tailieunhanh - Evaluating fact 4

Tham khảo tài liệu 'evaluating fact 4', ngoại ngữ, anh ngữ phổ thông phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | MISUSING DEDUCTIVE REASONING-LOGICAL FALLACIES Examples My history professor said everyone who wrote a term paper favoring the separatists in the Philippines is sick. I guess if I m sick I can skip class today. The word sick is used in the argument twice each with a different meaning. The professor meant mentally disturbed and the student thought he meant physically ill. Hot dogs are better than nothing. Nothing is better than steak. Therefore hot dogs are better than steak. It is not hard to spot the logical fallacy in this argument the conclusion is obviously wrong although the premises are both true. There is an equivocation in the meaning of the word nothing in the first premise it means not a thing and in the second premise it means no other possible thing. Using a critical word with two different meanings makes the argument invalid. Now you see how one word with two different meanings can be an equivocation. The other way in which reasoning may be deemed invalid due to this fallacy is by using one word that has a number of different meanings. For example My house is by the lake. Why don t you drop in Two meanings of the word drop could be right. It might mean Why don t you stop by my house or it could mean why don t you fall into the lake. The equivocation of the word drop makes the meaning of the sentences unclear. Save soap and waste paper is another good example. The word waste could mean either the noun garbage or the verb to use thoughtlessly. Equivocation can be confusing because it begins with truthful or reasonable premises which you can agree with. Then the meaning of a critical word is changed and an illogical or faulty conclusion is drawn. If you follow the argument you could fall into the trap of agreeing with something you would never have otherwise accepted. The best way to handle this fallacy is to get information. Ask for clear definitions of any critical terms that could be used in different ways. When you have pinned them down they can t be