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Logic:
Misuse of Evidence
A. Evidence Missing
Vampires live in Transylvania.
There is life on other planets.
(Do we know for sure or do we only
want to think so?)
B. Evidence Irrelevant
Tough guy Beer is the best beer made,
because Mickey Spillane endorses it.
(Mickey may know his beer, but does
his endorsement make this beer good?)
C. False Facts
Ninety-nine point nine percent of all
beer drinkers we surveyed said Toughguy Beer is terrific.
(Not much help if you only surveyed
five beer drinkers.)
D. Begging the Question
John: Why should I believe in the
existence of God?
Henry: The Bible tells you so.
John: But why should I believe the Bible?
Henry: It's divinely inspired, so it couldn't be wrong.
As Professor de Vries explains this
example, "Henry has begged the question, because his answer to John
presupposed God's existence; John could not rationally accept the divine
inspiration of the Bible while still questioning God's existence."
E. False Analogy
Treat kids like pets, with strict
rules and feedings, and they'll be good.
(Children may need rules and
feedings, but they aren't pets, so the analogy creates a false formula.)
F. Post Hoc, Ergo Prompter Hoc (If Y
follows X, X caused Y)
Her husband hung a sock from the
bedpost, and that's why she gave birth to a boy.
(Superstitious beliefs often induce this
fallacious form of reasoning.)
Clyde joined a fraternity last
summer; he'll probably flunk out.
(Unless the writer establishes that
Clyde's joining a frat leads to bad academic performance and that a
semester's bad performance automattically leads to flunking out, then
this statement can't be true.)
G. "Mad Leapies": Non
Sequiturs
He sleeps late on weekends; he's
probably in love.
Nixon's five o'clock shadow cost him the 1960 election.
I put in three days writing this paper, so it's bound to get an A.
Non sequitur means it does not follow.
Unless the writer explains the "causes" in these sentences,
the "results" will seem illogical. More pertinent evidence
will help: why is sleeping late necessarily a symptom of being in love?
What effect did Nixon's beard have on his campaign; how important were
his TV debates with Kennedy in portraying him as a candidate? And what
did the writer do with those three days to ensure that her paper would
get an A?
Misuse
of Evidence
Generalizations
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