Please respond to:
There are two types of fallacies. There are formal and informal fallacies. Boss (2017) describes a formal fallacy when the form of the argument itself is invalid (p. 145). Boss (2017) also describes an informal fallacy as a type of mistaken reasoning that occurs when an argument is psychologically or emotionally persuasive but logically incorrect (p. 145). There are three groups of fallacies within the informal fallacies type. These three groups are fallacies of ambiguity, fallacies of relevance, and fallacies with unwarranted assumptions. There are multiple fallacies in each group, and I will be discussing one fallacy from each group.
The first fallacy I will discuss is the fallacy of accent in the group of fallacies of ambiguity. According to Boss (2017), the fallacy of accent occurs when the meaning of an argument changes according to which word or phrase in it is emphasized (p. 147). I actually laughed at the example in the book about playing with matches because I feel like the delinquent daughters response is something I would have said as a child.
The second fallacy I will be discussing is in the fallacies of relevance group. I will discuss the fallacy of appeal to ignorance. In this fallacy, we seem to agree that something is true, just because no one has proven it to be false. Or that something is false because no one has proven it to be true. I suppose I could say that I commit this fallacy a lot. One of my favorite TV shows to watch with my wife is Ghost Adventures. For those who dont know what the show is, basically a group of paranormal investigators travel around the country to haunted houses and buildings and capture whatever evidence they can find that ghosts are real. Whether or not ghosts are real or if a place is truly haunted is a very controversial topic because some people believe, and others do not. I have had multiple things happen to me with no explanation. I have had doors slam around me with no air flow in the room, I have had things be moved to another place when no one is around, I have heard footsteps and even voices when no one is around or talking. Now although I cannot prove that these things happened because of a ghost, there is also no evidence that it was not a ghost.
The last fallacy I will discuss is in the fallacies with unwarranted assumptions group. I will discuss the loaded question fallacy. This fallacy assumes a particular answer to another unasked question. The book gives the example of the question, Have you stopped beating your girlfriend? Questions like this are almost impossible to answer. If you say yes, then it implies that your used to beat your girlfriend, but if you say no, then in implies that you are still beating your girlfriend. This type of fallacy could be used in so many ways. A couple more examples include Have you stopped stealing money from work? Have you stopped using drugs? No matter how you answer the question, you could get in trouble.
ALSO PLEASE ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING QUESTION:
-How might understanding logical fallacies help us refine which questions we ask during research or debates?
