Ethics Fallacies

Causal Oversimplification

Form of Questionable Cause. Assuming cause was just one thing when there could have been multiple causes

Genetic Fallacy

Judging an argument based on its source

Two Wrongs Make A Right

Justifying a wrong by pointing to a similar wrong of the past that was accepted as okay

Questionable Cause

Labeling A as the cause of B on evidence that is insufficient, negative, unrepresentative, or in serious conflict with well-established high-level theories Ex: Reasoning from the fact that children of other races do worse in school than white children, that the reason is because they are not white

Quibbling

Making a big deal out of a small mistake

Straw Man

Misrepresenting an opponent's position or a competitor's product to make it easier to attack them or to tout one's own product as superior, or attacking a weaker opponent while ignoring a stronger one

False Dilemma - Either Or

Occurs when an argument is based on the assumption that there are just two viable alternatives, one of which is bad (so the other has to be chosen), although there is at least one other viable alternative

Questionable Use of Statistics

Perfectly good statistics also sometimes are a problem for two reasons: 1. The inability of many people to understand the significance of the statistic 2. The ability of charlatans to bamboozle the rest of us via cleverly employed statistics

Polls

Polls can be misleading because 1. the way the questions are worded 2. they ask the wrong questions 3. respondents answer as their peers do 4. based on small/unrepresentative sample

Unrepresentative Sample

Reasoning from a sample that is not representative of the population from which it was drawn

Invincible Ignorance

Refusing to revise your view/position despite contrary evidence

False Dilemma - Horns

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Neglect of a Common Cause

A and B are both caused by C.

Post Hoc

A came before B, so a must be the cause of B Ex: Yusef comes to class before he goes to the bathroom, so coming to class must make him go to the bathroom

Small Sample

Drawing conclusions about a population on the basis of a sample tha tis too small to be a reliable measure of the population

Slippery Slope

Accepting a claim that a slope is slippery when no or insufficient reason has been presented to justify that claim Ex: Believing that if one family member begins smoking, the whole family will soon become smokers

Questionable Premise/Statement

Accepting a less than believeable premise or other statement Ex: Accepting the claim that Budweiser is the best beer as a reason for switching to it

Tokenism

Accepting a token gesture in lieu of the real thing Ex: Admitting one black student to say the university isn't racist

Hasty Conclusion

Accepting an argument on the basis of relevant but insufficient information/evidence Ex: Sherlock Holmes' conclusion that Dr. Watson was an army man just back from Afghanistan

Inconsistency

Accepting the conclusion of an argument that has self-contradictory statements or statements that contradict each other

Appeal to Authority

Accepting the word of alleged authorities when there is not sufficient reason to believe that they have the information we are seeking, or that they can be trusted to provide it to us

Red Herring

Drawing someone's attention away from the point: a distraction

Causal Inference from Statistical Correlation

Drawing the wrong conclusion from a statistical correlation

Ad Hominem

An irrelevant attack on an opponent rather than on the opponent's evidence or arguments

Begging the Question

Answering the question by rephrasing the statement, or avoiding the question entirely

Appeal to Ignorance

Arguing that the failure to find evidence refuting a claim justifies believing that it is true Ex: Believing that there are no aliens because we have no proof of them

Division

Assuming that all or most parts of an item have a property because the whole item has it Ex: Assuming the rooms in a large hotel are large

Composition

Assuming that an item has a certain property because all or most of its parts have that property Ex: Assuming that buying a car is cheap because the monthly payments are low

Provincialism

Assuming your view is true just because it is yours

Is-Ought

Because something is the case, the argument is that it should be the case

Faulty Analogy

Comparing two things that are not actually alike

Questionable Statistics

Employing statistics that are questionable without further support Ex: ?

False Charge of Fallacy

Erroneously accusing others of fallacious reasoning Ex: Accusing someone of a fallacy who has changed his mind as to the lack of creativity of women in light of contrary evidence

Hasty Generalization

Same as small sample. Ex: Meeting two people from Iceland, and assume that everyone from Iceland is just like them

Smokescreen/Disclaimer Fallacy

Saying "no offense," "just kidding," etc. before or after you say your true view/opinion

Hand Waving

Waving something off as common knowledge Ex: Everyone knows poor people are lazy, so don't waste my time with it

Irrelevant Reason

Trying to prove something with evidence that is or comes close to being irrelevant Ex: Countering the claims of anti-war protesters by arguing that anti-war talk tells the enemy we don't have the resolve to fight

Equivocation

Using a term or expression in an argument in one sense in one place, and in different sense in another