4th week discussion: logic 31 34

Note 1: You will not be able to post to this Discussion topic until you’ve gone through all the Module lessons for this week.

Note 2: This topic closes at 11:59 pm on Sunday night. Please participate in the discussion from Monday – Friday so that your classmates can interact with you, your professor can provide real-time feedback, and you can take off the weekend. Everyone’s a winner!

Greetings, logicians! You have three responsibilities this week. First, here are some of the fallacies you studied:

Table shows fallacies

ambiguity division composition

non sequitur distorting thefacts post hoc ergo propter

hasty generalization

slippery slope parade of horrors

straw man specialpleading begging the question

oversimplification red herring tu quoque poisoning the well

appeal to ignorance appeal to authority

death by a thousand qualifications

protecting the hypothesis

or any other fallacy in lecture notes or readin

1. Pick one of these fallacies or any other (no repeats – pick one different from your classmates, please!) and write a brief example of it and a brief explanation of its fallaciousness. Your sentence should have a false premise, factual error, or logical inconsistency making it invalid or unsound.

Example 1:

The governor was an action movie star, all brawn and no brains. How can we expect him to lead?

–> This is an ad hominem fallacy because it impugns a person’s character (“no brains”) without any evidence while also associating that purported trait with an unrelated attribute (being unable to lead).

2. Create either an unsound or a sound syllogism based on anything you want. An unsound syllogism must be logically invalid, factually untrue, or both. A sound syllogism must be both logically valid and true. After you write your unsound or sound syllogism, state why the conclusion, major/minor premises, facts, etc., are flawed or flawless.

Example 2:

I’m opting to write an unsound syllogism here…

Davis is a sub-par rhythm guitarist. Davis is an English teacher. Therefore, all English teachers are sub-par rhythm guitarists.

–> Untrue factually about Davis 🙂 Moreover, opinions can’t be proved. This is also invalid logically, as it commits the fallacy of composition wherein something true of one thing is spuriously applied to all similar things. Therefore, this syllogism is “unsound.”

3. What’s a real world example of a time when you’ve seen ethos, pathos, andlogos in effect at the same event or location? Think politics, interviews, the mall… Share your example with the class.

For full points, respond meaningfully and grammatically to the three prompts. You are not required to reply to classmates, though you may.

Throughout the work week, please review my feedback on your classmates’ discussion posts and on your own. These writing exercises are public

This topic was locked Jul 11 at 11:59pm.

because you can learn much from observing others’ writing techniques and revisions. Thank you!

Learning Outcomes: Demonstrate ability to apply critical thinking and analysis. Demonstrate information competency. Use effective communication and interpersonal skills. Use research materials appropriately.

Logic discussion rubric /1 one original, grammatically correct fallacy /2 an original, grammatically correct, unsound or sound syllogism /2 grammatically correct example of ethos, pathos, and logos /5 TOTAL