Logical Fallacy Project

An example of the project.

Post Hoc• Event A happened immediately prior to event B.

Therefore, A caused B. • Post Hoc also manifests itself as a bias towards

jumping to conclusions based upon coincidences."Logical Fallacy: Post Hoc." Logical Fallacies:

The Fallacy Files. Fallacy Files. Web. n.d.

13 Apr. 2011.

"Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc." Cunningham &

Cunningham, Inc. CategoryLogic, 27 Feb.

2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.

Post hoc“She sends her spirit on me in church; she

makes me laugh at prayer.” AbigailMiller, Arthur. "The Crucible." Elements of Literature. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and

Winston, 2007. 1233. Print.

This is post hoc or faulty causality because there is no evidence that Tituba sending her spirit and Abigail laughing in church are cause and effect. Abigail may laugh in church due to her immaturity.

A Loyal Reader Writes:You ridicule those “screaming car

dealer” commercials. But theywork, don’t they? Isn’t that why car dealers insist on airing them?

No, they don’t work. Those screaming ads increase the public’s awareness of the car dealer not because they scream but because they’re aired so frequently. One of the great powers of radio advertising, remember? Frequency.

They could simply repeat “Ed’s Toyota is a wonderful to place to buy a new car,” and if that message aired as often as the Screaming Spot, it would deliver at least the same result.

It is possible to create a commercial that is far more effective than either of those models, of course. But when your local Screaming Car Dealer says, “We scream because it works,” the truth is simply, “It works because we make full use of radio’s Reach and Frequency.”

O'Day, Dan. Dan O'Day Talks About Radio. N.p., 4 Aug. 2011. Web. 30 Aug. 2011.

Bandwagon/Ad populam• When someone agrees with a

statement/policy just because the general population does; Bandwagon.

About.com. Ed. Richard Nordquist. The New York Times Company, n.d. Google. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.

BandwagonAbigail: I want to open myself! I want to go back to Jesus…

I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!

Betty: I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil!

Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible." Elements of Literature. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007. 1235. Print.

This is a bandwagon fallacy because Abigail began naming witches after Tituba was forced

to name some and saw the attention and approval she

received for doing so. Once Abigail begins, Betty follows her

in crying out more names.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: CATACLYSM™ ONE-MONTH SALES TOP 4.7 MILLION

IRVINE, CALIF. -- JANUARY 10, 2011 -- BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INC. TODAY ANNOUNCED THAT WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: CATACLYSM™, THE THIRD EXPANSION FOR THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAME (MMORPG), HAS SOLD THROUGH MORE THAN 4.7 MILLION COPIES AS OF ITS FIRST MONTH OF RELEASE, SETTING A NEW RECORD FOR MONTHLY PC-GAME SALES.*

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Advertisement. Blizzard Entertainment, 10 Jan. 2011. Web. 30 Aug. 2011.