PHI 1101 Lecture 8: Chapter 8

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Sardar Hosseini

Document Summary

A fallacy is a form of argument that should not convince anyone but which many people nevertheless nd convincing. A fallacy can be a bad argument that tends to persuade us even though it is faulty. Arguments that tend to persuade but should not persuade seems to be correct but which proves, upon examination, not to be so. Fallacies make it easier to evaluate arguments (especially non-deductive) Not all invalid and unsound arguments are fallacies. In fallacies there is a purpose to somehow misguide us. Some fallacies are so common that they have been given their own names. The main idea: a claim can be either true or false. We can accept, reject or remain neutral with respect to a belief. This fallacy tries to muddy the waters by confusing the truth of a claim with our belief with respect to it. The formal rendering: we have no proof that p is false.