Market Efficiency Hypothesis Example For Free - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2215 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Tags: Concept Essay Did you like this example? The notion of efficient market can be traced back to Bachelier(1900) in his dissertation. According to his research, the expected return for each investor can be seen as an independent event, and the samples are close to normal distribution. That means, therefore, the expected return for the security is zero and the stock prices are unpredictable. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Market Efficiency Hypothesis Example For Free" essay for you Create order As he stated, past, present and even discounted future events are reflected in market price, but often show no apparent relation to price changes The newly rising concept challenged the former economic theory which focus on estimating the future security prices, but unfortunately, his contribution was not valued until the later scholars had came up empirical evidence and developed to random walk theory, which is seen as the origin of market efficiency. With further understanding of random walk model, in which assuming the stock price is not predictable, Samuelson(1965) then carried out resembling researches in stock markets. He found that if there was a technical indicator implying that the stock price would rise, it would have already been raised by the coming investors. (cited in )Thus, the increased price led the indicator disappear and the stock price reset to the random position. Arguments like this are used to deduce that competitive prices must display price changesÃÆ' ¢ à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦that perform a random walk with no predictable bias. Basing on previous approaches, Fama(1969) concluded those literatures reviews and produced market efficiency hypothesis with relevant evidence. In his paper, he defined market efficiency hypothesis, in the meaning that the stock prices have fully reflected the related information in capital market. Therefore, it is unreasonable to earn abnormal profits by using the public news. In other words, those excess returns gained by speculators are merely occasional chances and may disappear through frequent operation.(Fama 1991) 2.2 The Problem of Hypothesis Assumptions Although it is important to establish a theory upon controlled assumptions, the background of those has also to be suspected if it is alive in reality. As Fama(1969) stated, the market hypothesis have to build up on four assumptions, which will be described as below. Nevertheless, a volume of researchers have proposed opposition to challenge the theory. The major criticism will then be presented. To begin with the first assumption, the hypothesis assumes there is no transaction cost, taxation, and other expense in capital market. Ruling out the cost, the stock prices are close to random walk theory and there are no opportunities to make profits because of the unpredictability. However, it is impossible to exist such pure economic surroundings as Fama(1969) state. Thus, The hypothesis have face the challenges of whether it is applicable in financial markets. The continuous point of control variable has been stated that the relevant information is spread to every investor at th e same time for free, so all of them have the same expectations for the security return. Those are other challenges in which not only how can the information be delivered to everyone simultaneously, but the different levels of risk taking for various revenue expectations. Although the development of technology has help reduced asymmetric information, there are difficulties to say the resource is fully shared and even without considering the delivery cost. Besides, the limitation of investors rationalities has to be discussed. Criticisms argue that the evidence here to support the points is too powerless. Moreover, the method supposes that people are all rational to share the same thoughts and regard the maximum return as major aims. Through analyzing, evaluating, and operating the assets, they participate on the market frequently and actively. However, in the hypothesis, the various considerations of investors are ignored. As the financial market is tend to be more complex recent ly, it is impossible to say profit is the major factor to affect decision makers. For instance, financial managers may use stocks to hedge risk and does not pursue the profitable return. Consequently, oppositions propose it is seem to be sustainable in favor of the hypothesis under this position. Last but not least, as Fama(1969) presumed, individual transactions would not affect the security prices and participators are price takers. That means investors are independent enough not to be influenced by others. However, Criticisms may say the supply of security quantities is limited, and if the stock exchanges have no impact on the prices, how can stock market be adjusted. This point is considered as a contrary side of the principle of stock exchange operation. Types of Market efficiency In section 2, the stock prices are defined to react to all relevant information. Actually, different information may influence the share prices at different speeds. The common categories are sorted information into historical price information, publicly available information, and all information which includes public and private resources. ( Hillier et al,2010) The three types of efficiency will be described and discussed in the next sections. In Engle and Morris(1991) studies, the price reaction is believed to be an indicator of future dividend market value , which comes from the profitability of companies. Thus, it can be said that the price changes reflect the company performance. For example, if there is a new technology patent received, investors may suppose the possibility of profitable income in the future and then buy in the securities. That implies the increasing strike amounts grow the stock price up. 2.3.1 Weak Form Market Efficiency In the weak form of market efficiency, the current security prices are asserted to fully contain the historical price changes. That means, therefore, that investors cannot get any help from past stock trend when choosing securities. Under the weak market efficiency, technical analysis cannot assist investors to find those stocks which are underestimated or overestimated in order to earn excess returns. Several research have conclude that most economic environment in the world belong to this type. 2.3.2 Semi-Strong Form Market Efficiency A market is defined as semi-strong form efficiency if current security prices have incorporated all publicly available information. In the semi- strong market efficiency, fundamental analysis cannot suggest investors any advance decisions. That is, investors are unable to gain excess returns even analyzing the published accounting statements and historical price information thoroughly, since the stock prices adjust to new information immediately. 2.3.3 Strong Form Market Efficiency A market is defined as strong form efficiency if current security price have reflected all kinds of information, including public and private. Once, new information appears the stock prices will modify to appropriate level rapidly. Thus, any investors, even insiders, cannot predict market performance. Empirical Test for Various Types of Efficiency To support the hypothesis, the evidence for Market efficiency hypothesis is also brought up. Because of the comprehensive ways of examining the method, just the major tests are explained below. With various intensities of efficiency, there are the empirical measurements here: Test for Weak Form Efficiency The weak form efficiency contains the notion that investors cannot earn any abnormal return from past price information, which have highly relationship with random walk theory. Fama(1965) suggested further evidence that security prices follow the random walk model. The test for weak efficiency has been developed extensively; however, two common methods are discussed. Since the weak efficiency is close to random walk theory, it is measured whether the stock prices are random. Serial correlation has been widely used to test for it. This method inspects the correlation between the past and the present return on one security. While Calculating the series of this period, if the coefficients are low and the expected return is close to zero, this market can be seen as Weak form efficiency. ( Hillier et al,2010) There is, in addition, filter rules is an alternative tool to examine weak form efficiency. As Fama and Blume(1966) defined, the principle states that setting a standard of b uying and selling points and operating the stocks once the prices reach the level, if the sum of the security returns is higher than the long-term strategy, we can say that price changes are related, and analysis can help investors to earn abnormal returns. That means, the market is not in weak efficiency form. For instance, Investigating 30 securities in U.S. stock market, Fama and Blume(1966) explored the effect of technical analysis and efficient market by using different levels of filter rules. As a result, although 15 of them achieved higher return on performance, the abnormal profits still vanished after considering transaction cost. Namely, technical analysis cannot be in favor of earning excess return in weak market efficiency. 