Entry 4_Bùi Thu Hằng

Entry 4

Argument structures and fallacies

Item 1: Funny story:

Lucy: What’s that awful looking sandwich you are making for me,Peter?

Peter: Peanut butter, strawberry jelly, bacon and bananas.

Lucy: I think I’m going to be sick.

Peter: Why? You like peanut butter, don’t you? You like strawberry jelly, don’t you? Moreover, I happen to know you like bacon and bananas too. What are you complaining about?

Analysis :

 - Fallacies of presumption. 

- This fallacy is committed when Peter mistakenly reason that what is true for a part is true for the whole.

Peter knows Lucy like peanut butter, jelly, bacon, bananas, so he thinks she will like his sandwich. However, Lucy does not like the combination of all these things.

Item 2: Picture:

Analysis:

- Structural fallacies

- The structure: Arguing backwards with all

All S are P                            ( S = Penguins, P = black and white, a = old TV shows)

a is P

______________

=> a is S

There are many things, which are not penguins , are black and white. Hence, when a old TV shows are blacks and white. it can not mean some old TV shows are penguin.

Item 3: Quotation:

“…..If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time.”

Source: http://www.authorama.com/miscellaneous-essays-2.html

Analysis: 

- Slippery slope (insufficient premises leading to false premises)

- If once a man indulges himself in murder

                          È(insufficient to conclude that)  

  he comes to think little of robbing

                          È (insufficient to conclude that)  

  he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking,

                          È(insufficient to conclude that)  

  incivility and procrastination