Webassingment 3: Reason Neil Salsich
Give a real example of each of "the five common thinking errors."
The Five Common Thinking Errors are: non sequiturs, false and vague premisses, ad hominems, begging the question, and red herrings.
1. An example of "non sequitur" in literature (or pop culture) is the comic Non Sequitur. In an example take from the Indianapolis Star newspaper from Oct. 7, 2005, the single-framed comic depicts a pirate talking to a business man at a bar. The only dialogue is the pirate saying, "No...I'm actually a terrorist. For some reason, people think it's romantic when I dress like this." By the comic's title, it is known that the comics aren't going to make much sense; this one is no exception. The pirate's conclusion that he is a terrorist is incorrectly derived from the premisses of him being dressed as a pirate because it is "romantic" and the implied premiss that the business man thought he was a pirate; it does not follow. Sources:The Indianapolis Star
2. An example of "false or vague premisses" is present in the book A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Wide Window. There is a character in the book, Aunt Josephine, who is suffers from extreme anxiety. Among other absurd notions, she is afraid to touch glass doorhandles because they could "shatter into thousands of pieces and cut my eyes." Here is a diagram of Aunt Josephine's thought:
Premiss: Glass will shatter if broken. Premiss: My glass doorhandle will shatter if I touch it. Conclusion: If I touch my glass doorhandle, it will shatter into a thousand pieces and cut my eyes.
The second premiss of her argument is vague; there is a possiblity it could happen, but extremely unlikely. Though her conclusion is correctly arrived from her premisses, her second premiss in vague.
Source:www.kidsread.com
3. A historical example of "ad hominem" would be the statement made by Mandy Rice-Davies in the trial of Steven Ward, all part of the Profumo affair. During the trial, when the prosecutor pointed out that Lord Astor denied not only having an affair with her but denied having even met her, she replied with the ad hominem argument, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?" Her reply was ad hominem because she directly verbally attacked Lord Astor. His personality had nothing to do with whether or not he had met or had an affair with Rice-Davies.
Source:www.wikipedia.com
4. When someone begs the question, he or she, in the process of proving a point to be true, already assumes the point is true. An example from my own life took place just last night, when I spoke to my little cousin. When debating with her whether or not a charachter from the movie Spykids was real, she proved her point by saying "He is real just because." "Because why?" I asked. She replied, "Because he is real." Put together, her stwo statements would have said, "He is real because he is real." Her argument is a good example of begging the question. The statement "he is real" is redundant because she already stated "he is real." Sources:N/A
5. An example of a red herring-something besides the point in order to distract everyone from the real issue-can be found in the computer game Maniac Mansion, a groundbreaking computer game from the late 1980's. In the game, a chainsaw is provided to the player in order for them to think that the chainsaw is the object they will need to reach the end of the game. However, the designers of the game purposely did not include chainsaw fuel in the game; thus the chainsaw was never meant to be used, and it was put there for the sole purpose of frustrating the player. Sources:Wikipedia
