Determine which fallacies (if any) occur in the following passages and state reasons for your answers. For some of these, you may have to do some light research to gain relevant background knowledge. Note: Some items may contain more than one fallacy.

Example

Passage: Heard in a debate concerning capital punishment: Capital punishment is morally wrong. After all, murder is just as wrong when committed by a government as it is when done by an individual person.

Evaluation: The speaker begged the question at issue. To say that capital punishment is murder is to say that it is a morally wrong killing (note that only wrongful killings are considered to be murder). But the issue was whether capital punishmentgovernmental killingis morally wrong, so to assume without argument that it is (i.e., by calling it murder) begs the question.

*1.

Overheard in a laundry: What makes me think abortion is murder? When my pediatrician refused to perform an abortion for me, she said she wouldnt be a party to murder. Babies and childbirth are her business, you know.

ANSWER

Appeal to authority. Doctors are specialists in medicine. They dont necessarily know anything more about moral issues than anyone else. Anyway, dont we all need to make up our own minds about moral matters?

*2.

John Boehner, then House minority leader, had this to say about a minor provision to expand Medicaid family-planning services in President Obamas stimulus plan. How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?

ANSWER

Straw man. This was a cheap shot that misrepresented Obamas position by distorting a minor segment of his stimulus plan.

3.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest in response to a question about overly partisan rhetoric: But I guess the difference here, Margaret, is that at least [President Obama is] trying to bridge that partisan divide. And we see some other candidates who are tryingwho have basically leased a backhoe and are seeking to deepen it and exploit it for their own personal political gain. Its not good for the country. It certainly is not good for the way our country is viewed around the world. And leaders have a responsibility to rise above that and condemn it when they see other people doing it. And again, I think this will mean some continued pointed questions for leaders in the Republican Party, because its more than one presidential candidate on their side of the aisle who is engaged in these kinds of tactics.

4.

Joe Morgan, announcing a Giants-Marlins baseball game and commenting on the Marlins pitcher: Hes been a little erratic, which explains why he hasnt been consistent.

5.

From a description advertising L. Ron Hubbards Dianetics at Scientology.org: Containing discoveries heralded as greater than the wheel or fire, Dianetics has remained a bestseller for more than 50 years. And with over 20 million copies in print, generating a movement that spans over 100 nations, its indisputably the most widely read and influential book ever written about the human mind.

6.

Excerpt from the second President George W. Bushs 2004 State of the Union address:

A strong America must also value the institution of marriage. Congress has already taken a stand on this issue by passing the Defense of Marriage Act signed in 1996 by President Clinton. That statute protects marriage under federal law as the union of a man and a woman, and declares that one state may not redefine marriage for other states. Activist judges, however, have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. On an issue of such great consequence, the peoples voice must be heard. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process. Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.

7.

Eric Jubler, in an article in which he argued that America should open up its wilderness areas: The purist [conservationist] is, generally speaking, against everything the purist believes that those who do not agree with him desire to rape the land.

*8.

Donald Trump on Twitter responding to terrorist attacks in Brussels: Europe and the U.S. must immediately stop taking in people from Syria. This will be the destruction of civilization as we know it! So sad!

ANSWER

Questionable premise: Trump here is suggesting that the United States should not take in refugees from Syria because doing so will be the destruction of civilization as we know it. Coming just after terrorist attacks in Brussels, the clear implication is that attacks like these will be the destruction of civilization. Lets start with the fact that terrorist attacks in the West, as awful as they are, have not yet meant the destruction of civilization or anything remotely close to it. And given the very long history of such atrocities, it is at least a bit alarmist to think they will now. Also, there is no reason to think that closing our borders to refugees will make us significantly safer from such terrorist attacks. Trump could not possibly have known this at the time, but none of the Brussels attackers were Syrian refugees. The question is, though, why did he race to make such a sweeping generalization?

9.

Calvin Coolidge is alleged to have been the first to say this: We must keep people workingwith jobsbecause when many people are out of work, unemployment results.

10.

In an interview with Sarah, Duchess of York, Larry King asked whether she was friends with Prince Charles. She replied, Well, Larry, the important thing is that I have great respect for the royal family.

11.

Argument in a student essay: Prostitution should not be legalized because it encourages the breakdown of the family. Nevada, where prostitution is legal in ten counties, has the highest divorce rate in the nation, almost twice as high as the national average.

