Five Common Thinking Errors

 

Non Sequitur

      Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_geography

 

The ancient Greeks were one of the groups of people who tried to figure out the shape of the world. When sailing they noted that the sea was flat, that it did not matter where they were the ocean always seemed flat. They concluded that if one was to sail to the edge of the flat ocean that they would fall off the edge of the world. They believed that the world was flat because when they looked to the horizon they only saw flat land.

 

False and Vague Premises

     Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye

 

In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield makes up the false premise that people cannot be trusted. He has engraved in his mind that people “prostitutes” and other things. He then concluded that he should not even try to be friends with other people, and that most should not be trusted. He isolates himself from the world, and treats everybody like they do not mean anything to him.

 

Ad Hominem

     Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atenism

 

In the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, a new religion was created. The Pharaoh named it the Cult of the Aten, Cult of the Sun Disk. He changed the religion from polytheism to the first monotheistic religion in recorded history. Local priests questioned his new religion, and wondered why they could not worship with him. Akhenaten replied by saying that the priests would not understand for they were not of royal blood, and that only the royal family of Egypt could properly worship the Aten.

 

Begging the Question

      Source: http://www.angelfire.com/oh/AncientKnowledge/NUBIA.html

 

In the time of ancient Egypt the Nubians to the south. The Nubians were considered lesser beings to the Egyptians. The Egyptians thought that the Nubians were less than human because they were not Egyptian and because they lived to the south of them.

 

Red Herrings

      Source: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/kadesh.htm

During the reign of Ramesses the Great, Egyptian forces fought against Hittites at Kadesh. When Ramesses finally returned to the capital of Thebes, he made sure that the battle looked like a victory of Egypt. Ramesses made sure that no person in his empire of Kemet, Egypt, would question if he lost or not. In truth it was a draw, but instead of saying that Ramesses made it look like the Hittite king asked for a treaty.

 

 

 

     

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