3.2 Test for Semi-Strong Form Efficiency The major test for semi-strong efficiency is to measure the speed of adjusting security prices to new public information. The frequent used principle here is event study. Measuring the stock price changes over news announced period, the performance is used to judge whether the market is semi-strong efficient. According to Fama, Fisher, Jensen and Roll(1969) paper, they observed the security price adjustment for stock splits and earnings announcements. As a result, stock prices were surprisingly found that most reaction have completed before the news were released to market. Once the information announced, the changes continued rapidly. Actual events, which can be seen as applications of empirical evidence, are such announcements of dividends, earnings, mergers, initial public offerings, stock splits, or block trading. In these examples, security prices would carter to the appearance of new information. Thus, speculators cannot gain any abnormal profits even from fundamental a nalysis. 3.3 Test for Strong Form Efficiency The method of strong form efficiency is based on the position that security prices have already reflected all public and private information. Namely, no one can earn extra return in this market. Therefore, to test the market efficiency, many studies have been developed to investigate whether insiders can gain profit in long term. If they do, it can be seen as a symbol of inefficient strong market. For instance, mutual fund which managed by financial experts is an alternative examination for strong form efficiency, because those experts are seen to have close relationship with insiders and able to use private to control the fund in order to reap profits. According to the analysis of mutual fund performance published by Jensen (1968), the return of portfolio might have been offset by fees and expense. In other words, on average the funds apparently were not quite successful enough in their trading activities to recoup even their brokerage expenses. Furthermore, some studies also p oint out that the sustainable evidence are not strong enough to hold the hypothesis. In fact, as general identification, traders who have private information are easily to earn excess returns. 4.Anomalies There are, of course, critical studies with applied evidence showing the unusual phenomenon in reality. The next section will provide discussion of market anomalies. 4.1 Stock Return Anomalies Arguments about the predictability of stock return are still continued discussed. It is important to note that challengers controvert to market efficiency hypothesis by presenting exceptional appearance in real world. The first suspicions are drawn in return anomalies which violate the semi-strong hypothesis. Based on Fama(1969) in his paper, fundamental analysis do not provide stock prediction for investors, therefore, the seasonal anomalies such as January effect, weekend effect, and monthly effect are an indicator which debate the hypothesis and provide the opportunities to obtain the excess return. January effect is defined as a position that there is unusual price decreasing in every December, but the capital would have flowed back in January. That leads the stock returns in the first month of every year are normally greater than other months. Examining seasonal phenomenon between seventeen nations from 1959 to 1979, Mustafa and Gultekin(1983) discovered that most of the m consist with the January effect. The notion of weekend effect illustrates that the stock prices are frequently lower on Mondays. The reason for the anomalies is believed that most companies and government usually announce unfavorable news on Fridays and the stock prices all react to the information on Mondays. As the similar idea of weekend effect, monthly effect illustrates the higher return before every 15th than the following days. 4.1 Overreaction and Underreaction Famous literature published by De Bondt and Thaler(1985) brought up the notion of overreaction phenomenon. They looked at a long-term stock price changes and discovered those which had overreacted in the past would have rebounded back to former levels, and vice versa. De Bondt and Thaler explained this price reversal can be seen as strong evidence to prove the usefulness of fundamental analysis in predicting returns and suggested investors to use the constrain strategy of price overreaction to gain extra return. However, sharing a consensus with Fama and French(1988), Poterba and Summers(1988) stated Noise trading, trading by investors whose demand for shares is determined by factors other than their expected return, provides a plausible explanation for the transitory components in stock prices. Conclusion Samuelson, Paul (1965). Proof That Properly Anticipated Prices Fluctuate Randomly,Industrial Management Review, 6, pp. 41-49. Fama, Eugene (1965). The Behavior of St ock Market Prices, Journal of Business, 38, pp. 34-105. Fama, Eugene (1970). Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work, Journal of Finance, 25, pp. 383-417. Fama, Eugene (1991). Efficient Capital Markets II, Journal of Finance, 46, pp. 1575-617. Engel, C., Morris, C. S. (1991). Challenges to Stock Market efficiency: Evidence from Mean Reversion Studies. Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City , pp.21-35. ( Hillier et al,2010) De Bondt and Thaler(1985) Fama and Blume(1966) Fama, Fisher, Jensen and Roll(1969) Jensen (1968) Mustafa and Gultekin(1983) Fama and French(1988)

Sociological Event Analysis Michael Brown - 2123 Words

Sociological Event Analysis Michael Brown, a Ferguson Missouri teenager, lost his life on August 9th, 2014. Brown was fatally shot by a police officer after he had robbed a convenience store. Ferguson residents were outraged that the unarmed teen was killed and further infuriated when a grand jury elected not to indict the police officer. As a result, violence erupted in the streets of the town. Businesses were vandalized, robbed, and set ablaze. Protests escalated from peaceful gatherings to ones that required military presence in the town. Though this instance can be examined as a single occurrence, it can also be characterized as a greater sociological event that requires special attention. Sociology cannot explain the events of the day that led to Michael Brown s death. 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Meichenbaum’s Self-instructional training Free Essays

