A Class Room Logic: Deductive and Inductive, with Special Application to the Science and Art of TeachingMcNair, George Hastings
Philosophy
A Class Room Logic: Deductive and Inductive, with Special Application to the Science and Art of Teaching
McNair, George Hastings
Logic
The common fallacy in the process of obversion consists in using one
negative instead of two, whereas the ordinary error of conversion is a
matter of distributing an undistributed term.
Fallacies of contraversion must involve either those of obversion or
conversion since the process is a combination of the two.
(6) Fallacies in language, because they result from permitting
more than one interpretation, may be also denominated fallacies of
equivocation.
(1) Ambiguous middle is the fallacy of giving to the middle term a
double meaning.
The fallacy of four terms, as the name signifies, exists when
the argument has four terms in both form and meaning. Ambiguous
middle is a matter of four terms in meaning but only three in
form.
(2) The fallacy of amphibology is committed when the given
proposition conveys more than one meaning. In order to maintain
their prestige the ancient oracles made use of this fallacy.
(3) The fallacy of accent springs from placing undue emphasis on some
word or group of words. Newspaper and demagogues are prone to
this error, that they may thus create an unfavorable impression
towards those whom they oppose.
(4) The fallacy of composition is committed when it is assumed that
what is true _distributively_ is likewise true _collectively_.
“All” meaning _each one_ and “all” meaning the _whole class_
often leads to the fallacy of composition.
(5) The fallacy of division is committed when it is assumed that what
is true _collectively_ is true _distributively_.
Division is the converse of composition.
(6) The fallacy of figure of speech is occasioned by assuming that
words of the same root have the same meaning.
(7) Fallacies in thought are likewise called fallacies of assumption,
because of the tendency to assume as true something which demands
further proof.
(1) The fallacy of accident occurs when one reasons from a general
truth to an accident case. It is the favored fallacy of the
doctrinaire, the reformer and the vender of “cure-alls.”
(2) The fallacy of converse accident occurs when one reasons from an
accidental case to a general truth.
Both accident and converse accident are made possible because rules,
definitions, maxims, etc., have _exceptions_. It is easy to confuse
division and composition with the fallacies of accident. Division and
composition are concerned with the _collective and distributive use of
terms_, whereas the fallacies of accident involve the use of notions
in a _general and accidental sense_. The former represent notions which
may be _counted or enumerated_ while the latter concern notions which
are _logical_ rather than numerical. Composition and division involve
“number of,” accident, “meaning of.”
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