1. Which of the fallacies described in this chapter have you heard/seen used the most often? In what kind of situations have you heard the fallacy used?

I think I most often hear ad hominem fallacies, especially when it comes to politics. If you listen closely to debates, there are a lot of times in which the attack is on a person as a whole rather than the message they are defending.

2. Describe a time when you may have used one of these fallacies (either consciously or subconsciously) to argue your point of view. How did the person you were talking with respond?

I probably use the Searching for a Perfect Solution fallacy the most. When I think I am right, I always subconsciously start knocking down any other solution besides the one that I think is right. So, if someone offers a solution, but there is a small flaw, I will advocate to not move forward with that solution.

3. Identify the fallacies in the following passage:

The main fallacy in this second paragraph is a Slippery Slope Fallacy. It is trying to convince the reader that if gay marriage is legalized, there will suddenly be all of these other things that are legalized afterwards. I also can sense a little bit of ad hominem against gay people by the verbiage “infiltrated the legislative body”. Appeal to Emotion is present in the form of appealing to the reader’s sense of patriotism. They are trying to say that gay marriage is an attack on our nation and are therefore building their argument on patriotism.

4. Identify the fallacies in the following passage:

This fallacy is definitely ad hominem. You can sense the hatred throughout the entire argument and the personal attack on those who want to ban fraternity parties. There is not a lot of reasoning for the argument, instead it is just trying to (poorly) discredit anyone who holds ideas different from theirs. It is most clear when the words “only an idiot”, “antisocial loners”, and “pointless action”. This is followed up with slippery slope in which they convince the reader that if frat parties are banned, then every social event with alcohol will also be banned.

5. Choose one of the passages above and make three suggestions for how the argument could be stronger.

For the frat party passage, there are many ways it could be improved. First, there needs to be statistics. For example, statistics on all the good that fraternities do across the nation including things like volunteering hours or fundraisers. Also, there needs to be less emotionally charged words like “idiot” or “loner”. It comes across as immature and uneducated. This discredits their argument. Finally, they need to focus on concrete reasoning rather than playing the blame game. At this point, it is not an argument, but rather a personal attack.