Problem: Feeling insecure about not being intelligent enough compared to my classmates. Phase 1: Self-observation I have been an average student all my life, and I am aware that at times I feel insecure and doubt my own abilities to be able to complete the required tasks and assignments in my classes to be able to finish this program. When an instructor gives out assignments or projects I always ask myself whether I could do it or not, most of the time I feel I can’t. We will write a custom essay sample on Meichenbaum’s Self-instructional training or any similar topic only for you Order Now Then when during class discussions or debates I listen to my classmates and I wonder how eloquently they are able to share their thoughts and argue their opinions. I often listen to myself and my internal dialogue had been how unsure I am of my answers, how I fear talking in front of my classmates because I might not be able to give the correct answer. I want to be able to change this behavior and negative self-perception; I want to be more confident and smart in class. Phase 2: Starting a new internal dialogue According to Meichenbaum, the second stage in the behavioral change process is to start a new internal dialogue that is not in accordance with the old negative internal dialogue. The client can work with this new internal dialogue with the therapist, but I guess I could do it without the help of the therapist. I could basically throw rebuttals to my negative internal dialogues. If for example, I say I am not smart, then my new internal dialogue would be that I always had good grades, I never failed a course and that is being smart. I could also say to myself that there will always be people who are better than me and that I am better than others too. Phase 3: Learning a new skill In this phase, the client learns new behaviors to cope with the negative internal dialogues and to be able to learn skills that would bring about behavior change. For me, I could probably learn how to be able to speak more confidently and I could do that by observing how my classmates put their thoughts together and how they deliver it in class. I could buy a book about public speaking or better communication skills and learn it. I could also ask my classmates their strategies for studying and maybe learn those strategies to be able to study better and have higher grades. How to cite Meichenbaum’s Self-instructional training, Papers

Madness, Performance, and Illusion in Victorian Literature free essay sample

Differing from centuries past, Victorian England expressed a desire to more closely understand the meaning of madness, as psychological historian Elaine Showalter notes: â€Å"By the middle of the century, however, visitors to the Victorian asylum saw madness domesticated, released from restraint, and unnervingly like the world outside the walls† (Showalter 158). The insane, warped perception of reality prompted questioning into the formation of the sane identity, especially through the medium of literature. Was â€Å"the self† so simple to understand and identify? The identity of humanity was much more complex and multi-faceted than the Romanticism of the early nineteenth century perceived it to be. Novels of the Victorian era, specifically Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey, examine this complexity through the lens of madness. Both Lady Audley and Dorian Grey adopt new selves, and so conceal their unacceptable secrets from the outside world; however, this act cannot be sustained, as Victorian literature would admonish. Performance creating a facade for the outside world is ultimately what drives Lady Audley and Dorian Grey mad because the illusion of entertainment becomes their reality, causing a fascination with their own self-creation and destruction, respectively. In hopes of escaping poverty, Helen Talboys creates a new identity that fractures who she is, leaving her vulnerable to scrutiny. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of Lady Audley’s Secret and the proclaimed â€Å"Queen of Sensation,† understood the goal of a performance: to distort reality. As an actress herself, Braddon witnessed the power of entertainment over a captivated audience, warping and disguising perception in order to achieve the desired effect. Helen Talboys, too, sees the temptation of masking her true self. Initially rational, Helen lives under the care of her alcoholic father because her mother is placed in an insane asylum when she is a child. The desire to advance her means is evident given her conditions; but, when George Talboys does not return for many years and she is left in destitution once more, she must make the difficult decision to leave her old life in favor of becoming Miss Lucy Graham. Undertaking such an act of empowerment was revolutionary and bold, as feminist critic Lynn Voskuil relates: â€Å"As players in this cultural drama, women were the compliant conduits of a transcendent notion of womanliness, weaker vessels perfectly type cast to express an idealized femininity reliably and coherently† (Voskuil 621). This further underscores the rationality of her choice to recreate her own identity because the likelihood of her discovery was slim while the benefits possible to her are innumerable. Although Lucy’s initial purpose in playing the role of performer is self-empowerment, it soon becomes a role of concealment. With George’s untimely return from her past life, the threads she weaves to create a tapestry of lies begin to unravel, until the constant scrutiny from her elevated status as mistress causes her intense psychological stress from her efforts. Literally tunneling their way into Lucy’s inner chambers, George and Robert Audley examine the representation of her secret, the pre-Raphaelite portrait that revealed â€Å"something of the aspect of a beautiful fiend† within her split identity (Braddon 71). This portrait of her conscience shows her deception, and reflects the conflict within her concerning her past life. In order to maintain this elaborate performance, she chooses self-creation over reality by attempting to murder her real husband. Lady Audley is absolutely determined to sustain her created identity by any means necessary in order to preserve the illusion to both the outside world and herself, awakening mental instability from the web of lies she spins. A monomaniacal obsession mandates Robert Audley to investigate the mystery of George’s disappearance, and this further pushes Lady Audley to the brink of insanity as her performance begins to overtake her. In The Picture of Dorian Grey, Sybil Vane offers an interesting comparison to Lady Audley. Sybil is utterly absorbed in her acting as a means of escaping her sordid life, shaping her reality through the characters she plays in the theater every evening. She emerges from the emptiness of the act when Dorian declares his undying love for her; on the other hand, Lady Audley is unable to escape the falsehood that clouds her reality. The obsession with self-creation has conquered her. She is the perpetual actress in an unending performance that she cannot quit. It is clear that Lady Audley begins to lose her grip on reality when it seems that Helen Talboys is screaming to return to the surface once more. For example, Lady Audley maliciously decides to manipulate Sir Michael into believing that his nephew is a madman bent on persecuting an innocent woman. Although Lady Audley sets the plan into motion, Helen hesitates for a moment, barely able to speak as she trembles and cries before him, aware of the horrid performance in which she plays the leading role. This apparent dichotomy between her two identities proves to only aid the wicked nature of the plan, though: â€Å"It was the one wild outcry, in which the woman’s feebler nature got the better of the syren’s art† (Braddon 283). Interestingly displayed, the glimpse of her genuine self that breaks the surface of her facade in these ephemeral moments offers a much more real exhibition of emotion- so much so that it immediately stirs Sir Michael into a frenzy, spell-bound for his lover as she continues to work her magic upon him. Helen’s voice is completely drowned out, projecting her own malady so articulately upon Robert because she is intimate with the lies and deceit she has created for herself: â€Å"They know that they are mad, but they know to keep their secret†¦[and] they may yield to the horrible temptation- the frightful, passionate, hungry craving for violence and horror† (Braddon 287). Her anxiety both to keep secrets and mask her reality places a burden upon her shoulders that she finds difficult to carry, but her newly-created self helps alleviate the stress that Helen so clearly exhibits as an integral part of her. Another example of the stress induced by performance upon the dual selves of Lady Audley occurs subsequent to her setting Luke’s public house ablaze. Robert Audley, the man who threatens to pull the curtain on her new life, increasingly threatens her stability on the stage by offering her an ultimatum- she must confess to Sir Michael or he will do it himself. She is so dedicated to this illusion that the madwoman within her