Ch 17

Chapter 17 of Everything's an Argument is labeled as "Fallacies of Argument." These argued points are categorized as fallacies, which are arguments that raise questions about themselves. The examples given include "If you don't give me an A in this class, I won't get into medical school," "No blood for oil," and "9/11 changed everything." An A will most likely grant access to medical school, but the fallacy in this argument is that an instructor will not hand easy As or pick favorites, but rather the A is earned through the individual who aims to go to medical school. The incident with September 11 did leave a scar on the people affected by the attack, however it did not "change everything;" the government is still running and the world has not ended... yet. Fallacies are quite common in arguments. The term ad hominem is translated as "to the man" for certain arguments, indicating that these types of reasoning are aimed towards the person making the speech rather than a counter-argument to the statement made by him/her. For example, the text gives the argument "So you think that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a racist, a radical, and an anti-Semite? Well, you're just a white-beard, redneck bigot yourself!" The audience would suppose the rival had intended to argue that the Reverend is not "a racist, a radical, and an anti-Semite" but rather it seems that the discourse got side-tracked. Several times such a fallacy may be needed, such that an individual or group can counterattack using hypocracy exhibited by the opponent.

Fallacies are found in all three types of arguments: Emotional, ethical, and logical. By placing false and extreme points in emotional appeals may cause the audience to lose respect when the argument made can be overdone to the point of which it may "frighten," "provoke tears," or "stir up hatred." A great example for emotional fallacy is the animal cruelty advertisement with Sarah McLachlin's song "In the Arms of an Angel," which have left tears in many people's eyes. 
Second, false arguing can be present in ethos. Fallacies occur when the author claims him or herself or other people to be enough evidence to prove a claim is accurate. Commonly, children would follow their older siblings, family, or friends when the superiors would say "Don't touch my stuff because I said so! You can't eat that cookie because I said so!" (However in this case when the children mature, they would say "but you let Older Sibling A and B do it! But you let your friends do it! So why can't I?") This is found mostly in campaigns, in which politicians are most well-known for citing the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and many other documents, as pastors and priests would cite the Pope's words or religious texts. Scholars do the same for institutions, such as the Department of Education and Wall Street. 
Third and lastly, logical appeals can also contain fallacies. Take the 1+1=0 fallacy:
1+1=
1+sqrt(1^2)=
1+(sqrt(1))^2=
1+sqrt((-1)^2)=
1+(sqrt(-1))^2=
1+(i)^2=
1+(-1)=
0
It is obvious that this logic has a mistake in it, but it almost makes perfect sense that kindergarten teachers have taught addition the wrong way. The example given in the text is of Google and how assumptions can be made that it is "anti-American" because it never decorated its logo for Memorial Day or the well-known American holidays but instead on occasions such as Earth Day, the anniversary of Sputnik, and the Persian New Year. Stereotypes and generalizations are basically what defines logical fallacies. Several examples given in the book include "Women are bad drives; men are slobs; Scots are stingy," and so forth. Faulty causality can also emerge through fallacies of logos. Faulty causality is the assumption of when one incident happens after another, the first action is the cause and the second is the effect, or the result of the first action. However, this is not always correct, hence the faulty in "faulty causality." Other types of logos fallacies include equivocation (a "half-truth" e.g. according to the text, a student plagiarizes but argues that she "wrote it herself"), faulty analogy (when the assumption of a past event causing a reaction implies that a similar event in the future will arouse the same reaction, ex. September 11 and Russia's incursion into Georgia), and non sequitur (reason/s fail to connect with the claim. e.g. That instructor does not like me because s/he did not give me an A on the last test).


I believe that fallacies occur over time. Ever since the beginning of the creation of arguments, there have been people who took it to the next level and found it quite effective. Thus fallacies were born, supposedly. The more arguments evolved, more people began to realize what an argument is supposed to sound like and categorized these false points as fallacies. Fallacies can be seen in all three appeals: pathos, ethos, and logos. Emotional ads can be called fallacies when it overdoes the emotion trigger, such as the animal cruelty advertisement featuring McLachlan's song or the Old Spice commercials (which fallacies are purposefully thrown in just for the sake of humor). Ethical fallacies are more of the "Follow-the-Leader" (or more as "Follow-the-Authoritative-Source") game combined with the superiority feeling. Logical fallacies are basically false accusations and generalizations based on facts and logic. I personally tend to have inner fallacies with myself, such as the laptop I bought from the local Costco store over the summer is overly-priced and breaks down quite often at least four times a day, which I blame Costco for its poor selection of electronics. Another one I tend to get is that college students, mostly the guys (no offense), have no patience while driving, as I have seen several students rush through traffic. Sadly, fallacies are everywhere, and don't really think it will ever cease but neither will it really increase much.