Exercise A (125-127)

Identify and explain the fallacies of relevance in the following passages:

1. If you can’t blame the English language and your own is unforgivingly precise, blame the
microphone. That was the route Jacques Chirac took after his nuclear remark about a
nuclear Iran. “Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that’s not very
dangerous,” Mr. Chirac said with a shrug. The press was summoned back for a retake. “I
should rather have paid attention to what I was saying and understood that perhaps I
was on the record,” Mr. Chirac offered, as if the record rather than the remark were the
issue
The fallacy in this passage is missing the point (R.7 ignoratio elenchi) because the
speaker is under the assumption that the record rather than the remark was the
issue.

2. Nietzsche was personally more philosophical than his philosophy. His talk about power,
harshness, and superb immorality was the hobby of a harmless young scholar and
constitutional invalid.
The fallacy in this passage is the attack on the person (R.5 ad hominem) because
the argument is based on personal attacks aimed toward Nietzsche.

3. Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched down the halls of
the American Congress and threw his shining lances full and fair against the brazen
foreheads of every defamer of his country and maligner of its honor.For the Republican
party to desert this gallant man now is worse than if an army should desert their general
upon the field of battle.
The fallacy in this passage is the appeal to the emotion of pity because Blaine is
made to seem like a hero who deserves the sympathy of the Republican party
rather than to be deserted by it.

4. However, it matters very little now what the king of England either says or does; he hath
wickedly broken through every moral and human obligation, trampled nature and
conscience beneath his feet, and by a steady and constitutional spirit of insolence and
cruelty procured for himself an universal hatred.
The fallacy in this passage is the attack on the person (R.5 ad hominem) because
the king of England is made out to be a wicked monster through Paine’s attack.

5. This embarrassing volume Is an out and out partisan screed made up of illogical
arguments, distorted and cherry picked information, ridiculous generalization and nutty
asides. It’s a nasty stewpot of intellectually untenable premises and irresponsible
speculation that frequently reads like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ parody of the crackpot right.
this example is missing the point because it does not correlate with the
conclusion sentence.

6. I was seven years old when the first election campaign which I can remember took place
in my district. At that time we still had no political parties, so the announcement of this
campaign was received with very little interest. But popular feeling ran high when it was
disclosed that one of the candidates was "the Prince." There was no need to add
Christian and surname to realize which Prince was meant. He was the owner of the
great estate formed by the arbitrary occupation of the vast tracts of land reclaimed in the
previous century from the Lake of Fucino. About eight thousand families (that is, the
majority of the local population) are still employed today in cultivating the estate's
 fourteen thousand hectares. The Prince was deigning to solicit "his" families for their
vote so that he could become their deputy in parliament. The agents of the estate, who
were working for the Prince, talked in impeccably liberal phrases: "Naturally," said they,
"naturally, no one will be forced to vote for the Prince, that's understood; in the same
way that no one, naturally, can force the Prince to allow people who don't vote for him to
work on his land. This is the period of real liberty for everybody; you're free, and so is the
Prince." The announcement of these "liberal" principles produced general and
understandable consternation among the peasants. For, as may easily be guessed, the
Prince was the most hated person in our part of the country.
argumentum ad hominem, abusive because it is attacking the opponent who Is
trying to take the position in the election campaign.

7. According to R. Grunberger, author of A Social History of the Third Reich, Nazi

publishers used to send the following notice to German readers who let their
subscriptions lapse: "Our paper certainly deserves the support of every German. We
shall continue to forward copies of it to you, and hope that you will not want to expose
yourself to unfortunate consequences in the case of cancellation."
This is an example of the appeal to emotion because they want you to feel pity. It
states that you won’t expose yourself and to support every German.