12.

Notice from the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans: We are pleased to confirm your reservation. It will be held on a space-available basis.

13.

It is reported that when Socrates was condemned to death, his wife cried out, Those wretched judges have condemned him to death unjustly! To which Socrates is said to have replied, Would you really prefer that I were justly condemned?

*14.

The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology select doctors who are experts in their fields to make independent evaluations of cardiovascular science and issue guidelines to doctors in clinical practice. But a study published in 2011 by the Archives of Internal Medicine revealed that more than half the doctors (56 percent of 498) had conflicts of interest. Among those who led the panels, 81 percent had financial interests in companies affected by the guidelines. When the Institute of Medicine (the health branch of the National Academy of Science) recommended that the doctors responsible for setting guidelines cut their ties with conflict-of-interest companies, the president of the American Heart Association said that this could limit the number of doctors available for the work, adding that what makes it difficult is that some well-regarded experts in their field have conducted medical research sponsored by companies.

ANSWER

Appeal to authority, questionable premise, suppressed evidence. A doctor who is setting guidelines shouldnt be profiting from a company who stands to benefit from those guidelines. Under those circumstances, his authority may be suspect. And it is questionable that banning conflicts of interest would limit the number of doctors available for work. After all, 44 percent of the medical evaluators were conflict free. Finally, the fact that some well-regarded doctors conducted company-sponsored research doesnt mean that they remained untainted or that they were essential for setting the guidelines.

15.

According to the trustworthy authors of Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, you can believe everything in the book youre currently reading.

16.

Question to artists model: Why did he paint you so often? Answer: Because Im his model.

*17.

From a Dr. Joyce Brothers newspaper column: Question: You should be more fearful of rape at home because rapes occur more frequently in private homes than in back alleys. Answer: TRUE. Studies indicate that more rapes are committed in the victims home than in any other place. Almost half took place in either the victims home or the assailants; one-fourth occurred in open spaces; one-fifth in automobiles; one-twelfth in other indoor locations.

ANSWER

Suppressed evidence. Most of us are in our own home a lot more than we are in these other places. The rape rate per unit of time is much greater in the other places mentioned by Dr. Brothers than in ones own home.

18.

From Slander, by Ann Coulter, on the attitudes of liberals: The liberal catechism includes hatred of Christians, guns, the profit motive, and political speech, and an infatuation with abortion, the environment, and race discrimination (or in the favored parlance of liberals, affirmative action).

19.

From a New Republic review of the James Michener book Iberia: Michener leads off his chapter on bullfights with an argument between a quintessential American and Spaniard about brutal sportswhich the Spaniard wins by pointing out that more young men get killed and maimed every year playing American football than in the bullring.

*20.

Headline from CNN.com (and on-air): Adult film actress in yanked Cruz ad endorses Trump And from the Lead: Erotic film actress Amy Lindsay returns to announce her endorsement after appearing in an ad for Ted Cruz that his campaign pulled off the air.

ANSWER

No fallacy if this was a humorous jab at the practice of collecting and reporting on endorsements. But the story was treated with apparent seriousness. It may (MAY!) be news that someone appearing in a Cruz ad is voting for another candidate. But usually, we are interested in endorsements as potential guides to how we should vote. The endorsement itself is a kind of appeal to authority. And being a former adult film actress who later appeared in a commercial does not quite qualify someone as an authority in governance or politics. This is not to say that this particular woman is necessarily not qualified to give a meaningful endorsement, only that CNN did nothing whatsoever to establish that she is.

21.

A 2001 Washington Monthly article on celebrity chefs (JulyAugust 2001) quoted Evan Kleinman, chef of Angeli Caf in Los Angeles, as saying:

Basically when it comes to food and food supply, I find it frightening that something so fundamental to life has been left to people whose only concern is profit. I mean as far as I can see, because of that, there are only two kinds of people putting food in their mouthsthe ones who have lost the notion that food is something made by human hands and then there are the others for whom theres still some link with food as a culture of nurturance.

22.

Paraphrase of part of a letter to the editor (Washington Post National Weekly Edition, March 1319, 1989):

Its true that the Ayatollah Khomeini has gone too far with his death sentence for author Salman Rushdie [because of his outrageous book The Satanic Verses], but Rushdie also has gone too far by offending all Moslems. I am a strong believer in the freedom of speech. However, books like Rushdies only create hatred and division and weaken the ties of people to each other. Therefore, his book and others like it should be abolished.

