Fallacies

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that critical thinking skills require a careful assessment of all of the facts and avoidance of many of the constraints introduced by various fallacies. The paper discusses the three common types of fallacy: the ad hominem arguments, the false dilemma and the straw man fallacy. The paper maintains that in a day and age where a "culture of fear" is being foisted on the American public by politicians and the media alike, critical thinking skills have become more important that ever.

Outline:
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"According to Walton (1989), ad hominem arguments are personal attacks on the answerer himself. Not surprisingly, for many people, "It may be difficult to know how to handle such powerful and subtle attacks, and whatever the answerer does or fails to do can be tricky and dangerous. In particular, it is hard to know what form of criticism is appropriate, or even to know how to reasonably and fairly evaluate whether or why such a question is open to justifiable criticism or not" (p. 147). This author emphasizes that in ad hominem fallacies, the attackers frequently focus on the personal situation, actions, character, or affiliations of the person whose arguments or statements are the subject of criticism, an approach that has long been regarded as a fallacy and which represents a lapse in critical thinking skills (Walton, 1989)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baarsma, W. (2002). Shafer v. South Carolina: Another missed opportunity to remove juror ignorance as a factor in capital sentencing. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 93(1), 23.
• Entine, J. (2001, September). The straw man of 'race.' World and I, 16(9), 294.
• Hutchenson, M. (2006). AP English Language Definitions. Retrieved July 4, 2006 from http://annahutcheson.tripod.com/id8.html.
• Miller, M., & Wright, R. (2002). The screening/bargaining tradeoff. Stanford Law Review, 55(1), 29.
• Spiro T. Agnew. (2006). Rotten.com Library. Retrieved July 4, 2006 from http://www. rotten.com/library/bio/usa/spiro-t-agnew/.

More papers on Fallacies:

• Essay # 83512 : "Fallacies in the Media"
• Essay # 89197 : "Common Fallacies in Debate"
• Essay # 70736 : "Logical Fallacies"
• Term Paper # 121049 : "Logical Fallacies"

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