the equivalent of the original claim—for example, saying that Namibia is the most beautiful country because it has the prettiest landscape
• Evading the issue: Changing the topic to avoid addressing the issue—for example, if a student defends himself against accusations of cheating on a test by saying that he always does his homework and never breaks curfew
• Arguing from ignorance: Arguing that a claim is justified simply because its opposite has not been proven true—for example, claiming that a certain subatomic particle must not exist because we haven’t discovered it yet
• Composition: Asserting something about a whole that is true of only its parts—for example, creating a stereotype about a whole group of people based on the actions or traits of a few people from that group
• Division: Making a claim about individual parts based on the fact that it is generally true of the whole—for example, saying that because you dislike sandwiches, you must dislike tomatoes
Identifying Errors of Attack
Students find and analyze errors of attack. Errors of attack happen when a person focuses on the context of an argument, rather than the argument itself, in trying to refute the other side. That is, instead of using evidence and sound reasons to argue a point, a person ignores counterevidence and attacks the person who is arguing for the other side. Types of errors in this category include the following.
• Poisoning the well: Being so completely committed to a position that you explain away absolutely everything that is offered in opposition to your position—for example, refusing to accept that studies on the potential negative effects of drinking coffee are scientifically valid
• Arguing against the person: Rejecting a claim using derogatory statements (real or alleged) about the person who is making the claim—for example, stating that an opponent was fired from her job during an unrelated debate
• Appealing to force: Using threats to establish the validity of a claim—for example, threatening to expose unflattering information about an opponent to make the opponent surrender the argument
Identifying Errors of Weak Reference
Students find and analyze errors of weak reference. An error of weak reference occurs when a person uses information from untrustworthy or irrelevant sources to support an argument. Specific types of these errors include the following.
• Sources that reflect biases: Consistently accepting information that supports what we already believe to be true or consistently rejecting information that goes against what we believe to be true—for example, only reading articles from newspapers and websites that align with one’s own political leanings
• Sources that lack credibility: Using a source that is not reputable for a given topic—for example, citing something that a movie star said in a debate about the causes of a disease
• Appealing to authority: Invoking authority as the last word on an issue—for example, treating a police officer’s opinion as absolute truth in a discussion of gun laws
• Appealing to the people: Attempting to justify a claim based on its popularity—for example, justifications that begin “everyone knows” or “everyone agrees”
• Appealing to emotion: Using a “sob story” as proof for a claim—for example, justifying making a mistake by talking about the sad and stressful things that have happened lately
Identifying Errors of Misinformation
Students find and analyze errors of misinformation. Errors of misinformation occur when a person uses incorrect information in support of an argument. Following are types of misinformation errors.
• Confusing the facts: Using information that seems to be factual but that has been changed in such a way that it is no longer accurate—for example, citing demographic information that is ten or twenty years old
• Misapplying a concept or generalization: Misunderstanding or wrongly applying a concept or generalization to support a claim—for example, applying the generalization that Democrats are fiscally liberal to an individual Democrat’s personal spending habits
Practicing Identifying Errors in Logic
Teachers can use practice exercises to help students identify errors in logic. These exercises can serve as a stepping stone for students as they progress from the basic step of understanding various errors in reasoning to the goal of recognizing them in everyday life. Typically, these exercises will describe a scenario in a few sentences and ask students to identify the reasoning error present in the scenario. Students might select the answer in a multiple-choice or matching format, or teachers can ask them to recall the answer from memory.
Provide students with the exercises in figure 4.14 (page 82) to practice identifying errors in reasoning.
Finding Errors in the Media
The teacher provides students with footage of political debates, televised interviews, commercials, advertisements, newspaper articles, blogs, and other sources and asks them to find and analyze errors in reasoning that underlie the messages therein. Following are resources for such media.
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