Chapter 16 (pp. 389-393) discusses Faulty Arguments, also known as fallacies. These fallacies are errors in logical reasoning, and we ALL know people who use these often when they are in arguments. Are you one of them? 🙂

There were 14 fallacies discussed in the book. In addition, I want you to know two others:

Bandwagon – a fallacy in which a threat of rejection by one’s peers (or peer pressure) is substituted for evidence in an “argument.” The phrase “Well, everyone else is doing it!” is often associated with this type of fallacy.
Red Herring – an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. The basic idea is to “win” an argument by leading attention away from the argument and to another topic. This sort of “reasoning” is fallacious because merely changing the topic of discussion hardly counts as an argument against a claim. Often times, this is referred to as a “distraction” fallacy because the counter-point really has nothing to do with the original arugment.

Based on those fallacies and the ones from chapter 14, please (1) Identify which fallacy is represented in each of the following statements and (2), in each case, explain why the statement is a faulty argument.

EXAMPLE STATMENT: “You should never smoke weed because if you do, you will definitely start taking harder drugs.”

EXAMPLE IDENTIFICATION: Slippery Slope

EXAMPLE EXPLANATION: Just because someone smokes marijuana doesn’t necessarily mean that they will abuse any of the “harder” drugs. Even though it’s illegal, some people just like to smoke to relax or to have a good time and realize that any other illegal substance would be harmful to their lifestyle.

ASSIGNMENT FALLACIES

I don’t see any reason to stop texting while I drive. Everyone does it so it’s obviously not that big of a deal.
It’s ridiculous to worry about silly things like pollution and recycling when innocent people are being killed by terrorists.
There can be no doubt that the economic crisis we are in was caused soley by President Obama. After he became President, our economy simply tanked.
If we allow HACC to spend money remodeling the gym at the Harrisburg campus, next they will want to remodel another building and give all the teachers a huge raise. Tuition will soar so high that students will be forced to drop out and then there will not be any options for local higher education.
Raising a child is just like having a pet—you just need to feed it, play with it, and everything will be fine.
It’s really hard to believe that Dr. Stout is a credible speech instructor. After all, she just learned what twerking is only a few months ago.
One nonsmoker, interviewed at a restaurant, said, “I can eat dinner just fine even though people around me are smoking.” Another, responding to a survey, said, “I don’t see what all the fuss is about. My wife has smoked for years and it has never bothered me.” Based on these results, we can see, then, that secondhand smoke does not cause a problem for most nonsmokers.
HACC students must go to at least one Hershey Bear hockey game or Harriburg Sentators baseball game in order to have a real college experience.