8. In While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West from Within (2006),
Bruce Bawer argues that "by appeasing a totalitarian [Muslim] ideology Europe is
"imperiling its liberty." Political correctness, he writes, is keeping Europeans from
defending themselves, resulting in "its self-destructive passivity, softness toward tyranny,
its reflexive inclination to appease." A review of the book in The Economist observes that
Mr. Bawer "weakens his argument by casting too wide a net," and another reviewer,
Imam Fatih Alev, says of Bawer's view that "it is a constructed idea that there is this very
severe difference between Western values and Muslim values."
This is an example of poisoning the well because one side is attacking the other
side, which is the attacking good faith.
9. To know absolutely that there is no God one must have infinite knowledge. But to have
infinite knowledge one would have to be God. It is impossible to be God and an atheist
at the same time. Atheists cannot prove that God doesn't exist.
This is an example of straw man because there is no evidence from atheists that
God doesn’t exist.

10. When we had got to this point in the argument, and everyone saw that the definition of
justice had been completely upset, Thrasymachus, instead of replying to me, said: "Tell
me, Socrates, have you got a nurse?" why do you ask such a question, I said when you
ought rather to be answering?
This is an example of the appeal to the populace because the support is given to
appeal to popular beliefs.

11. I also admit that there are people for whom even the reality of the external world is a
grave problem. My answer is that I do not address them, but that I presuppose a
minimum of reason in my reader.

12. Clarence Darrow, renowned criminal trial lawyer, began one shrewd plea to a jury thus:
“You folk thin we city people are crooked, but we city people think you farmers are all
crooked. There isn’t one of you I’d trust in a horse trade, because you’d be sure to skin
me. But when it comes to having sympathy with a person in trouble, I’d sooner trust you
 folks than city folks, because you come to know people better and get to be closer
friends.”

13. A national organization called in defense of animals registered protest, in 1996, against
alleged cruelty to animals being sold live or slaughtered in chinese markets in san
Francisco. Patricia briggs, who brought the complaint to the city’s of Animal Welfare
Commision, said the time of the crustaceans Is coming. You’d think people wouldn’t
care about lobsters, because they aren’t cuddly and fuzzy and they have these vacant
looks and they don’t vocalize. But you’d be surprised how many people care. To which
response was given by astella kung, proprietor of mingkee game Birds, where fowl are
sold live: How about the homeless people? They have no homes! They are hungry!

14. The U.S. Department of Agriculture operates a price support program for the benefit of
tobacco producers; its regulations limit the amount of tobacco that can be grown, and
thus keep the price of tobacco high. Those same producers fight against consumer
health regulations. On
what ground? One analyst observed:
“ For the proponent of price support regulations to turn around and fight
consumer-health regulations on the grounds that government regulation is
unwarranted interference by big brother and bad for the economy is the
kind of argument that makes rational people wince.”

15. During World War I, the British government deliberately inflamed the anti-German
sentiments of the people with cartoons. One of these cartoons appears on the next
pages

EXERCISE PAGE (142-144)

Identify and explain any fallacies of defective induction or of presumption in

the following passages:

1. My generation was taught about the dangers of social diseases, how they were
contracted, and the value of abstinence. Our schools did not teach us about
contraception. They did not pass out condoms, as many of today’s schools do. And not
one of the girls in any of my classes, not even in college, became pregnant out of
wedlock. It wasn’t until people began teaching the children about contraceptives that our
problems with pregnancy began.
False cause: The author is saying that because schools are teaching about ways
to prevent pregnancies more students are getting pregnant out of wedlock making
their cause false.

2. A national mailing soliciting funds, by People for the Ethical Treatment

of Animals (PETA), included a survey in which questions were to be answered “yes” or
“no.” Two of the questions asked were these:
“Do you realize that the vast majority of painful animal experimentation has no relation at
all to human survival or the elimination
of disease?”
 “Are you aware that product testing on animals does not keep unsafe products off the
market?”
Complex question: While both questions were to be answered with a yes or no,
the question itselfis asked with a different tone and is loaded with
presuppositions.

3. If you want a life full of sexual pleasures, don’t graduate from college.
A study to be published next month in American Demographics magazine
shows that people with the most education have the least amount of sex.
False cause: The author is assuming that there is a connection between being a
college graduate and not having a full sex life, which is an incorrect cause.