demands she kill Robert, finally escaping the past lies that furtively pursue her. She contemplates to herself after leaving the inn: â€Å"Perhaps it would be wiser in me to run away, o take this man’s warning, and escape out of his power forever†¦What could I do? I must go back to the old life, the old, hard, cruel, wretched life- the life of poverty, and humiliation, and vexation, and discontent† (Braddon 316). Always in a struggle of duality, Lucy is again drawn back to the performance against her better judgment due to her initial go al of escaping poverty as an ambitious and self-assertive young woman. The will of the illusion proves too tempting; the madness is too entrenched within her. This secrecy cannot be sustained due to the scrutiny of Victorian society at large, as Braddon warns readers of the pitfalls of lies and false self-creation. Put simply by Voskuil: â€Å"Lady Audley is at once both a clinical case and a theatrical display, a madwoman and an actress† (Voskuil 633). The identity she fashioned as a tool to aid her struggle consumed her, making it impossible for Lady Audley to distinguish herself between Helen and Lucy, rational and mad. Two polar ideologies unknowingly influence Dorian Grey until they split how he sees himself, thereby hastening his internal self-destruction. Oscar Wilde, a master of language and author of The Picture of Dorian Grey, wrote for an age of increasingly realist outlook. Under the tutelage of John Ruskin, one of his mentors, Wilde’s vision of truth became that which shocked, awakened, and awed. Ruskin had profound influence on his direction, prompting Wilde to explain human identity through the case of Dorian Grey by examining his madness as a deeper metaphor for the battle that takes place within the human soul: â€Å"Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art,† Wilde directly addresses the readers in the preface before the story begins (Wilde 4). Dorian is easily influenced by his company at the onset of the novel as a boy, whether it is that of Basil Hallward or Lord Henry Wotton. Nonetheless, it is clear that his friend Harry gains influence, and eventually domination, over the creation of Dorian’s perception as he forms two separate understandings of the self. The human soul is not simply a product of one influence or another; it is an amalgamation of ideas, thoughts, and perceptions that frames identity in terms of a paradox, Wilde argues. Sheldon Liebman, author of a critical response entitled â€Å"Character Design in The Picture of Dorian Grey,† follows up on this thought: Dorian  Gray  is torn between two mutually exclusive interpretations of human experience: one, optimistic, religious, and emotional; the other, pessimistic, cynical, and intellectual. In the course of the novel, the reader (if not  Dorian) discovers that neither interpretation is adequate and that, from Wildes perspective, there are no alternatives (Liebman). In response to the frivolity of the Romantic identity, the Victorian era developed an outlook to mirror the complexity of the world, seeing illusion and paradox as the threshold to truth. The illusion present in the novel, the portrait of Dorian painted by Basil, represents the incumbent split within Dorian’s soul; he sees this as visual product of his indulgent self, his â€Å"mask of shame†, hiding it in order to maintain the illusion of beauty (Wilde 93). The sanity of Dorian is in no real threat when he is young, but as he progresses in years without actually aging his self-destructive habits degrade his soul and force the reader to question his grasp of reality. Capitulating to the illusion of a world of pure beauty, Dorian loses his understanding of reality, and himself in the process, leading him to madly conceal his soul from the outside. The magic of the wondrous picture before him fascinates his curiosity, his desire to pursue beauty and hedonism due to the Harry’s domination. This transformation begins when his life of secrecy begins. To put his identity in terms of reality and illusion, he switches places with Sybil upon nonchalantly discovering her tragic suicide. Sybil’s poor acting connotes her return to reality, while Dorian only falls deeper into his conception of polarity- beauty and ugliness, his physical vitality versus his corrupted soul. The beauty of the illusion on stage and the stirring of his imagination inspire him, but the drab and dull movements of reality, where Sybil now belongs, contradict his new way of understanding. Because Dorian sees beauty as the one and only means of perceiving reality after his contact with Lord Henry, he refuses to acknowledge the inherent brutality and indecency of the world at large. This subsequently encourages him to reject the ugliness within his own soul. Similar to Lady Audley, Dorian seeks to conceal the part of him that is abominable, and hides his painting away in a forgotten room of his household. No one can know his true self. â€Å"What did it matter what happened to the coloured image on the canvas? He would be safe. That was everything,† Dorian reflects (Wilde 103). His enchantment prevents anyone from directly seeing his act, but the real toll is inflicted on the part of his soul where Basil, the voice of morality, still holds sway. The portrait is, indeed, a window into his soul and the site of a conflict between two selves. Falling further and further into the depths of seedy London after receiving the poisonous French novel given to him by Lord Henry, Dorian’s inner strife is apparent as he indulges in every sin available to him. The entrenched obsession with beauty transforms into madness when the conflict comes to a climax as Dorian confronts the source of his moral identity, Basil: â€Å"Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil† (Wilde 150). The grisly stabbing of Basil is the culmination of his identity crisis- the illusion of outer beauty and hedonistic pleasure becomes his reality. The secrecy of a double life at first does not wear on the part of himself he symbolically destroyed: â€Å"Perhaps one never seems so much at one’s ease as when one has to play a part† (Wilde 167). In this grand performance, his beauty masked his secret to the outside world and kept him at complacent. The secret is safe from everyone but his conscience, the portrait itself, which eventually comes to destroy him. Dorian becomes obsessed with returning to his portrait after nights of sin and debauchery, fascinated by the change between the fiend depicted and the gentleman in the mirror. He fails to reconcile the lack of change in his physical appearance, of which he is so enamored, and soon he becomes disenchanted with the lifestyle of decadence that he lives. Indulging in opium, prostitution, and senselessness, Dorian self-destructs due to his double life: â€Å"Ugliness that had once been hateful to him because it made things real, became dear to him now for that very reason. Ugliness was the one reality†¦what he needed for forgetfulness† (Wilde 177). The respective conceptions of beauty, ugliness, and reality that vie for control within him are psychologically draining. Ultimately, the madness that seizes his character cannot be controlled. The battle of individual influences within him wear upon him, to the point where the concealment of his painting (and thus soul) from the world is a burden too difficult to be borne. Stabbing the painting in the heart in a performance imitating his murder of Basil, the two polarities of his identity return to a single being. Dorian’s ignorance of the uncomfortable realities of life explain his self-understanding. The illusion he submits to and the madness that ensues bring on his self-destruction because the flawed role of the beautiful in his understanding of reality causes him to lose his identity in the performance. Madness in Victorian literature is a means of understanding identity from a fractured perspective. Evident in the classic novels of Braddon and Wilde, the fascination with madness was both an examination and a cautionary tale. Both Dorian Grey and Lady Audley concede to their insanity due to the significance of their secrets, burdened by the weight of their â€Å"other† identity. Performances are a suspension of reality, and neglecting to take heed of the difference between the two aspects can lead to disastrous consequences and self-destruction.

