3/17/2023 0 Comments Red herring logical fallacy book![]() The Brookings Institution is a “think-tank” (a group of scholars who write about public issues) that advocates gun control. Their website gives the background to show how that figure was discovered. The National Rifle Association obviously opposes gun restrictions and does not support the idea that there are too many guns. Note that in the previous paragraph, two numerical figures are used, both from sources that are not free of bias. Rather than trying to base arguments for more or fewer laws on counting up the current total, we would do better to study the impact of the laws we do have.” (Vernick & Hepburn, 2003, p. “‘…about 300 major state and federal laws, and an unknown but shrinking number of local laws’. However, according to the Brookings Institution, there are Sometimes actions do lead to far-reaching but unforeseen events, according to the “law of unintended consequences.” We should look below the surface to see if the accusation of slippery slope is true.įor example, in regard to the anti-gun control “bumper sticker,” an investigation of the facts will show that gun control laws have been ineffective in many ways since we have more guns than ever now (347 million, according to a website affiliated with the National Rifle Association). However, just because an argument is criticized as a slippery slope, that does not mean it is a slippery slope. While it is true criminals do not care about gun laws, we already have a large number of gun laws and the level of gun ownership is as high as ever. and then the inevitable result that only criminals will have guns because they don’t obey gun control laws anyway. This is an example of a slippery slope argument because it is saying that any gun control laws will inevitably lead to no guns being allowed at all in the U.S. One might argue that “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns,” a bumper sticker you may have seen. Slippery slope arguments are often used in discussions over emotional and hot button topics such as gun control and physician-assisted suicide. Then I will not get the career I want, and I’ll be 30 years old still living with my parents, unmarried, unhappy, and no children or career! That’s why I just can’t go out with you!” Obviously, this young woman has gone out of her way to get out of this date, and she has committed a slippery slope.f Additionally, since no one can predict the future, we can never be entirely certain on the direction a given chain of events will lead. A young woman may say to a young man asking her out, “If I go out with you Thursday night, I won’t be able to study for my test Friday. This type of reasoning fails to look at alternate causes or factors that could keep the worst from happening, and often is somewhat silly when A is linked right to Z. So, don’t do A or don’t let A happen, because it will inevitably lead to Z, and of course, Z is terrible. ![]() If A happens, then B will happen, then C, then D, then E, F, G and it will get worse and worse and before you know it, we will all be in some sort of ruin. The children’s book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin is a good example of slippery slope it tells all the terrible things (from a child’s point of view) that will happen, one after another, if a moose is given a muffin. In general, while we are often tempted to attribute a large societal or historical outcome to just one cause, that is rarely the case in real life.Ī slippery slope fallacy is a type of false cause which assumes that taking a first step will lead to subsequent events that cannot be prevented. Third, those salaries have nothing to do with housing market or the management of the large car companies, banks, or Wall Street, which had a stronger and more direct effect on the economy as a whole. Second, those salaries only affect a small number of people. Why? For one thing, the salaries, though large, are an infinitesimal part of the whole economy. If someone said, “The exorbitant salaries paid to professional athletes contributed to the recession” that would be the fallacy of false cause. For example, there has been much debate over the causes of the recession in 2008. In a false cause fallacy, the alleged cause might not be strong or direct enough. A cause must be direct and strong enough, not just before or somewhat related to cause the problem. This chapter will deal with eighteen of the most common ones that you should know to avoid poor logic in your speech and to become a critical thinker.įalse cause is a fallacy that assumes that one thing causes another, but there is no logical connection between the two. ![]() There are actually dozens upon dozens of fallacies, some of which have complicated Latin names. ![]() Logical fallacies are mistakes in reasoning–getting one of the formulas, inductive or deductive, wrong. The second part of achieving a logical speech is to avoid logical fallacies. ![]()
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