4. There is no surprise in discovering that acupuncture can relieve pain and nausea. It will
probably also be found to work on anxiety, insomnia, and itching, because these are all
conditions in which placebos work. Acupuncture works by suggestion, a mechanism
whose effects on humans are well known. The danger in using such placebo methods is
that they will be applied by people inadequately trained in medicine in cases where
essential preliminary work has not been done and where a correct diagnosis has not
been established.
Hasty generalization: the author is stating that because anxiety, insomnia, and
itching work with placebos and are similar to pain and nausea that acupuncture
will work for all.

5. In a motion picture featuring the famous French comedian Sacha Guitry, three thieves
are arguing over division of seven pearls worth a king’s ransom. One of them hands two
to the man on his right, then two to the man on his left. “I,” he says, “will keep three.” The
man on his right
says, “How come you keep three?” “Because I am the leader.” “Oh. But how come you
are the leader?” “Because I have more pearls.”

6. “. . . I’ve always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of
the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunker done it once, and
bragged about it; and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot tower,
and spread himself out so that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they
slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so they say,
but I didn’t see it. Pap told me. But anyway it all come of looking at the moon that way,
like a fool.”

7. Former Senator Robert Packwood of Oregon became so angry at the state’s leading
newspaper, the Portland Oregonian, that in response to a request from that paper for a
quote, he offered this: “Since I quit talkingto the Oregonian, my business has prospered
beyond all measure. I assume that my business has prospered because I don’t talk to
the Oregonian. Therefore, I will continue that policy. Thanks.”

8. Mr. Farrakhan, the Black Muslim leader, citing the example of Israel, said black
Americans should also be able to form a country of their own on the African continent,
and said he plans to ask African leaders to“carve out a territory for all people in the
diaspora.” He said black
 Americans should also be granted dual citizenship by all African countries. “We want
dual citizenship,” he said, “and because we don’t know where we came from, we want
dual citizenship everywhere.”

9. The French claim to be a nation of rebels. In fact, their heyday of revolution is over.
Twenty-first century France rebels against change, not for it. What typically happens is
that a French government decides to do something radical like, say, enable companies
to fire service-sector workers who assault their customers. The unions see this as the
first step on the road to slavery and call a national strike. After a week of posturing the
government backs down and waiters and salesclerks go back to insulting customers just
as they have done since time immemorial.

10. Hiroyuki Suzuki was formerly a member of the Sakaume gumi, an independent crime
family in Japan known for its role in gambling. Mr. Suzuki’s wife Mariko broke her
kneecap, and when Mariko went to church the next Sunday, the minister put his hands
on her broken knee and pronounced it healed. She walked away from church that day.
Mr. Suzuki regarded her religion as a silly waste of time—but he was fascinated by the
recovery of her knee. “In gambling,” he said, “you use dice. Dice are made from bone. If
God could heal her bone, I figured he could probably assist my dice and make me the
best dice thrower in all of Japan.” Mr. Suzuki’s gambling skills did improve, enabling him
to pay off his debts. He now says his allegiance is to Jesus.

EXERCISE (152-153)
Identify and explain the fallacies of ambiguity that appear in the following passages:

1. the universe is spherical in form . . . because all the constituent parts of the universe,
that is the sun, moon, and the planets, appear in this form.
Explanation: this is an example of division because the there are two attributes
that tie together.

2. Robert Toombs is reputed to have said, just before the Civil War, “We could lick those
Yankees with cornstalks.” When he was asked after the war what had gone wrong, he is
reputed to have said, “It’s very simple. Those damn Yankees refused to fight with
cornstalks.”
Explanation: This is an example of equivocation because there are two different
things said and they mean completely different.

3. To press forward with a properly ordered wage structure in each industry is the first
condition for curbing competitive bargaining; but there is no reason why the process
should stop there. What is good for each industry can hardly be bad for the economy as
a whole.
Explanation: this is an example of accent because this is stating something that
can be interpreted in different ways.

4. No man will take counsel, but every man will take money: therefore money is better than
counsel.
Explanation: this is an example of composition because the money is the
attributes and the counsel are the whole.
 5. I’ve looked everywhere in this area for an instruction book on how to play the concertina
without success. (Mrs. F. M., Myrtle Beach, S.C., Charlotte Observer) You need no
instructions. Just plunge ahead boldly.
Explanation: This is an example of an amphiboly because there are words that
can have different meanings .

