Page 52 - Žagar, Igor Ž. 2021. Four Critical Essays on Argumentation. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 52
four critical essays on argumentation
Example
Before Class:
Bill: ‘Boy, that professor is a real jerk. I think he is some sort
of eurocentric fascist.’
Jill: ‘Yeah.’
During Class:
Prof. Jones: ‘...and so we see that there was never any “Golden Age
of Matriarchy” in 1895 in America.’
After Class:
Bill: ‘See what I mean?’
Jill: ‘Yeah. There must have been a Golden Age of Matriarchy,
since that jerk said there wasn’t.’
First, it is not quite evident that this is a fallacy; fallacy is a fallacious
argument and a fallacy is yet to be extracted from the above dialogue (if
there is any).
Secondly, if we apply a kind of a principle of charity on this artificially
constructed dialogue, and concede there is an argument in the above dia-
logue, we don’t need any new fallacy, it could easily be analysed as Ignoratio
Elenchi, Secundum Quid or even Petitio Principii3 (if we stay with the all
embracing fallacies (or ‘fallacies’). But it could easily be a version of Ad
Hominem,4 Straw-man,5 even Ad Populum.6 So, why create a new fallacy?
Maybe because it is hard to choose between the existing ones, since the cri-
teria are so unclear?
(b) Nirvana fallacy
(Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy) The Nirvana
fallacy is the logical error of comparing actual things with unrealistic,
3 Please, see the definitions on the previous pages.
4 ‘An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or arguments is
rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person pre-
senting the claim or argument.’ The Nizkor Project: http://nizkor.com/features/fal-
lacies/ad-hominem.html
5 ‘The Straw Man fallacy is committed when a person simply ignores a person’s actu-
al position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that
position.’ http://nizkor.com/features/fallacies/straw-man.html
6 ‘The basic idea is that a claim is accepted as being true simply because most peo-
ple are favorably inclined towards the claim.’ http://nizkor.com/features/fallacies/
appeal-to-popularity.html
52
Example
Before Class:
Bill: ‘Boy, that professor is a real jerk. I think he is some sort
of eurocentric fascist.’
Jill: ‘Yeah.’
During Class:
Prof. Jones: ‘...and so we see that there was never any “Golden Age
of Matriarchy” in 1895 in America.’
After Class:
Bill: ‘See what I mean?’
Jill: ‘Yeah. There must have been a Golden Age of Matriarchy,
since that jerk said there wasn’t.’
First, it is not quite evident that this is a fallacy; fallacy is a fallacious
argument and a fallacy is yet to be extracted from the above dialogue (if
there is any).
Secondly, if we apply a kind of a principle of charity on this artificially
constructed dialogue, and concede there is an argument in the above dia-
logue, we don’t need any new fallacy, it could easily be analysed as Ignoratio
Elenchi, Secundum Quid or even Petitio Principii3 (if we stay with the all
embracing fallacies (or ‘fallacies’). But it could easily be a version of Ad
Hominem,4 Straw-man,5 even Ad Populum.6 So, why create a new fallacy?
Maybe because it is hard to choose between the existing ones, since the cri-
teria are so unclear?
(b) Nirvana fallacy
(Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy) The Nirvana
fallacy is the logical error of comparing actual things with unrealistic,
3 Please, see the definitions on the previous pages.
4 ‘An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or arguments is
rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person pre-
senting the claim or argument.’ The Nizkor Project: http://nizkor.com/features/fal-
lacies/ad-hominem.html
5 ‘The Straw Man fallacy is committed when a person simply ignores a person’s actu-
al position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that
position.’ http://nizkor.com/features/fallacies/straw-man.html
6 ‘The basic idea is that a claim is accepted as being true simply because most peo-
ple are favorably inclined towards the claim.’ http://nizkor.com/features/fallacies/
appeal-to-popularity.html
52
