english 2 Fallacy

1. Fallacy Identification Exercises
Most of the following exercise examples are from Hurley’s Concise Introduction to
Logic. Try to identify the fallacy each commits and be able to support your
choice.
1. DeLay argues that stem-cell research is immoral. But DeLay is an ultra right-wing
lunatic who’s incapable of thinking objectively. Obviously his argument is non-sense.
2. Barbara Striesand, Paul Newman and Julia Roberts are Democrats. Therefore all
Hollywood stars are Democrats.
3. The ship of state is like a ship at sea. No sailor is allowed to protest orders from the
captain. So no citizens should be allowed to protest presidential policies.
4. Eat your liver and carrots. Don’t you want to grow up to be big and strong like the
X-men?
5. Poet Allen Ginsburg argued in favor of legalizing pornography. But Ginsberg’s
arguments are just trash: He was a marijuana-smoking homosexual and advocate of
the drug culture.
6. The garment workers have signed a petition arguing for better ventilation on the
premises. Unfortunately, air conditioning is expensive. Air ducts would have to be
run through the factory, and a massive heat-exchange unit installed on the roof. The
cost of operating it in the summer would be astronomical. In view of all this, the
petition must be rejected.
7. There’s a lot of talk these days about getting the pesticides out of our fruits and
vegetables. But many of these foods are essential to our health. Carrots are an
excellent source of vitamin A, broccoli is rich in iron, and oranges and grapefruits
have lots of vitamin C.
8. The position open in the accounting department should be given to Frank. He’s got
six hungry children to feed and his wife needs an operation to save her eyesight.
9. President Bush argues that we should open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
for oil drilling. But Bush just wants to reward his rich cronies in the oil industry, so
we can’t take his arguments seriously.

2. 10. Whoever puts a knife in another person deserves togo to jail, so surgeons should
be locked up.
11. You should read An Inconvenient Truth. It’s been on the N Y Times Best Seller list
for 29 weeks.
12. Senator Barrow advocates increased Social Security benefits for the poor. It’s
regrettable that he finds it necessary toembrace socialism. Socialism defeats
initiative, takes away promised rewards and leads to inefficiency and big
government. It was tried and failed in Europe. Clearly socialism is no good.
13. Animal rights activists say that animals are abused in biomedical research labs.
But actually, pets are abused by their owners every day, and probably about 25% of
pet owners neglect their pets. Some cases of abuse are enough to make you sick.
14. The Free-Lance Star carried a report about three teenagers arrested on drug
charges. Teenagers these days are just a bunch of junkies.
15. If a car breaks down on the freeway, a passing mechanic is not required to stop
and provide road service. Likewise, if a person has a heart attack on the street, a
passing physician is not obligated to render emergency medical care.
16. There’s probably life on Mars, because Pat Robertson says God told him there is.
17. The secretaries have asked for lounge areas where they can take their coffee
breaks. We’ll have to turn down this request. If we give them the lounge areas, next
they’ll want a TV, and then snack machines, a spa and a swimming pool. We can’t
afford all that.
18. Paris Hilton says that “Scary Movie” is excellent, so it must be worth seeing.
19. No one can prove that extrasensory perception doesn’t happen, so therefore it’s a
legitimate theory.
20. When water is poured over a pile of rocks, it always trickles down to the very
bottom. Similarly, when rich people make lots of money, we can expect this to trickle
down to the less fortunate.

3. 21. “I see nobody on the road,” said Alice.
“I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “Tobe able to see
nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by
this light.” Alice in Wonderland
22. I’ve always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one
of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunker done it once,
and bragged about it; and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off the shot
tower, and spread himself out so that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say.
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn
23. But can you doubt that air has weight when you have the clear testimony of
Aristotle affirming that all the elements have weight, including air, and excepting
only fire? Galileo, Dialogues
24. Order is indispensable to justice because justice can be achieved only by means of
a social and legal order. Ernst Van Den Haag, Punishing Criminals
25. “I would like to ask the learned gentleman, on which side he is descended from a
monkey, his mother’s or his father’s?
26. We must believe in God’s existence because it is taught in the Holy Scriptures,
and we must believe the Holy Scriptures because they have come from God.
Descartes, Meditations
27. Your food section often features recipes with veal, and you say that veal is a
wholesome and nutritious dish. I disagree. Do you know how veal comes to be on
your plate? How a baby calf is separated from its mother, chained up in a dark
enclosure so it can’t move, to limit its muscular development so it’s tender? And then
it’s kept in the dark until it’s slaughtered for you. Letter tothe Editor, Cascade News

4. Choose youranswersfromthe followingfallacies
Ad hominem
Ad hominem
Appeal to Pity
Ad Hominem
Appeal to Authority
Appeal to Authority
Appeal to Ignorance
Appeal to Authority
Appeal to Pity
Band Wagon
Begging the Question
Begging the Question
Equivocation
False Cause
False Dichotomy
False cause or Begging the Question?
False cause or Red Herring
Hasty generalization
Hasty Generalization
Red Herring
Red Herring
Slippery Slope? Red Herring?
Straw man
Slippery Slope
Weak Analogy
Weak Analogy
Weak Analogy