Informal Fallacy Essay

During the first week of class we discussed informal fallacies. An informal fallacy is defined as a logical mistake. Five of the informal fallacies discussed were equivocation, ad hominem, straw man, appeal to authority, and secundum. Each of these fallacies are comparable to what happens in everyday life conversations. Through analyzing, one should be able to determine how these fallacies connect with our everyday lives. Equivocation is a fallacy known for having two meanings of an ambiguous word over a course of an argument. The example used during lecture expressed that a feather is light, but light can’t be dark, therefore the feather can’t be dark. In this example, light is being used as an adjective and a noun. When stating that the feather is light, one is making reference to the weight of feather, not the color of the feather. This can be confusing because one can think that when expressing that the feather is light it is describing the color of the feather. Therefore, if you know the color of something is light, it can’t be dark as well. This particular fallacy is used when arguing. Equivocation goes to show that when people are arguing with one another, they’ll

Appeal to authority is a fallacy where an assertion is deemed true because of the position or authority of the person asserting it. When learning about this fallacy, I immediately reverted back to my childhood. Any time my parents or an older family member told me something, I believed it, because I automatically thought it had to be true because of them being older. That’s not the case, something isn’t always true because of the position or authority a person has unless they have concrete evidence to support their points. This also correlates with attending lecture; you can’t automatically believe everything your professor says is true if he or she doesn’t have supporting material for the point they are trying to