Of Fallacies.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

“Dan janganlah engkau mengikut apa yang engkau tidak mempunyai pengetahuan mengenainya; sesungguhnya pendengaran dan penglihatan serta jantung akal kamu, semua anggota-anggota itu tetap akan ditanya”. [Surah al-Isra', 17: 36] 

Have you heard of fallacies?

It is an error in reasoning.

And what is reasoning?

It is the process of drawing a conclusion on the basis of evidence.

Based on the book "The Art of Public Speaking" Eleventh Edition by Stephen E. Lucas (which is used by us to study "Speech Communication")

"Logician have identified more than 125 different fallacies."

But today, I want to share 10 of the fallacies that I have learnt in class.

1. Hasty Generalization: Jumps to general conclusion on the basis of insufficient evidence.

2. False Cause: Mistakenly assumes that because on event follows another, the first event is the cause of the second.

3. Invalid Analogy: 2 cases being compared are not essentially alike.

4. Bandwagon: Assumes something popular or major is definitely good/correct/desirable.

5. Red Herring: Introduces irrelevant issue to divert attention from the subject under discussion.

6. Ad Hominem: Attacks the person rather than dealing with the real issue in dispute.

7. Either-or: Urge to choose only between 2 alternatives while there are more than 2 alternatives.

8. Slippery Slope: Assumes that taking a first step will lead to subsequent steps that cannot be prevented.

9. Appeal to tradition: Assumes that something old is automatically better than something new.

10. Appeal to novelty: Assumes that something new is automatically better than something old.

Let us stay away from these fallacies. Be sure to check your evidence and reasoning. When you do something, make sure it is from the basis of pure understanding and strong reasoning.

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-1 more subject to go (Islamic Akhlak) before Spring Semester ends-