Madness, Performance, and Illusion in Victorian Literature free essay sample

Differing from centuries past, Victorian England expressed a desire to more closely understand the meaning of madness, as psychological historian Elaine Showalter notes: â€Å"By the middle of the century, however, visitors to the Victorian asylum saw madness domesticated, released from restraint, and unnervingly like the world outside the walls† (Showalter 158). The insane, warped perception of reality prompted questioning into the formation of the sane identity, especially through the medium of literature. Was â€Å"the self† so simple to understand and identify? The identity of humanity was much more complex and multi-faceted than the Romanticism of the early nineteenth century perceived it to be. Novels of the Victorian era, specifically Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey, examine this complexity through the lens of madness. Both Lady Audley and Dorian Grey adopt new selves, and so conceal their unacceptable secrets from the outside world; however, this act cannot be sustained, as Victorian literature would admonish. Performance creating a facade for the outside world is ultimately what drives Lady Audley and Dorian Grey mad because the illusion of entertainment becomes their reality, causing a fascination with their own self-creation and destruction, respectively. In hopes of escaping poverty, Helen Talboys creates a new identity that fractures who she is, leaving her vulnerable to scrutiny. Mary Elizabeth Braddon, author of Lady Audley’s Secret and the proclaimed â€Å"Queen of Sensation,† understood the goal of a performance: to distort reality. As an actress herself, Braddon witnessed the power of entertainment over a captivated audience, warping and disguising perception in order to achieve the desired effect. Helen Talboys, too, sees the temptation of masking her true self. Initially rational, Helen lives under the care of her alcoholic father because her mother is placed in an insane asylum when she is a child. The desire to advance her means is evident given her conditions; but, when George Talboys does not return for many years and she is left in destitution once more, she must make the difficult decision to leave her old life in favor of becoming Miss Lucy Graham. Undertaking such an act of empowerment was revolutionary and bold, as feminist critic Lynn Voskuil relates: â€Å"As players in this cultural drama, women were the compliant conduits of a transcendent notion of womanliness, weaker vessels perfectly type cast to express an idealized femininity reliably and coherently† (Voskuil 621). This further underscores the rationality of her choice to recreate her own identity because the likelihood of her discovery was slim while the benefits possible to her are innumerable. Although Lucy’s initial purpose in playing the role of performer is self-empowerment, it soon becomes a role of concealment. With George’s untimely return from her past life, the threads she weaves to create a tapestry of lies begin to unravel, until the constant scrutiny from her elevated status as mistress causes her intense psychological stress from her efforts. Literally tunneling their way into Lucy’s inner chambers, George and Robert Audley examine the representation of her secret, the pre-Raphaelite portrait that revealed â€Å"something of the aspect of a beautiful fiend† within her split identity (Braddon 71). This portrait of her conscience shows her deception, and reflects the conflict within her concerning her past life. In order to maintain this elaborate performance, she chooses self-creation over reality by attempting to murder her real husband. Lady Audley is absolutely determined to sustain her created identity by any means necessary in order to preserve the illusion to both the outside world and herself, awakening mental instability from the web of lies she spins. A monomaniacal obsession mandates Robert Audley to investigate the mystery of George’s disappearance, and this further pushes Lady Audley to the brink of insanity as her performance begins to overtake her. In The Picture of Dorian Grey, Sybil Vane offers an interesting comparison to Lady Audley. Sybil is utterly absorbed in her acting as a means of escaping her sordid life, shaping her reality through the characters she plays in the theater every evening. She emerges from the emptiness of the act when Dorian declares his undying love for her; on the other hand, Lady Audley is unable to escape the falsehood that clouds her reality. The obsession with self-creation has conquered her. She is the perpetual actress in an unending performance that she cannot quit. It is clear that Lady Audley begins to lose her grip on reality when it seems that Helen Talboys is screaming to return to the surface once more. For example, Lady Audley maliciously decides to manipulate Sir Michael into believing that his nephew is a madman bent on persecuting an innocent woman. Although Lady Audley sets the plan into motion, Helen hesitates for a moment, barely able to speak as she trembles and cries before him, aware of the horrid performance in which she plays the leading role. This apparent dichotomy between her two identities proves to only aid the wicked nature of the plan, though: â€Å"It was the one wild outcry, in which the woman’s feebler nature got the better of the syren’s art† (Braddon 283). Interestingly displayed, the glimpse of her genuine self that breaks the surface of her facade in these ephemeral moments offers a much more real exhibition of emotion- so much so that it immediately stirs Sir Michael into a frenzy, spell-bound for his lover as she continues to work her magic upon him. Helen’s voice is completely drowned out, projecting her own malady so articulately upon Robert because she is intimate with the lies and deceit she has created for herself: â€Å"They know that they are mad, but they know to keep their secret†¦[and] they may yield to the horrible temptation- the frightful, passionate, hungry craving for violence and horror† (Braddon 287). Her anxiety both to keep secrets and mask her reality places a burden upon her shoulders that she finds difficult to carry, but her newly-created self helps alleviate the stress that Helen so clearly exhibits as an integral part of her. Another example of the stress induced by performance upon the dual selves of Lady Audley occurs subsequent to her setting Luke’s public house ablaze. Robert Audley, the man who threatens to pull the curtain on her new life, increasingly threatens her stability on the stage by offering her an ultimatum- she must confess to Sir Michael or he will do it himself. She is so dedicated to this illusion that the madwoman within her demands she kill Robert, finally escaping the past lies that furtively pursue her. She contemplates to herself after leaving the inn: â€Å"Perhaps it would be wiser in me to run away, o take this man’s warning, and escape out of his power forever†¦What could I do? I must go back to the old life, the old, hard, cruel, wretched life- the life of poverty, and humiliation, and vexation, and discontent† (Braddon 316). Always in a struggle of duality, Lucy is again drawn back to the performance against her better judgment due to her initial go al of escaping poverty as an ambitious and self-assertive young woman. The will of the illusion proves too tempting; the madness is too entrenched within her. This secrecy cannot be sustained due to the scrutiny of Victorian society at large, as Braddon warns readers of the