LOGICAL FALLACIES

LOGICAL FALLACIES

Fallacies are enormous, misleading or unsound idea, belief or argument, and the error is the result of some misuse of the reasoning processes. We use the word fallacy to apply to some sort of conclusion that has been reached on the bases of unsound logic such as that all Nigerians should desire to hide in America because America has a higher standard of living than Nigeria.

Fallacies does not apply to simple error such as Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe died in 1940. Well-informed, highly intelligent human beings are often guilty of fallacious reasoning, though the more one knows how the mind then logic, the less likely he is to be illogical.

Some logical fallacies

Some sweeping generalisation.
This is a faulty induction based on insufficient sampling of specifics or lack of qualification of the generalisation.

Examples:

1. Soldiers work their aggressions by bullying civilians.
2. Lawyers are liars.

Use of faulty premises

When one arrives at a deductive conclusion by a faulty premise, it is called faulty deduction. The conclusion so drawn, in most likely to be false. For example, consider thin assertion. “my mother is a good woman”. The only premise term which she comment derives may be that “any woman who cooks regularly and clears the home is a good woman”.
Polarise thinking

This designates thinking that are poles apart completely opposite each other. Some people including in polarised thinking, when dealing with complex ideas, maintaining illogically that a person must be either for or against an idea, either on this side or that sides either at the south poles and not somewhere in between. For instance “if you are not with us, you are against us”.

Begging the question (logical fallacies)

This is a logical fallacies  in which a reasoned puts his conclusion into his premise, and then tries to use that premise to prove his conclusion. There is no demonstration that because one idea is tone, another must be true as a consequence for instance, a person may argue that we are.

Sure to have eternal life because the immortality of the soul guarantee that we will. The premises is that we will. The conclusion is that we will have eternal life boned on the promise that assumed that the soul is immortal. The conclusion and the promise is the same. Examples of begging the question are:
– Education is desirable because educated people are desirable.

Non sequitos

In a Latin phrase which means it does not follow. It represents a falling related to the misuse of promise, and it also derives from a sort of wild jump from a promise to a conclusion that has little of anything to do with the promise.

Example

1. Charles drinks. He portable beats his wife at home.
2. Charles drinks. He cannot be a good leader.

False Analogy

Thin is thread to a male idea believable or to make a difficult concept clear. A false analogy is one that tries to make one idea seem tone by comparing of with another idea that really has no relationship to the first. For instance, comparing an individual family to a federal government to point out that a huge national debt means financial disaster.

Poisoning the well.

Mr. A does not want to drink from the well but he also prevents Mr. B from drinking from it.
Example:- Mr. A tries to discourage Mr. B from attending a public lecture under a personality by saying “the time spent listening to him is time wasted”.

All of the above are the formal fallacies. Others are material fallacies (fallacy of accident) verbal fallacy which include. (Accent, equivocation and amphiboly).

– Too wrongs make a right.
This accepts the fact that when wrongs are juxtaposed the lesser one is right and permissible.

Example.
If you consider the magnitude of Shegun’s fraud, you will realize that Yomi is a honest man, in fact a saint.

– Irrelevant Appeal To Authority.

Here a wrong conclusion is drawn and justified by the logician reference to the position of relevant authority.

For instance in justifying good and work, a rich man can quote Karl Max’s postulation on the polarization of the society into two unequal parts.