The different types of fallacies or fallacies of false generalization which include hasty generalization, Sweeping generalization, and false dilemma. Casual fallacies which include the questionable cause, misidentification of the cause, post hoc ergo propter hoc and slippery slope. Then you have Fallacies of relevance which include an appeal to authority, appeal to tradition, bandwagon, appeal to pity, appeal to fear, appeal to flattery, special pleading, appeal to ignorance, begging the question, straw man, red herring, appeal to personal attack, and two wrongs make a right. The news article I ended up reading was titled “Desperate times call for desperate measures”. This article was printed 11/30/2010 so it isn’t that recent.
The article speaks of a theft that happened in St. Mary’s county which is located in Maryland. Since my family does not have cable and we do not get newspapers sent to our home I had to look up news articles online. The type of fallacy I would say this article falls under would be misidentification of the cause which falls under a causal fallacy. I say this because no one really knows why someone would shoplift.
This guy shoplifted tampons which do make it sort of funny but makes you really question “why would he do that?” Misidentification of the cause is the fallacy in casual situations we are not always certain about what is causing what in other words, what the cause is and what the effect is. My initial thought on this incident is “why would a 52-year-old guy need to steal feminine products, to begin with!” I read the definitions of the different fallacies including what different ones were under each category. I also made sure that I understood what happened in the article as well as the difference in the fallacies.
This helped me come to an informed decision about the article as well as what type of fallacy this was. I also made my decision based on the first initial thought I had. I am sure others said the same thing I did. If others had thought the same thing I had then my thought on its fallacy was that it had to be correct!! At least that is how my thought process went in deciding this.
I would say that this is a very simple article. I did not need to put a lot of thought into this article when evaluating it, but I did need to think hard about what I was trying to say. I did try to come up with the reasons behind this action. Give me some examples of some fallacies that you have come across in the media.
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