6. each person’s happiness is a good to that person, and the general happiness, therefore,
a good to the aggregate of all persons.

7. If the man who “turnips!” cries Cry not when his father dies, ‘Tis a proof that he had
rather Have a turnip than his father.

8. Fallaci wrote her: “You are a bad journalist because you are a bad woman.”

9. A Worm-eating Warbler was discovered by Hazel Miller in Concord, while walking along
the branch of a tree, singing, and in good view. (New Hampshire Audubon Quarterly)
That’s our Hazel—surefooted, happy, and with just a touch of the exhibitionist.

10. The basis of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a
conclusion—thus: Major Premise: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as
quickly as one man; Minor Premise: One man can dig a post-hole in sixty seconds;
therefore— Conclusion: Sixty men can dig a post-hole in one second. This may be
called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we
obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.

FINALS
EXERCISE PAGE (174)

Identify the subject and predicate terms in, and name the form of, each of the following
propositions:

1. Some historians are extremely gifted writers whose works read like first-rate novels.
SUBJECT: historian
PREDICATE: extremely gifted writers whose works read like first-rate novels.
FORM: Affirmative (I)

2. No athletes who have ever accepted pay for participating in sports are amateurs.
SUBJECT: athletes who have ever accepted pay for participating in sports
PREDICATE: amateurs
FORM: universal negative (E)

3. No dogs are without pedigrees are candidates for blue ribbons in official dog shows
sponsored by the American Kennel Club.
SUBJECT: dogs are without pedigrees
PREDICATE: candidates for blue ribbons in official dog shows sponsored by the
American Kennel Club.
 FORM: universal negative (E)

4. All satellites that are currently in orbit less than ten thousand miles high are very delicate
devices that cost many thousands of dollars to manufacture.
SUBJECT: satellites that are currently in orbit less than ten thousand miles high
PREDICATE: very delicate devices that cost many thousands of dollars to
manufacture.
FORM: universal Affirmative (A)

5. Some members of families that are rich and famous are not persons of either wealth or
distinction.
SUBJECT: members of families that are rich and famous
PREDICATE: persons of either wealth or distinction.
FORM: particular negative (O)

6. Some paintings produced by artists who are universally recognized as masters are not
works of genuine merit that either are or deserve to be preserved in museums and made
available to the public.
SUBJECT: paintings produced by artists who are universally recognized as
masters
PREDICATE: works of genuine merit that either are or deserve to be preserved in
museums and made available to the public.
FORM: Particular Negative (O)

7. All drivers of automobiles that are not safe are desperadoes who threaten the lives of
their fellows.
SUBJECT: drivers of automobiles that are not safe
PREDICATE: desperadoes who threaten the lives of their fellows.
FORM: Universal Affirmative (A)

8. Some politicians who could not be elected to the most minor positions are appointed
officials in our government today.
SUBJECT: politicians who could not be elected to the most minor positions
PREDICATE: appointed officials in our government today.
FORM: Particular affirmative (A)

9. Some drugs that are very effective when properly administered are not safe remedies
that all medicine cabinets should contain
SUBJECT: drugs that are very effective when properly administered
PREDICATE: safe remedies that all medicine cabinets should contain
FORM: particular negative (O)

10. No people who have not themselves done creative work in the arts are responsible
critics on whose judgment we can rely.
SUBJECT: people who have not themselves done creative work
PREDICATE: arts are responsible critics on whose judgment we can rely.
FORM: Particular Affirmative (A)
EXERCISE PAGE (179-160)
Name the quality and quantity of each of the following propositions, and state whether
their subject and predicate terms are distributed or undistributed:

1. Some presidential candidates will be sadly disappointed people.

presidential candidates (s)- UNDISTRIBUTED sadly disappointed people. (p)-
UNDISTRIBUTED
2. All those who died in Nazi concentration camps were victims of a cruel and irrational
tyranny.
those who died in Nazi concentration camps (s) – DISTRIBUTED victims of a
cruel and irrational tyranny. (p) – UNDISTRIBUTED