pitfalls of lies and false self-creation. Put simply by Voskuil: â€Å"Lady Audley is at once both a clinical case and a theatrical display, a madwoman and an actress† (Voskuil 633). The identity she fashioned as a tool to aid her struggle consumed her, making it impossible for Lady Audley to distinguish herself between Helen and Lucy, rational and mad. Two polar ideologies unknowingly influence Dorian Grey until they split how he sees himself, thereby hastening his internal self-destruction. Oscar Wilde, a master of language and author of The Picture of Dorian Grey, wrote for an age of increasingly realist outlook. Under the tutelage of John Ruskin, one of his mentors, Wilde’s vision of truth became that which shocked, awakened, and awed. Ruskin had profound influence on his direction, prompting Wilde to explain human identity through the case of Dorian Grey by examining his madness as a deeper metaphor for the battle that takes place within the human soul: â€Å"Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art,† Wilde directly addresses the readers in the preface before the story begins (Wilde 4). Dorian is easily influenced by his company at the onset of the novel as a boy, whether it is that of Basil Hallward or Lord Henry Wotton. Nonetheless, it is clear that his friend Harry gains influence, and eventually domination, over the creation of Dorian’s perception as he forms two separate understandings of the self. The human soul is not simply a product of one influence or another; it is an amalgamation of ideas, thoughts, and perceptions that frames identity in terms of a paradox, Wilde argues. Sheldon Liebman, author of a critical response entitled â€Å"Character Design in The Picture of Dorian Grey,† follows up on this thought: Dorian  Gray  is torn between two mutually exclusive interpretations of human experience: one, optimistic, religious, and emotional; the other, pessimistic, cynical, and intellectual. In the course of the novel, the reader (if not  Dorian) discovers that neither interpretation is adequate and that, from Wildes perspective, there are no alternatives (Liebman). In response to the frivolity of the Romantic identity, the Victorian era developed an outlook to mirror the complexity of the world, seeing illusion and paradox as the threshold to truth. The illusion present in the novel, the portrait of Dorian painted by Basil, represents the incumbent split within Dorian’s soul; he sees this as visual product of his indulgent self, his â€Å"mask of shame†, hiding it in order to maintain the illusion of beauty (Wilde 93). The sanity of Dorian is in no real threat when he is young, but as he progresses in years without actually aging his self-destructive habits degrade his soul and force the reader to question his grasp of reality. Capitulating to the illusion of a world of pure beauty, Dorian loses his understanding of reality, and himself in the process, leading him to madly conceal his soul from the outside. The magic of the wondrous picture before him fascinates his curiosity, his desire to pursue beauty and hedonism due to the Harry’s domination. This transformation begins when his life of secrecy begins. To put his identity in terms of reality and illusion, he switches places with Sybil upon nonchalantly discovering her tragic suicide. Sybil’s poor acting connotes her return to reality, while Dorian only falls deeper into his conception of polarity- beauty and ugliness, his physical vitality versus his corrupted soul. The beauty of the illusion on stage and the stirring of his imagination inspire him, but the drab and dull movements of reality, where Sybil now belongs, contradict his new way of understanding. Because Dorian sees beauty as the one and only means of perceiving reality after his contact with Lord Henry, he refuses to acknowledge the inherent brutality and indecency of the world at large. This subsequently encourages him to reject the ugliness within his own soul. Similar to Lady Audley, Dorian seeks to conceal the part of him that is abominable, and hides his painting away in a forgotten room of his household. No one can know his true self. â€Å"What did it matter what happened to the coloured image on the canvas? He would be safe. That was everything,† Dorian reflects (Wilde 103). His enchantment prevents anyone from directly seeing his act, but the real toll is inflicted on the part of his soul where Basil, the voice of morality, still holds sway. The portrait is, indeed, a window into his soul and the site of a conflict between two selves. Falling further and further into the depths of seedy London after receiving the poisonous French novel given to him by Lord Henry, Dorian’s inner strife is apparent as he indulges in every sin available to him. The entrenched obsession with beauty transforms into madness when the conflict comes to a climax as Dorian confronts the source of his moral identity, Basil: â€Å"Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil† (Wilde 150). The grisly stabbing of Basil is the culmination of his identity crisis- the illusion of outer beauty and hedonistic pleasure becomes his reality. The secrecy of a double life at first does not wear on the part of himself he symbolically destroyed: â€Å"Perhaps one never seems so much at one’s ease as when one has to play a part† (Wilde 167). In this grand performance, his beauty masked his secret to the outside world and kept him at complacent. The secret is safe from everyone but his conscience, the portrait itself, which eventually comes to destroy him. Dorian becomes obsessed with returning to his portrait after nights of sin and debauchery, fascinated by the change between the fiend depicted and the gentleman in the mirror. He fails to reconcile the lack of change in his physical appearance, of which he is so enamored, and soon he becomes disenchanted with the lifestyle of decadence that he lives. Indulging in opium, prostitution, and senselessness, Dorian self-destructs due to his double life: â€Å"Ugliness that had once been hateful to him because it made things real, became dear to him now for that very reason. Ugliness was the one reality†¦what he needed for forgetfulness† (Wilde 177). The respective conceptions of beauty, ugliness, and reality that vie for control within him are psychologically draining. Ultimately, the madness that seizes his character cannot be controlled. The battle of individual influences within him wear upon him, to the point where the concealment of his painting (and thus soul) from the world is a burden too difficult to be borne. Stabbing the painting in the heart in a performance imitating his murder of Basil, the two polarities of his identity return to a single being. Dorian’s ignorance of the uncomfortable realities of life explain his self-understanding. The illusion he submits to and the madness that ensues bring on his self-destruction because the flawed role of the beautiful in his understanding of reality causes him to lose his identity in the performance. Madness in Victorian literature is a means of understanding identity from a fractured perspective. Evident in the classic novels of Braddon and Wilde, the fascination with madness was both an examination and a cautionary tale. Both Dorian Grey and Lady Audley concede to their insanity due to the significance of their secrets, burdened by the weight of their â€Å"other† identity. Performances are a suspension of reality, and neglecting to take heed of the difference between the two aspects can lead to disastrous consequences and self-destruction.

