Joseph Nathan Cohen

Department of Sociology, CUNY Queens College, New York, NY

Fallacies: Some Illustrative Examples

This one was done for fun with some technology that I didn’t really know how to use, but had fun trying.

Original Video Description

Examples of fallacies, argumentative tactics that can be used to deceive us into accepting a potentially poorly-justified position. A special thank you to Decory Robinson, my “co-star”. I appreciate you not running away from me as I scoured the halls for an emergency actor. Note: My mother called from Canada, asking me to tell people that Canadians generally don’t act as rudely as I did in the examples of fallacies.

Transcription (Auto-Generated)

In today’s lesson we’re going to talk about fallacies. Fallacies are deceptive arguments. We use them to trick other people into thinking that we’re right or they’re wrong. There are lots of different types of fallacies. Too many to cover in one video What we can do is give you a couple of examples so that you can a sense of what they are. An ad hominem argument is an argument against the person You are criticizing who is making the argument instead of criticizing the argument itself I don’t think Canadians are funnier than Americans You know why you think that? Because you don’t know what you’re talking about. You know why you don’t know what you’re talking about? Because you’re not Canadian Appeals the popularity argument to try to prove a point by saying everybody knows something’s true. The problem is that sometimes everybody’s wrong How do you know that Canadians are funnier than Americans? How do I know? Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. Where have you been? Appeals to authority try to prove a point by saying that something’s true because an authority figures says so The problem is that sometimes authority figures are wrong How do you know that Canadians are funnier than Americans? You know how I know? You know who my source is? Joe Cohen, Ph.D. These three fallacies are very similar. They direct attention to who is making the argument instead the argument that is being made Those are one type. There are others. burden of proof fallacies happen when someone challenges us to prove them wrong How do you know that Canadians are funnier than Americans? Prove me wrong Slippery slope argument basically argue that a small change is going to lead to a radical change It denies that small changes are possible Why can’t you just admit that Canadians and Americans are equally funny? You know why I’m not going to admit that? Do you know why? Because first we’re gonna start off by saying their equally as funny Then, we’re going go on to say they’re pretty much the same. Then, we’re going to go on to say that they are the same. Then, we’re going to have this system where there’s no room for individuality Basically, we’ll driven down to the level of robots Is that what you want? Do you want to live as a robot? Is that your goal? Those are some examples of fallacies There’s a lot more. Basically a fallacy is is a deceptive argument. We use them to trick people into thinking that either we’re right or they’re wrong