Hey everyone, welcome back to "What is an Argument." I'm Jake, and as always, I'm here with Emily. Today, we're diving into something that, honestly, trips up even the best of us—logical fallacies. Emily, you ready to unpack some of these?Absolutely, Jake! Fallacies are fascinating because, even though they're errors in reasoning, they're still so persuasive. It's like our brains are wired to fall for them sometimes.Yeah, and I think the ones that get me the most are the fallacies of relevance. Like, when someone attacks the person instead of the argument. You know, the classic Ad Hominem. I remember this example—someone's dad says lying is wrong, but then the kid points out, "Well, Dad lies about being sick to get out of work, so lying can't be wrong." It's like, wait, what? That doesn't actually prove anything about lying itself.Exactly! It's so tempting to go after the person, especially if you feel strongly about the topic. But, as we discussed in our last episode, arguments are about the structure and the reasoning, not about who's making them. Attacking the person just sidesteps the real issue.And then there's the Straw Person Fallacy. I see this all the time online. Like, someone says, "Hey, maybe we should legalize a certain drug," and the response is, "Oh, so you think everyone should just be a drug addict and society will be fine?" It's such a misrepresentation of the original point.Yes! It's so frustrating because it derails the conversation. Instead of engaging with the actual argument, you end up arguing against a version that no one really believes. It makes real debate almost impossible.Totally. And, okay, here's one that happened to me recently. I was in this heated debate on social media—probably a mistake, but anyway—someone just dropped, "Well, most people believe this, so it must be true." Classic Appeal to Majority. I mean, why do we find that so convincing? Just because a lot of people think something, doesn't mean it's right.I think it's because we like to feel safe in numbers. If everyone else believes it, it feels less risky to go along. But, as you said, popularity doesn't equal truth. History is full of examples where the majority was just... wrong.Yeah, and it's wild how these fallacies sneak into everyday conversations. Sometimes you don't even notice it's happening until you step back and really look at the reasoning.Speaking of sneaky, let's talk about fallacies that use ambiguous language. Equivocation is a big one. That's when someone uses a word in two different senses in the same argument. Like, "Only man is rational. No woman is a man. Therefore, no woman is rational." It's just playing with the word "man."Oh, that's such a classic. And then there's Amphiboly, right? Where the sentence structure itself is confusing. Like, "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas." I mean, who was wearing the pajamas—the person or the elephant?Exactly! Or those headlines like, "Police Help Dog Bite Victim." It's not clear who's doing what. As a linguist, I find these fascinating because our brains try to make sense of the ambiguity, but sometimes we just get it wrong.So, do you think we fall for these a lot in everyday conversations? Like, are we just walking around misunderstanding each other all the time?Honestly, yes, more than we realize. Ambiguous language is everywhere. But the good news is, you can train yourself to spot it. Linguists look for words or phrases that could mean more than one thing, or sentences that could be parsed in different ways. Once you start noticing, it's hard to stop.I guess it's like building a muscle. The more you practice, the better you get at catching these little traps before they trip you up.Exactly. And it makes conversations so much clearer when you pause and ask, "Wait, what do you mean by that?"Alright, let's get into some of the trickier fallacies—unwarranted assumptions. Begging the Question is one that always confuses me. It's like, the argument just assumes what it's supposed to prove. Like, "Abortion is murder. Murder is wrong. So, abortion is wrong." But the whole debate is about whether abortion is murder in the first place.Yes, that's circular reasoning. The conclusion is just smuggled into the premises. And then there's the False Dilemma, where someone says, "You must be either a theist or an atheist," as if those are the only options. It just ignores all the nuance in between.Or the Complex Question fallacy—like, "Have you stopped beating your wife?" It presupposes something that might not even be true. There's no good way to answer without getting trapped.Exactly. And then there's the False Cause Fallacy. Like, "Since sex education became common, we've had more promiscuity, so sex education causes promiscuity." It's so tempting to assume causation just because two things happen together, but that's not always the case.Yeah, correlation isn't causation. But it's such an easy shortcut for our brains. We want simple explanations, even when reality is messy.That reminds me of a university debate I was in. Someone cited a famous football player as an authority on nutrition, saying, "Mike 'Monster' Malone says this cereal is healthy, so it must be." But, I mean, just because he's good at football doesn't mean he knows anything about nutrition. That's the Appeal to Unreliable Authority.So, how do we actually check if a source is trustworthy? I feel like that's getting harder these days.It's tricky, but I think you have to look at whether the authority is actually an expert in the relevant field, and whether there's consensus among other experts. If it's just one person, especially outside their area, it's probably not reliable.Makes sense. I guess the big takeaway is, we all need to slow down and really look at the reasoning behind arguments, not just how convincing they sound.Absolutely. And the more we practice spotting these fallacies, the better we get at having real, meaningful conversations.Alright, that's all for today. Thanks for listening, everyone. Emily, always a pleasure chatting with you.You too, Jake. Can't wait for our next episode. Bye everyone!See you next time!

Episodes

Unpacking Fallacies