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EXERCISES FOR PART FIVE
Name the fallacy and why in the following examples.
1. Given the performance of the three students I’ve had in class from Ridgemont High School, I’d have to say the people from there are losers.
2. Mom, everybody’s wearing green tennis shoes at school now; I won’t be popular unless I’ve got some.
3. Did you fail the exam because you’re lazy, or because you’re stupid?
4. The layoffs at Boeing were clearly racist: over 60% of the people laid off were black or Puerto Rican.
5. Arthur denies that he is a conservative, so he must be a liberal.
6. Are we to support federal welfare programs, or are we to let people starve on the streets?
7. There can be no truth in Nietzsche’s philosophy, for Nietzsche was a man who deserted his friends and betrayed those who trusted him.
8. The Sonics are the outstanding team in the conference, because they have the best players and the best coach. We know they have the best players and the best coach because they will win the conference title. And they will win the conference title because they deserve to win the conference title. Of course they deserve to win the conference title, for they are the outstanding team in the conference.
9. Welfare is a scam. I know a guy who runs a secret gambling operation and drives a Cadillac down to collect his welfare check.
10. A car has either got to be good quality or cheap. I don’t want a cheap piece of junk, and I can’t afford a good one. That’s why I don’t have a car.
11. The sun illuminates the earth as a torch illuminates an object. But one moves a torch to illuminate one’s house, rather than moving the house to be illuminated by the torch. Hence it is the sun which revolves around the earth rather than the earth around the sun.
12. Newspaper headline: After two nights of looting and rioting, the mayor called a curfew for the next night.
13. The chiropractors have failed entirely in their attempts to establish a scientific basis for their concepts. This question can therefore be settled once and for all. Chiropractic has no basis in science.
14. It is our duty to do what is right. We have the right to disregard good advice. Hence, it is our duty to disregard good advice.
15. When questioned about someone in the State Department whom he had claimed had Communist affiliations, the late Sen. Joe McCarthy declared: “I do not have much information on this except the general statement of the agency that there is nothing in the files to disprove his Communist connection.”
Richard insists that the Bell curve is not an accurate measure of group performance. He has been an accounting major for three years now, so he knows a lot about mathematics.