Types of Fallacies Essay Example

Types of Fallacies Essay FALLACIES OF RELEVANCE 1. Appeal to Force If you suppose that terrorizing your opponent is giving him a reason for believing that you are correct, then you are using a scare tactic and reasoning fallaciously. Example: David: My father owns the department store that gives your newspaper fifteen percent of all its advertising revenue, so I’m sure you won’t want to publish any story of my arrest for spray painting the college. Newspaper editor: Yes, David, I see your point. The story really isn’t newsworthy. David has given the editor a financial reason not to publish, but he has not given a relevant reason why the story is not newsworthy. David’s tactics are scaring the editor, but it’s the editor who commits the scare tactic fallacy, not David. David has merely used a scare tactic. This fallacy’s name emphasizes the cause of the fallacy rather than the error itself. 2. Appeal to Pity You commit the fallacy of appeal to emotions when someone’s appeal to you to accept their claim is accepted merely because the appeal arouses your feelings of anger, fear, grief, love, outrage, pity, pride, sexuality, sympathy, relief, and so forth. We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Example of appeal to relief from grief: [The speaker knows he is talking to an aggrieved person whose house is worth much more than $100,000. ] You had a great job and didn’t deserve to lose it. I wish I could help somehow. I do have one idea. Now your family needs financial security even more. You need cash. I can help you. Here is a check for $100,000. Just sign this standard sales agreement, and we can skip the realtors and all the headaches they would create at this critical time in your life. There is nothing wrong with using emotions when you argue, but it’s a mistake to use emotions as the key premises or as tools to downplay relevant information. Regarding the fallacy of  appeal to pity, it is proper to pity people who have had misfortunes, but if as the person’s history instructor you accept Max’s claim that he earned an A on the history quiz because he broke his wrist while playing in your college’s last basketball game, then you’ve committed the fallacy of  appeal to pity. *Appeal to Snobbery 3. Ad Hominem You commit this fallacy if you make an irrelevant attack on the arguer and suggest that this attack undermines the argument itself. It is a form of the  Genetic Fallacy. Example: What she says about Johannes Kepler’s astronomy of the 1600? s must be just so much garbage. Do you realize she’s only fourteen years old? This attack may undermine the arguer’s credibility as a scientific authority, but it does not undermine her reasoning. That reasoning should stand or fall on the scientific evidence, not on the arguer’s age or anything else about her personally. If the fallacious reasoner points out irrelevant circumstances that the reasoner is in, the fallacy is a circumstantial ad hominem. Tu Quoque  and  Two Wrongs Make a Right  are other types of the ad hominem fallacy. The major difficulty with labeling a piece of reasoning as an ad hominem fallacy is deciding whether the personal attack is relevant. For example, attacks on a person for their actually immoral sexual conduct are irrelevant to the quality of their mathematical reasoning, but they are relevant to arguments promoting the person for a leadership position in the church. Unfortunately, many attacks are not so easy to classify, such as an attack pointing out that the candidate for church leadership, while in the tenth grade, intentionally tripped a fellow student and broke his collar bone. *Ad Hominem Circumstantial Guilt by association is a version of the  ad hominem  fallacy in which a person is said to be guilty of error because of the group he or she associates with. The fallacy occurs when we unfairly try to change the issue to be about the speaker’s circumstances rather than about the speaker’s actual argument. Also called â€Å"Ad Hominem, Circumstantial. Example: Secretary of State Dean Acheson is too soft on communism, as you can see by his inviting so many fuzzy-headed liberals to his White House cocktail parties. Has any evidence been presented here that Acheson’s actions are inappropriate in regards to communism? This sort of reasoning is an example of McCarthyism, the technique of smearing liberal Democrats that was so effectively used by the late Senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s. In fact, Acheson was strongly anti-communist and the architect of President Truman’s firm policy of containing Soviet power. 4. Appeal to the People If you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is correct simply because it’s what most everyone believes, then you’ve committed the fallacy of appeal to the people. Similarly, if you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is mistaken simply because it’s not what most everyone believes, then you’ve also committed the fallacy. Agreement with popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of truth, and deviation from popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of error, but if you assume it is and do so with enthusiasm, then you’re guilty of committing this fallacy. It is essentially the same as the fallacies of ad numerum, appeal to the gallery, appeal to the masses, argument from popularity, argumentum ad populum, common practice, mob appeal, past practice, peer pressure, traditional wisdom. The â€Å"too strongly† mentioned above is important in the description of the fallacy because what most everyone believes is, for that reason, somewhat likely to be true, all things considered. However, the fallacy occurs when this degree of support is overestimated. Example: You should turn to channel 6. It’s the most watched channel this year. This is fallacious because of its implicitly accepting the questionable premise that the most watched channel this year is, for that reason alone, the best channel for you. If you stress the idea of appealing to a  new  idea of the gallery, masses, mob, peers, people, and so forth, then it is a bandwagon fallacy. *Bandwagon If you suggest that someone’s claim is correct simply because it’s what most everyone is coming to believe, then you’re committing the bandwagon fallacy. Get up here with us on the wagon where the band is playing, and go where we go, and don’t think too much about the reasons. The Latin term for this fallacy of appeal to novelty is Argumentum ad Novitatem. Example: [Advertisement] More and more people are buying sports utility vehicles. Isn’t it time you bought one, too? [You commit the fallacy if you buy the vehicle solely because of this advertisement. ] Like its close cousin, the fallacy of appeal to the people, the bandwagon fallacy needs to be carefully distinguished from properly defending a claim by pointing out that many