The Story of the 5 Common Thinking Errors
Jarvis was on his way to a cocktail party on Saturday night.He was driving on Highway 40 and there was no traffic. "I'm doing 75mph, that's pretty fast", Jarvis thought. "There are no cops pulling me over", He observed. "Therefore, if I keep going 75mph, I won't get pulled over. Five minutes later Jarvis was pulled over and realized he had fallen victim to a common thinking error, the Non-Sequiter.
The police man told Jarvis he was going 14 miles per hour over the speed limit and brought Jarvis' license back to his white Chevy Impala police car. After around ten minutes, Jarvis started wondering what was taking so long. The police man, he thought, was writing up a report and traffic ticket, but didn't think it would take this long. After forgetting that the cop had his license he started to panic."Maybe he just wants me to leave", Jarvis thought and put his car in gear and started to roll forward. 20 seconds later, Jarvis was out of the car and had already received two traffic tickets in less than half an hour, thanks to his false premiss that he should leave.
After finally getting to the party, Jarvis was in a bad mood. He overheard one of his friends saying something. "How can anyone get a speeding ticket, you'd have to be a real idiot."
Jarvis was mad.
"What would you know about traffic tickets!? YOU SUCK!"
Jarvis had fallen victim to Ad Hominem, another common thinking error.
Later on as Jarvis was leaving, his friend told him to drive safely.
"Of course I'll drive safely because I'm going to get home."
"How do you know you're going to get home?"
"Because I'm going to drive safely! Duh!"
Jarvis simply used the false thinking method of Begging the Question.
While listening to the radio on the way home, Jarvis came across a political talk show. One man said he was against abortion. The other said "Against Abortion? Don't have one!" This is an example of throwing a red Herring, another thinking error.
NON-SEQUITERS--when a conclusion does not follow logically from the premisses used to support it.
FALSE OR VAGUE PREMISSES--when the premiss, or statements leading up to the conclusion are false, making the conclusion, of course false.
AD HOMINEM--when, instead of attacking a person's arguement, one attacks a certain quality in the person which is not related to the arguement at all.
BEGGING THE QUESTION--when you try to prove something is true but in the process already assumes his point is true.
RED HERRINGS--when you say something inflammatory or beside the point in order to distract people from the real issue.