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© Eva M. Snyder page created 12/7/00 last updated 11/2/03
How to Argue
MAN (Michael Palin): This isn't an argument, it's just contradiction.
MR. VIBRATING (John Cleese): No it isn't.
MAN: Yes it is ... An argument isn't just contradiction.
MR. V: Can be.
MAN: No, it can't. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
MR. V: (pause) No it isn't.
MAN: Yes it is. It's not just contradiction.
MR. V: Look, if I argue with you I must take up a contrary position.
MAN: Yes, but that's not just saying "No it isn't".
MR. V: Yes it is.
MAN: No it isn't! An argument is an intellectual process. Contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of any statement the other person makes.
MR. V: No it isn't.
MAN: Yes it is!
-- Monty Python (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin) "Argument Clinic" from _Monty Python's Previous Record_ (record album) (1973)
"To accuse an opponent in an argument of engaging in rhetoric is to accuse the opponent of nothing more than trying to persuade the audience that the person's position is the better one." - The Rhetoric of Gun Control by Andrew Jay McClurg
"... the fact that a speculative prediction turns out to be true does not change the fallacious nature of the prediction at the time it was made." - The Rhetoric of Gun Control by Andrew Jay McClurg
"There is no such thing as a classification of the ways in which men may arrive at error: it is much to be doubted whether there ever can be." Augustus De Morgan, FORMAL LOGIC 237 (A.E. Taylor ed., 2d ed. 1926) (1847).
Formal Fallacies and Informal Fallacies
Syllogisms A syllogism is a deductive argument consisting of three terms (major, middle, and minor) and three propositions (major premise, minor premise, and conclusion). Deductive arguments are those in which the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises. If the premises of the syllogism are true and the syllogism is valid, the conclusion must be true.
- Fallacies of Emotion
- Appeals to fear and sympathy:argumentum ad odium (argument directed to hatred), argumentum ad metum (argument directed to fear), and argumentum ad misericordiam (argument directed to pity).
- Appeals to pride and popular opinion: argumentum ad populum
- Appeals to improper sources of authority argumentum ad verecundiam " It is quite proper to call on qualified experts to assist laypersons in making decisions concerning matters beyond their knowledge and experience."- The Rhetoric of Gun Control by Andrew Jay McClurg
- Ad hominem: two types 1)abusive ad hominem attacks the speaker's character, judgment, intelligence, or apearence. 2) circumstantial ad hominem, disparages a person's views based on the relationship between those views and the person's circumstances.
- Fallacies of Diversion
- Hyperbole exagerating or minimising your or you your oponents position
- The slippery slope, argueing that letting this issue pass will automatically lead to other more damaging positions.
- The straw man, refuting an opponent's position by mischaracterizing it
- Red herring creating an unrelated diversionary argument.
- Faulty analogies "For an analogy to be valid, the situations being analogized must be truly similar. Moreover, they must be alike in ways that are important to the reason why the analogy is being drawn. " - The Rhetoric of Gun Control by Andrew Jay McClurg
- Fallacies of Proof
- One-sided assessment
- Causal fallacies
- Arguments from ignorance To argue that lack of evidence supports either position is to commit the fallacy of argumentum ad ignorantiam
Some Critical Thinking links