything inside here. Look at his hoodie. He is only a student and cannot afford any of these.

References

Shapiro, I. D. (1996). Fallacies of logic: argumentation cons. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 53(3), 251-265.

Labossiere, M. C. (2010). 42 Fallacies. Retrieved on June 11, from www.triviumeducation.com/texts/42Fallacies.pdf

Walton, D. (2005). Argumentation methods for artificial intelligence in law. Springer Science & Business Media.