LOGIC FALLACIES ##

Logic fallacies #3

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/common-logical-fallacies

https://www.txstate.edu/philosophy/resources/fallacy-definitions/

I’ve been looking at Logic Fallacies (and, as I am discovering, there are a lot of them)!!

#5 - The Hasty Generalization Fallacy

When a person jumps to a conclusion based on insufficient information.

Examples:

When I shopped last week, there wasn’t any crunchy peanut butter.  I went shopping again today and there wasn’t any crunchy peanut butter.  Therefore, they have stopped making crunchy peanut butter!!

(Another version is called the unwarranted generalization)

Bald men are smart.  I know two bald men and they are really very smart

I was going to buy a new Honda, but my uncle had one back in the '70s and it was small and noisy and very uncomfortable. I don't think I want an uncomfortable car, so I'll buy something else.

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#6 Faulty Generalization 

One of my favorite stories is that of the centipede.

Researchers were testing the hearing of centipedes.  They yelled “Jump” and the centipedes jumped.  They cut off two legs and yelled “Jump” and the centipedes jumped.  They cut off two more legs and yelled “Jump” and the centipedes jumped.  (Etc) When they cut off the last two legs of the centipede and yelled “Jump” the centipedes did NOT jump.

Their conclusion was that when all the legs are cut off, the centipedes become deaf!!! 

No one objects to medical doctors using textbooks in their medical analysis, therefore students should have access to textbooks when taking a test.  

Person A got over COVID by gargling apple cider vinegar.  Therefore apple cider vinegar is THE solution to COVID.  (Not enough research - did the person take other medications?  How long did the process take?  Three weeks?  That is about the length of a COVID infection)

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#7 Faulty Correlation / generalization

I changed the color of my blog in March.  The number of readers of my blog dropped considerably in March - therefore, do not change the color of your blog as it will drop your readership!!!

Correlation generally expects causation.  There was a strong correlation between smoking and lung cancer - but proving that smoking caused cancer was harder (but was done).

I drove a different way to work last week and it took two minutes less.  It might be a faster route - but you need more cases, more study.  

The <name of the political party> was in office and the inflation rate zoomed up.  This may or may not be causation.

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#9 - The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

I hadn’t heard of this one.  A shooter shoots at a blank wall.  After a certain number of shots, goes to the area and paints a bulls-eye such that it looks like he is really great.

The fallacy is that some find data that they can ‘cherry-pick’ cases that support their conclusions.  

The page gives this example: Lisa sold her first startup to an influential tech company, so she must be a successful entrepreneur. (She ignores the fact that four of her startups have failed since then.)

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#10 Middle Ground Fallacy.

While I’ve written about compromise generally being good - it isn’t always the case. 

“Lola thinks the best way to improve conversions is to redesign the entire company website, but John is firmly against making any changes to the website. Therefore, the best approach is to redesign some portions of the website.”  

Lola was the whole website redesigned, John is against that - therefore redesign some portions of the website.  (This might be valuable - but which parts are you going to change?  Why?  What is your rationale?  Can you back it up?)

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Well, a few more fallacies today.

We’ll look at more tomorrow.  Can you think of any examples of these fallacies?

Hugs - and LOVE WINS!!!

Karen