Spot the Logical Fallacy Party!
A nifty idea for those who like a little reason in their politics. Carlos Mariscal of Duke tells us why:
While I was watching the convention this week (and last week as well, actually), it astounded me at how often the speakers would resort to obvious logical fallacies. I counted five false dichotomies and four straw men within the Sarah Palin speech alone. As a result, I’ve decided to throw a ‘Spot the Logical Fallacy’ party during the first debate September 26. It occurs to me that this would be a good way of showing the use of philosophical training and a fun way to reach out to the community. So, I’d like to throw the idea out to the Internet in the hopes that a few philosophy departments, clubs, or meet up groups will also decide to throw parties of their own.
Katerina and I will definitely throw our own, and we’ll post on the fallacious reasoning that will inevitably abound (I suspect a Palin-Biden debate will top all fallacies!).
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“I counted five false dichotomies and four straw men within the Sarah Palin speech alone”
Get this guy a philosophy medal!
Awesome I’m in too!!!
It might be easier to try and spot the arguments that aren’t fallacious.
It might be easier to try and spot the arguments that aren’t fallacious.
You may be right…it’s easier to spot anomalies!
Make it a drinking game and I am in…
Though I will admit, based on past performances, I will not likely make it through Joe Biden’s 8 1/2 hour opening remark.
Why is this so attention grabbing? Is this by any chance your first election? This is politics, for goodness sakes. If most wont tell the truth, why should inconsistencies and oxymorons be so extraordinary?
Who says philosophy students are no fun?
Wow, my ears are red. :-) Thanks guys, I’m really glad you liked my idea. I hope more people throughout the country throw parties of their own..
Carlos,
Is the list you link to on Wikipedia the official list?
Sounds like a good drinking game, actually.
David,
It’s pretty much got everything you would ever see as a logical fallacy. I’m going to go over it, though, prune out ones I don’t expect to see, and post a one-page list Friday. I plan on handing it out to every one of my guests so that we’re all on equal footing. If you want, I can come back and link to it here, too
Carlos,
I would love to see a link here. This is one of the best ideas I have heard in ages!
Just in case anyone is interested:
here’s the list.