SOCI 2P00 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Ad Hominem, Slippery Slope, Glittering Generality
Document Summary
A fallacy is a reasoning trick than an author might use while trying to persuade you to accept a conclusion. Ad hominem an attack, or an insult, on the person, rather than directly addressing the person"s reasons: not usually relevant. Slippery slope making the assumption that a proposed step will set off an uncontrollable chain of undesirable events, when procedures exist to prevent such a chain of events. Searching for a perfect solution falsely assuming that because part of a problem remains after a solution is tried, the solution should not be adopted. Equivocation a key word or phrase used with two or more meanings in an argument such that the argument fails to make sense once the shifts in meaning are recognized. Appeal to popularity (ad populum) an attempt to justify a claim by appealing to sentiments that large groups of people have in common; falsely assumes that anything favored by a large group is desirable.
