Fallacy Paper

Fallacies are committed in every state, in every city and in every neighborhood. No race or gender is impervious to committing a fallacy. So, what is a fallacy? Patrick J. Hurley defines a fallacy as, “A defect in an argument that consists in something other than false premises alone.” These defects result in misconception in an argument. Many times they are accidental, other times they are committed on purpose. However, either way, fallacies can be very persuasive to the casual reader or listener. One in particular, the false cause fallacy, is used quite often in today’s society.

Hurley states that, “The fallacy of false cause occurs whenever the link between premises and conclusion depends on some imagined causal connection that probably does not exist.” For example:

Every time my son wears his dirty socks at a soccer game his team wins. Therefore, to prevent the team from losing a game, he should continue to wear the same socks for each game.

However, just because an event seems to influence another, as stated above, the first does not necessarily cause the second to occur. Usually, these events happen out mere coincidence and are not related to each other in any way. In some cases the false cause fallacy is convincing because it is usually is hard to determine whether or not the two events are causally related. Unless, however, a person is an expert in both events taking place, and even then, there can be doubt. In addition, the fallacy relates to many superstitious sayings that exist today. In fact, many of society’s superstitions derive from use of the false cause fallacy. For decades people always hear about the person who broke the mirror and were struck with seven years of bad luck, or the bad luck th...

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...ot fallacious, and it is all that is needed for a reader or listener to get the message.

There are several types of fallacies that are committed each and every day throughout the world. They exist in the television we watch, the newspapers we read and the advertisements we see. By getting a better understanding of what a fallacy is, and how to prevent using them in arguments, people will grow stronger in their reasoning and be able to spot a fallacy when they see one. In addition, people will save themselves from bad information and bad arguments by defending themselves with the ability to use good logic and reasoning.

Works Cited

Hurley, Patrick. A Concise Introduction to Logic. Tenth Edition. Belmont,

CA: 2008. 113,136. Print.

"All About PETA." www.peta.org. N.p., 2011. Web. 20 Feb 2011.

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