Loophole: Classic Flaws Flashcards
(47 cards)
Bad Conditional Reasoning
There’s a conditional premise, but a crazy person reads it backwards without negating it any way BUT the contrapositive
Premise: X –> Y
Crazy Person: Y–> ~X or ~Y –> X
Bad Causal Reasoning
Crazy person sees that two things are related, and they concluded that one thing must be causing another
Omitted Options
1) What if there’s no relationship here at all?
2) What if the causation is backwards?
3) What if a new factor caused one or both?
Whole-to-Part & Part-to-Whole
1) Crazy person says that a member of a category has a property, so all members of the category have it too
2) Crazy person says that a category has a property and says each individual member has it too
Overgeneralization
Crazy person takes something small and turns it into something big by talking about something having a property and concluding that a bunch of other things also have that property
Survey Problems
1) Biased Sample
2) Biased Questions
3) Other Contradictory Surveys
4) Survey Liars
5) Small Sample Size
False Starts
Researchers assume two groups are the same in all respects, but really, one group is ahead of the other
Possibility Does Not Equal Certainty
1) Lack of evidence = Evidence of Lacking
2) Proof of Evidence does not mean Evidence of Proof
Implication
1) Blair has a belief
2) Crazy person mentions a factual implication of that belief
3) Crazy person claims that Blair believes the implication of that belief
False Dichotomy
There are only two options, but there can actually be more
Straw Man
Responds to an argument by mishearing what was said to them (has nothing to do with the claim)
Ad Hominem
Sane person makes a claim, but a crazy person talks about how the sane person is bad to conclude their argument is false
Circular Reasoning
The argument’s conclusion are its premises
Equivocation
Crazy person uses a word or idea, intending one of its possible meanings, but the crazy person concludes something using other possible meaning of the word or idea
Appeal Fallacies
Crazy person says that a person or group believes something, and they conclude that the thing must be true
Irrelevant
Crazy person supplies a few premises but concludes something unrelated to them
Percentages are not Numbers
1) Crazy person says “A percent went up” and concludes the real number went up
2) Crazy person says “A real number went up” and says that the associated percentage also went up
Necessary / precondition / required
Bad Conditional Reasoning
Sufficient / enough / ensure
Bad Conditional Reasoning
Effect / Result & Cause / Causal
Bad Causal Reasoning
Two things occur in conjunction
Bad Causal Reasoning
One thing happens after another
Bad Causal Reasoning
Individual member of a group
Whole-to-part / Part-to-Whole
Parts of a whole / Group as a whole
Whole to part / Part to Whole
