Fallacies and Argument Appraisal (Critical Reasoning and Argumentation)

✍ Scribed by Christopher W. Tindale

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 238
• Series: Critical Reasoning and Argumentation
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Fallacies and Argument Appraisal presents an introduction to the nature, identification, and causes of fallacious reasoning, along with key questions for evaluation. Drawing from the latest work on fallacies as well as some of the standard ideas that have remained relevant since Aristotle, Christopher Tindale investigates central cases of major fallacies in order to understand what has gone wrong and how this has occurred. Dispensing with the approach that simply assigns labels and brief descriptions of fallacies, Tindale provides fuller treatments that recognize the dialectical and rhetorical contexts in which fallacies arise. This volume analyzes major fallacies through accessible, everyday examples. Critical questions are developed for each fallacy to help the student identify them and provide considered evaluations.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Preface......Page 15
1 Strong and Weak Arguments......Page 21
2 Some Historical Conceptions of Fallacy......Page 26
3 Approaching Fallacies......Page 32
4 Why Arguments Go Wrong and How They Fool Us......Page 34
6 Summary......Page 36
FURTHER READING......Page 37
1 Straw Man......Page 39
Relevance......Page 43
2 Treatments of the Straw Man......Page 45
Critical Questions......Page 46
3 Red Herring......Page 48
4 What Has Gone Wrong in These Examples?
Where Does the Fallacy Lie?......Page 50
Critical Questions......Page 52
6 Irrelevant Conclusion......Page 54
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 56
FURTHER READING......Page 60
1 Invalid Structures......Page 61
2 Fallacies of Distribution......Page 64
3 Propositional Fallacies......Page 69
4 Treatments of Propositional Fallacies......Page 70
Critical Questions......Page 71
5 Formal and Informal Fallacies......Page 72
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 74
FURTHER READING......Page 75
1 Introduction......Page 77
2 Ambiguity and Equivocation......Page 78
3 Treatments of the Fallacy of Equivocation......Page 82
Critical Questions......Page 83
4 Vagueness......Page 84
Critical Questions......Page 87
6 Complex Question......Page 89
Critical Questions......Page 91
8 Begging the Question......Page 92
9 Treatments of Begging the Question......Page 95
Critical Questions......Page 96
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 97
FURTHER READING......Page 100
1 Introduction......Page 101
2 The General Ad Hominem......Page 103
3 Treatments of Ad Hominem......Page 106
Critical Questions......Page 109
Abusive Ad Hominem......Page 112
Circumstantial Ad Hominem......Page 113
Tu Quoque Arguments......Page 114
Guilt by Association......Page 116
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 117
FURTHER READING......Page 122
1 Introduction......Page 124
2 Argumentum Ad Populum......Page 125
Critical Questions......Page 127
3 Argumentum Ad Baculum......Page 128
Critical Questions......Page 132
4 Argumentum Ad Misericordiam......Page 133
Critical Questions......Page 135
5 Argumentum Ad Ignorantiam......Page 137
Critical Questions......Page 140
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 141
FURTHER READING......Page 146
1 Introduction......Page 147
2 Authorities and Experts......Page 148
3 Testimony......Page 150
4 The General Appeal to an Expert......Page 151
Critical Questions......Page 153
5 Ways of Fallaciousness: Complexities of the Appeal......Page 154
Critical Questions......Page 155
6 Summary......Page 163
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 164
FURTHER READING......Page 167
1 Introduction......Page 169
2 Generalizations......Page 170
Hasty Generalizations......Page 172
Secundum Quid......Page 174
The Gambler’s Fallacy......Page 175
Critical Questions......Page 177
5 Fallacy of Insufficient Statistics......Page 179
6 Fallacy of Biased Statistics......Page 181
7 Measurement Errors......Page 183
Critical Questions......Page 186
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 187
FURTHER READING......Page 191
1 Correlations and Causal Reasoning......Page 193
2 The Post Hoc Fallacy......Page 194
3 Misidentifying the Cause......Page 199
Critical Questions......Page 202
4 The Argument from Consequences......Page 203
5 The Fallacy of the Slippery Slope......Page 205
Critical Questions......Page 207
6 Distinguishing Causal Slopes from Precedents......Page 208
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 209
FURTHER READING......Page 213
1 Principles of Analogy......Page 214
2 False Analogy......Page 216
Critical Questions......Page 220
3 Fallacious Appeal to Precedent......Page 221
Critical Questions......Page 224
4 Two Wrongs by Analogy......Page 225
Critical Questions......Page 227
CHAPTER EXERCISES......Page 228
FURTHER READING......Page 233
Index......Page 235