By Luke Langlois
This is the second of my two-part post explaining rhetorical fallacies. For the first eight fallacies, check out my last post. For the uninitiated, rhetorical fallacies (as defined by the University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Writing Center) are rhetorical strategies commonly used in arguments that “do not allow for the open, two-way exchange of ideas upon which meaningful conversations depend. . . . [T]hey distract the reader with various appeals instead of using sound reasoning.” Now, let us get right back into these fallacies.
9. Begging the Question: This is probably the toughest fallacy to understand, and explaining it in words does not really do it justice. It’s best to think of this fallacy as “improper circular reasoning.” For example, if you get in some trouble at school and have your friend vouch for you, your teacher is naturally going to ask, “How am I supposed to trust your friend?” It would be “begging the question” if you responded with “Well, I vouch for my friend, and my friend vouches for me!” It’s circular, and it doesn’t work. Begging the question assumes the truth of a conclusion, rather than supporting a conclusion.
10. Straw Man Argument: A straw man argument misdirects and oversimplifies the argument. For example, if I wanted to change the face of the person on the $2 bill, someone making a straw man argument might accuse me of hating the United States and its history because I want to change the person on the $2 bill.
11. Sentimental Appeal: A sentimental appeal argument attempts to appeal to the emotions, the sentiments of the reader, so that they are not actually using their logic to dissect the idea. “Please, give us donations, or these puppies will continue to freeze and suffer.” It does not matter if the organization asking for donations is shady, we must save the puppies!
12. Red Herring: A red herring is an attempt to shift attention away from the argued issue by throwing in a whole new issue that does not logically connect to the initial issue. If a world leader is making a speech about having to go to war and then starts talking about their nationalistic pride, they are attempting to distract listeners from the fact of the war with the fact of their nationalistic pride.
13. Scare Tactics: This is probably another one of the most commonly used fallacies. The speaker tries to frighten the audience into agreeing with the speaker. “If we do not invade and conquer Canada, they will steal our children, our land, and our lives!” Whoever the speaker is wants to convince the audience that Canada should be invaded by making the audience fear for their children, land, and lives.
14. Bandwagon Appeals: A speaker using a bandwagon appeal tries to “use the masses” to convince the listener of a certain point. Children often try to use this fallacy to convince their parents to buy them something.” All of my friends have it, so I should too!” Parents often counter this fallacy by asking their children if they would jump off of a cliff if their friends were doing it.
15. Dogmatism: This fallacy occurs when the speaker assumes that their logic is beyond any sort of refute or question. “I am the leader of the milk enthusiast group; milk is the only acceptable beverage on this planet, and there is no question about it!” The speaker basically presents their idea as perfection, and does not open themselves up to discuss their idea. Clearly, this speaker is not going to be listening to any nonsense about almond milk beverage.
16. Equivocation: Equivocation is when the speaker partly tells the truth, and deliberately hides the whole truth. For example, if the speaker said, “I will never drive into anyone with my car!” and then proceeded to hit someone with a stolen car, that would be equivocation. The speaker said that they wouldn’t drive into anyone with their car, but then went on to hit someone with a stolen car. The speaker partly told the truth.
17. Faulty Analogy: As the name might suggest, this fallacy occurs when the speaker tries to convey the idea using an analogy, but the analogy does not live up to the original idea. “Of course we should ditch school! If someone was holding you hostage, wouldn’t you want to escape?” While millions of children around the world would see no problem with this analogy, escaping a hostage situation is not comparable to ditching school. Analogies can be a great way to try to explain an idea, but the analogy should properly match up with the idea.
These have been the rhetorical fallacies as listed by The Princeton Review! Calling them “fallacies” is not to say that they are not effective persuasive strategies. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that you had a couple of mass-media examples in mind as you read those fallacies. However, if you are trying to legitimately convince someone of the merits and value of your idea, it’s probably best to steer clear of these fallacies. If you want to know more, check out my first post (if you haven’t already) to read about the first eight rhetorical fallacies.
Editor: Leo Milmet
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