3. Some recently identified unstable elements were not entirely accidental discoveries.
recently identified unstable elements (s)- UNDISTRIBUTED entirely accidental
discoveries. (p- DISTRINUTED

4. Some members of the military-industrial complex are mild-mannered people to whom

violence is abhorrent.
members of the military-industrial complex (s) DISTRIBUTED mild-mannered
people to whom violence is abhorrent. (p) DISTRIBUTED)

5. No leader of the feminist movement is a major business executive.

leader of the feminist movement (s)- DISTRIBUTES major business executive.
(p) DISTRIBUTED)

6. All hard-line advocates of law and order at any cost are people who will be
remembered, if at all, only for having failed to understand the major social
pressures of the twenty-first century.
hard-line advocates of law and order at any cost are people who will be
remembered (s) UNDISTRIBUTED having failed to understand the major social
pressures of the twenty-first century. (p) DISTRIBUTED

7. Some recent rulings of the Supreme Court were politically motivated decisions that
flouted the entire history of U.S. legal practice.
recent rulings of the Supreme Court (s) DISTRIBUTED politically motivated
decisions that flouted the entire history of U.S. legal practice. (p)
DISTRIBUTED

8. No harmful pesticides or chemical defoliants were genuine contributions to the long-

range agricultural goals of the nation.
harmful pesticides or chemical defoliants (s) DISTRIBURED genuine
contributions to the long-range agricultural goals of the nation. (p)
DISTRIBUTED
 9. Some advocates of major political, social, and economic reforms are not responsible
people who have a stake in maintaining the status quo.
advocates of major political, social, and economic (s) UNDISTRBURED
responsible people who have a stake in maintaining the status quo. (p)
DISTRIBUTED

10. All new labor-saving devices are major threats to the trade union movement.
new labor-saving devices(s) DISTRIBUTED major threats to the trade union
movement. (p) UNDISTRIBUTED

EXERCISES PAGE (190-191)

A. State the converses of the following propositions, and indicate which of them are equivalent
to the given propositions:
1. No people who are considerate of others are reckless drivers who pay no attention to traffic
regulations.
No S is P -> No P is S No reckless drivers are people who are considerate of others.
2. All graduates of West Point are commissioned officers in the U.S. Army.
All S is P -> Some P is S Some commissioned officers are graduates.
3. Some European cars are overpriced and underpowered automobiles.

Some S are P -> Some P is

S
Some overpriced and
underpowered automobiles
are European cars.
Some S are P -> Some P is S Some overpriced and underpowered automobiles are
European cars.
4. No reptiles are warm-blooded animals.
No S is P -> No P is S No warm-blooded animals are reptiles
5. Some professional wrestlers are elderly persons who are incapable of doing an honest day’s
work.
Some S is P -> Some P is S
Some elderly persons are
professional werstlers.
Some S is P -> Some P is S Some elderly persons are professional wrestlers.
B. State the obverses of the following propositions:
1. Some college athletes are professionals.
Some college athletes are unprofessional.
2. No organic compounds are metals.
All organic compounds are non-metal.
3. Some clergy are not abstainers.
Some clergy are non-abstainers.
4. No geniuses are conformists.
All geniuses are non-conformists.
5. All objects suitable for boat anchors are objects that weigh at least fifteen pounds.
No objects suitable for boat anchors are non- objects that weigh at least fifteen pounds.

C. State the contrapositives of the following propositions and indicate which of them are
equivalent to the given propositions.
1. All journalists are pessimists.

All S is P -> All non-P is non-

S
All non-pessimists are non-
journalists
All S is P -> All non-P is non-S All non-pessimists are non-journalists
2. Some soldiers are not officers.
Some S is not P -> Some non-P is not non-S Some non-officers are not non-soldiers.
3. All scholars are non degenerates.
All S is P -> All non-P is non-S All non-degenerates are non-scholars.
4. All things weighing less than fifty pounds are objects not more than four feet high.
All S is P -> All non-P is non-S All non-objects are non-things weighing less than fifty
pounds.
5. Some noncitizens are not nonresidents.

Some S is not P -> Some

non-P is not non-S
Some non-residents are not
non-citizens.
Some S is not P -> Some non-P is not non-S Some non-residen