Definition of fallacy Essay Example for Free

Definition of fallacy Essay The author tries to distract the audience from the original issue by bringing up related but irrelevant issues. Usually the evidence can be used to support a closely related or similar conclusion. Explanation The author is placing information within the article that is irrelevant to the case. He is talking about Mr. Iqbal and the fact he is seeking discovery, which is likely to be critical for his claims to go forward. And then talking about how the government officials aren’t involved, intercepts. Mr. Iqbal is the center of this article, and everything within it is not entirely about him. They deter and talk about how the Bush administration is arguing that these government officials are innocent. â€Å"The issue in the Supreme Court is whether these high-ranking officials are protected from having to answer questions of this kind. The Bush administration argues that the officials were not sufficiently involved in the detention policies to be responsible for them. It also maintains that if top government officials were required to comply with such discovery requests, it would interfere with their ability to do their jobs. † Argument in Standard Form Point One: Bush administration insists the officials are not really involved. Point Two: That complying with discovery requests would interfere with their ability to do their jobs. So, the Bush administration should not give a feeble excuse for the government officials to get out of the discovery requests. 2. Name of fallacy Slippery Slope Definition of fallacy When the conclusion rests on an alleged chain reaction, and there is not sufficient reason to think that the chain reaction will actually take place. Explanation of fallacy Here, one is jumping from one thing to another on what may or has happened. What’s to say it will happen again? People can change; people can learn from their mistakes and never commit such a thing again. â€Å"The construction state is in some respects akin to the military-industrial complex in cold-war America (or the Soviet Union), sucking in the country’s wealth, consuming it inefficiently, growing like a cancer, and bequeathing both fiscal crisis and environmental devastation, commented Gavan McCormack, a professor at the Australian National University. The stimulus plans had the opposite effect of what was expected. Appalled at the country’s new deficits, Japanese consumers closed their wallets. † Argument in Standard Form Point One: The construction state is akin to the military-industrial complex in cold-war America (or the Soviet Union). Point Two: The stimulus plans had the opposite effect of what was expected. So, we should not outright assume things will repeat as they did in the past before anything has even been tried. 3. Name of fallacy Straw Man Definition of fallacy Ignores an actual position and presents a distorted, oversimplified or misrepresented version to make it easier to attack. Explanation of fallacy The author is saying that while the financial chaos has ruined sleep, our physical and human capital is unscathed? What does that mean? It’s a distorted message. Then the fact they talk about if it hasn’t changed, we haven’t suffered any capital loss. What if we have suffered some capital loss and the government simply will not let the public know about it? â€Å"This financial chaos has ruined our sleep but left our physical and human capital unscathed. We have the same productive capacity today we had a year ago. And if our capital hasn’t changed, we’ve suffered no overall capital loss. † Argument in Standard Form Point One: Financial chaos has ruined our sleep but has left our capital unscathed. Point Two: Since we have the same productive capacity today we had a year ago, we should have suffered no capital loss. So, financial chaos happened. It affected us in more ways than one. That’s it.