Fallacies

For this blog assignment we were to read in chapter nine of our texts about fallacies. Dictionary.com defines fallacy as:

1. a deceptive, misleading, or false notion, belief, etc.: That the world is flat was at one time a popular fallacy.

and

4. Logic. any of various types of erroneous reasoning that render arguments logically unsound.

Our text dealt primarily with the second definition, or how fallacies are used in logic, with arguments.

One of the methods of using a fallacy in an argument that I see used most often in my political debates with friends or relatives is the slippery slope argument. An example of this was used in our textbook, discussing how some people believe if we have handgun registration, it's only a slippery slope down towards no rights for gun owners and soon we'll be in a police state. I hear this argument all the time from my stepdad, who is a hunter and favors strong rights for gun owners. I am in favor of common sense handgun laws, but whenever I argue for them, my stepdad will say "If we allow that [registration, more stringent background checks, limits on how many guns someone can buy in a month] than the next thing you know they'll want to take away our guns alltogether."

In all, I understood the basic principle behind fallacies but I'm not looking forward to whatever assignment we'll be doing that requires us to write about them. I'm sure our professor had us read this chapter because our next paper will deal with fallacies. Oh well. :)