23.

According to a Pew Research study, a majority of Americans making over $50,000 a year agreed with the following statement: Poor people today have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return.

*24.

Sociologist James Q. Wilson: I am not about to argue [as some sociobiologists do] that there is a sympathy gene. But there must be some heritable disposition that helps us explain why sympathy is so common.

ANSWER

Inconsistency. Doesnt the phrase heritable disposition mean a disposition caused by a genetic inheritance?

25.

Extra! (July 2010) noted these responses to the arrest of a Pakistani American suspect arrested in an attempt to bomb Times Square: Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York, cautioned that the arrest shouldnt lead to scapegoating by religion or ethnicity. Bill OReillys retort on Fox News was Well, maybe somebody should remind the mayor that Muslim fanatics have been threatening New York City and the entire country for almost twenty years.

26.

In attacking a proposed equal rights amendment to the state constitution of Iowa, Pat Robertson argued that the proposal was part of a feminist agenda a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.

27.

An oil and gas industrybacked organization, energyfromshale.org, makes a case for increasing the production of clean-burning, domestic, reliable supplies of natural gas by developing more shale sites in this county. The process, known as fracking, involves injecting high-pressure fluid into deep rock formations to release natural gas. The issue is a contentious one, because fracking may cause groundwater contamination and air pollution, among other things, and disposal of waste may be mishandled. With assurances that the oil and gas industry will make sure that fracking is done responsibly, energyfromshale.org notes that there are only two sides in the debate: those who want our oil and natural resources developed in a safe and responsible way, and those who dont want our oil and natural gas resources developed at all.

28.

The day after the Mitchell Report was released detailing the widespread use of anabolic steroids in baseball, a fan made this comment on sfgate.com, the San Francisco Chronicles website (December 18, 2007): This will send a shock wave through baseball and steroid usage will stop.

29.

Bill OReilly in January 2016 felt the need to defend his journalistic integrity after receiving some criticism for being too soft on Donald Trump in an interview, and especially for saying to Trump, Look, you know Im looking out for you, right? OReilly called the criticism absolutely ridiculous and aired the full clip to provide context:

BILL OREILLY: You know I am looking out for you, right? You know that? I am looking out for you. I look out for every honest politician. I do not care what party they are in.

30.

OReilly had a diagnosis for the charge that he was supporting Trump: This is the problem with American journalism today. There are no standards anymoreeach individual outlet does pretty much what it wants to do with little accountability. That makes it harder for you the honest voter to decide who really is looking out for you.

31.

Ad for an International Correspondence School journalism course: Every successful writer started that first story or article with no previous experience. William Shakespeare, Alexander Dumas, Harold Robbins, Danielle Steel, Barbara Cartlandany famous writer you can name started just like you.

*32.

In an interview with Vice President Joe Biden (Meet the Press, December 19, 2010), David Gregory asked him whether he agreed with Mitch McConnell that Julian Assanges WikiLeaks was high-tech terrorism or with others who said it is more like the Pentagon Papers (involving the unauthorized publication of top secret information about the government misleading the public over the US expansion of the Vietnam War). Biden replied, I would argue that its closer to being a high-tech terrorist than the Pentagon Papers.

ANSWER

Questionable premise and possibly either/or. It is certainly questionable to refer to WikiLeaks as a high-tech terrorist, whether you are for or against its unauthorized publication of classified information. An either/or fallacy is conceivable if the argument is couched in terms of two possible alternatives, one good, the other bad.

33.

Walter Burns, in an article in which he argues for capital punishment:

When abolitionists speak of the barbarity of capital punishment they ought to be reminded that men whose moral sensitivity they would not question have supported [it]. Lincoln, for example, albeit with a befitting reluctance, authorized the execution of 267 persons during his presidency and it was Shakespeares sensitivity to the moral issues that required him to have Macbeth killed.

34.

Phyllis Schlafly, an outspoken opponent of the womens liberation movement, in her book The Power of Positive Women:

The second dogma of the womens liberationists is that, of all the injustices perpetrated upon women through the centuries, the most oppressive is the cruel fact that women have babies and men do not. Within the confines of womens liberationist ideology, the abolition of this overriding inequality becomes the primary goal.