Logical Fallacies

This video details some of the most common logical fallacies worth understanding and avoiding. US Represented is an e-magazine dedicated to free speech and creative expression. We showcase writers, artists, and musicians of all ages, creeds, and backgrounds. Just click on the link below to visit our site, and thanks for stopping by!

[Hedgehog]

this is what people need to learn not just in college but in high school too. this is very important i believe as many people argue with fallacies.

[zackmack]

The narrator's deadpan delivery was unintentional comedic gold. Great video! : ))

[jewlz]

My professor included this video as part of an assignment and I could not be more grateful. Why is this not taught in high school English?

[iiTzKaizen.]

Thank you I have a test tomorrow and I needed help with False Equivalence and False Dilemma

[TheMasterOfTheFrets]

It's actually very useful to know of these because, a lot of comedy (esp. satire) use these fallacies to prove a point. In fact, I bet one could short hand an improvised stand up routine with simply a common, well-known subject, and knowledge of logical fallacies.

[aaronhargrove]

This was a great video in listing some common logical fallacies. If you study them long enough, you will be able to tell when someone is using them against you, and will be prepared to defend yourself against it.

[biostemm]

A few comments:

1. Everything DOES happen for a reason - it's just that said reason is most likely mundane and clearly explainable.
2. Guns aren't designed to kill - they are designed to propel a projectile at high speed. The user of said firearm can choose to point it at a non-living target, at nothing in particular, or another living being. Your example mentioned knives, but for some reason you went to the very specific case of a kitchen knife. Would it have been any more reasonable to specifically point to a specially made skeet shooting shotgun as a case for all firearms?

I realize these were examples provided, but it's worth addressing them.

[anewbeggin]

Excellent video, you presented examples and provided reasons opposing each fallacy which made it all very easy to understand. Thank you!

[no.sweetie]

"Thank you, St. Thomas Aquinas, for being so logical." I'm dead laughing

[bigkkm]

Very nice overview of logical fallacies.

[nemlolrawrlawl]

'Begging the question' made me think of how Reddit had tried to figure out who the Boston marathon bomber was, ultimately wrongly destroying people's lives in the first place. One positive thing that came of it is that Reddit has not, and likely will not forget about this. I've seen them jump on people who tried following the same path. Its an interesting thing to see, especially considering we don't really see this level of 'lesson learned' anywhere else.

[whizzardblizzard]

Hands down the best explanation of the types of Fallacys with understandable examples on YouTube. The only thing I’m complaining is that there could be more types of fallacy mention and how two fallacys could be similar. E.G Begging The Question vs Circular Reasoning / Red Herring vs Straw Man.

[lisakukla]

Great video! I hope there's a part two on how to get good at recognizing them and how to address it. 😁

[raydavis-insearchofthetrut]

GREAT presentation! Thank you for sharing on this interesting and important topic. The superstition aspect of the hasty generalization seems to rely too much on momentary consensus. You might have figured out something that no one else had. There may be little to no empirical evidence to support your view. Could that be considered a hasty generalization based on superstition? You say, "Paying attention to empirical evidence leads to rational conclusions." Generally, I agree.
Examples might be Alfred Waegener or Galileo. Although they made arguments based on what they observed, their evidence was dismissed because it was not considered empirical evidence when they initially presented it. Later both men were proven correct. I understand that their adversaries were employing their own logical fallacies against them. Still, what's empirical data shifts.
Or, what about proving Julius Caesar is real and the Hindu god Shiva is not? The only empirical evidence I have as to Caesar's factuality is the same I have for Shiva's. I have documents written by people I can't interview and statues of both. Yet, many rationally accept Caesar as fact and Shiva as myth. Could an argument be made for both without falling into Superstition.
Curios on your thoughts.

[andrewdecker]

Idk if I agree with ur example of faulty anology. U can argue guns are made to kill or wound but what about bayonets, or pocket knives that are made for self defense or something else. I'm pretty sure butterfly knives weren't made to "cut carrots"

[rklewis]

The complex question fallacy...

I always used it as a joke to my friends, asking questions that they cannot answer.
I find it hard to believe that people actually try to seriously get away with that rubbish.

[johnellison]

"Sticking heroin needles in their eyeballs, or eating sheets of acid". That cracked me up. Great video. 👍

[vidyanandbapat]

However, you have missed a few important and most frequently encountered logical fallacies such as equivocation fallacy, Ad Populum/Vox Populli, Post hoc Ergo Propter hoc (After this, therefore because of this) etc.

[JP-JustSayin]

So is it a slippery slope when a recovering alcoholic says they only have control over the first drink?

Are the slopes sometimes actually slippery in real life?

[gualmicol]

"Everything happens for a reason" is a phrase that can have diverse acceptions. In actual language usage that prase can be interchangeable with "every thing happens for a motive", even an unknown, insensible or inplausible motive. The word "motive" can also have various acceptions: it is commonly used meanig "personal motivaton"', but "active cause" is also a possible acception.