This is the second logic test in our series. All human beings make mistakes in reasoning. Our hope is that these tests will help you improve your knowledge of logical fallacies so that you can spot them in both yourself and others while improving your ability to apply correct reasoning in everyday life.
Logic Test II
Results
#1. “That statement came from Hitler. So it can’t be true.”
#2. “My friend Jill will give me a good reference for this job. She’s trustworthy. I can vouch for her!”
#3. “My favorite political candidate donated money to someone and said some good sounding things. Therefore, he is the best candidate for the job!”
#4. “A girl who claims to be a feminist said that all men are sexist pigs of one degree or another. I can’t believe feminists think men are sexist pigs!”
#5. “Hydrogen and oxygen molecules are not wet. Therefore, water cannot be wet either.”
#6. “I heard that the Catholic Church was involved in a sex scandal cover-up. Therefore, my retired Catholic neighbor, who frequently attends that Church, must be guilty as well!”
#7. “The new SuperSkinny diet will make you feel great. You will know true happiness if you try our diet!”
#8. “My neighbor said he is having ‘a gay old time’ today. I didn’t know he was homosexual!”
#9. “When are you going to stop beating your spouse?”
#10. “Members of the KKK are upstanding people of the community. If they commit crimes they are not real KKK!”
#11. “That statement came from an atheist. So I know it must not be true.”
#12. “God must exist b/c it says so right here in the bible and the bible was inspired by God.”
#13. “This holy book contains good moral teachings for how to live your life. Therefore, it must be of divine origin.”
#14. “An atheist man I work with said that America has done a lot of bad things in the past. It’s so terrible that atheists hate America!”
#15. “Every event in the universe has a cause. Therefore, the whole universe must have a cause.”
#16. “If my brain is capable of consciousness, then each cell of my brain must be capable of consciousness.”
#17. “There must be an absolute standard of right and wrong in the universe. If not, how can you possibly say that torturing babies for fun could ever be wrong?”
#18. “My friend Amy says she’s an atheist. That means she believes there is no god. How can she think that?”
#19. “Have you repented of all your sins?”
#20. “A Christian man attacked the clinic but no real Christian would do that. So he can’t be a real Christian!”
Definitions
• Genetic Fallacy – Basing the truth claim of an argument, or proposition, on the origin of its claims or premises.
• Begging the Question – Any form of argument where the conclusion of the argument is assumed in one of the premises of the argument.
• Cherry Picking – When only select evidence is presented in order to persuade the audience to accept a position, and evidence that would go against the position is withheld.
• Hasty Generalization – Drawing a conclusion based on a small sample size, rather than looking at statistics that are much more in line with the typical or average situation.
• Fallacy of Composition – Inferring that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole.
• Fallacy of Division – Inferring that something is true of one or more of the parts from the fact that it is true of the whole.
• Appeal to Emotion – Using emotional appeals instead of reason in an attempt to win an argument.
• Equivocation – Using a term in an ambiguous way, or in more than one sense, making an argument misleading.
• Complex Question – A question with a built in presupposition which is not explicit (loaded question).
• No True Scotsman – Defending an assertion by disallowing, by definition, all counterexamples, emphasizing that we are only talking about true examples of whatever population is under consideration.
Reference:
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/search
https://www.palomar.edu/users/bthompson/Table%20of%20Fallacies.html
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