people have studied the claim and have come to a reasoned conclusion that it is correct. What most everyone believes is likely to be true, all things considered, and if one defends a claim on those grounds, this is not a fallacious inference. What is fallacious is to be swept up by the excitement of a new idea or new fad and to unquestionably give it too high a degree of your belief solely on the grounds of its new popularity, perhaps thinking simply that ‘new is better. ’ The key ingredient that is missing from a bandwagon fallacy is knowledge that an item is popular because of its high quality. Appeal to Past People (â€Å"You too†) 5. Accident We often arrive at a generalization but don’t or can’t list all the exceptions. When we reason with the generalization as if it has no exceptions, we commit the fallacy of accident. This fallacy is sometimes called the â€Å"fallacy of sweeping generalization. † Example: People should keep their promises, right? I loaned Dwayne my knife, and he said he’d return it. Now he is refusi ng to give it back, but I need it right now to slash up my neighbors who disrespected me. People should keep their promises, but there are exceptions to this generaliztion as in this case of the psychopath who wants Dwayne to keep his promise to return the knife. 6. Straw Man You commit the straw man fallacy whenever you attribute an easily refuted position to your opponent, one that the opponent wouldn’t endorse, and then proceed to attack the easily refuted position (the straw man) believing you have undermined the opponent’s actual position. If the misrepresentation is on purpose, then the straw man fallacy is caused by lying. Example (a debate before the city council): Opponent: Because of the killing and suffering of Indians that followed Columbus’s discovery of America, the City of Berkeley should declare that Columbus Day will no longer be observed in our city. Speaker: This is ridiculous, fellow members of the city council. It’s not true that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. I say we should continue to observe Columbus Day, and vote down this resolution that will make the City of Berkeley the laughing stock of the nation. The speaker has twisted what his opponent said; the opponent never said, nor even indirectly suggested, that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. The critical thinker will respond to the fallacy by saying, â€Å"Let’s get back to the original issue of whether we have a good reason to discontinue observing Columbus Day. † 7. Missing the Point The conclusion that is drawn is irrelevant to the premises; it misses the point. Example: In court, Thompson testifies that the defendant is a honorable person, who wouldn’t harm a flea. The defense attorney commits the fallacy by rising to say that Thompson’s testimony shows once again that his client was not near the murder scene. The testimony of Thompson may be relevant to a request for leniency, but it is irrelevant to any claim about the defendant not being near the murder scene. 8. Red Herring A red herring is a smelly fish that would distract even a bloodhound. It is also a digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information. Example: Will the new tax in Senate Bill 47 unfairly hurt business? One of the provisions of the bill is that the tax is higher for large employers (fifty or more employees) as opposed to small employers (six to forty-nine employees). To decide on the fairness of the bill, we must first determine whether employees who work for large employers have better working conditions than employees who work for small employers. Bringing up the issue of working conditions is the red herring. FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION 9. Begging the Question A form of  circular reasoning  in which a conclusion is derived from premises that presuppose the conclusion. Normally, the point of good reasoning is to start out at one place and end up somewhere new, namely having reached the goal of increasing the degree of reasonable belief in the conclusion. The point is to make progress, but in cases of begging the question there is no progress. Example: â€Å"Women have rights,† said the Bullfighters Association president. â€Å"But women shouldn’t fight bulls because a bullfighter is and should be a man. † The president is saying basically that women shouldn’t fight bulls because women shouldn’t fight bulls. This reasoning isn’t making any progress. Insofar as the conclusion of a deductively valid argument is â€Å"contained† in the premises from which it is deduced, this containing might seem to be a case of presupposing, and thus any deductively valid argument might seem to be begging the question. It is still an open question among logicians as to why some deductively valid arguments are considered to be begging the question and others are not. Some logicians suggest that, in informal reasoning with a deductively valid argument, if the conclusion is psychologically new insofar as the premises are concerned, then the argument isn’t an example of the fallacy. Other logicians suggest that we need to look instead to surrounding circumstances, not to the psychology of the reasoner, in order to assess the quality of the argument. For example, we need to look to the reasons that the reasoner used to accept the premises. Was the premise justified on the basis of accepting the conclusion? A third group of logicians say that, in deciding whether the fallacy is committed, we need more. We must determine whether any premise that is key to deducing the conclusion is adopted rather blindly or instead is a reasonable assumption made by someone accepting their burden of proof. The premise would here be termed reasonable if the arguer could defend it independently of accepting the conclusion that is at issue. 10. Complex Question You commit this fallacy when you frame a question so that some controversial presupposition is made by the wording of the question. Example: [Reporters question] Mr. President: Are you going to continue your policy of wasting taxpayer’s money on missile defense? The question unfairly presumes the controversial claim that the policy really is a waste of money. The fallacy of complex question is a form of begging the question. 11. False Dichotomy A reasoner who unfairly presents too few choices and then implies that a choice must be made among this short menu of choices commits the false dilemma fallacy, as does the person who accepts this faulty reasoning. Example: I want to go to Scotland from London. I overheard McTaggart say there are two roads to Scotland from London: the high road and the low road. I expect the high road would be too risky because it’s through the hills and that means dangerous curves. But it’s raining now, so both roads are probably slippery. I don’t like either choice, but I guess I should take the low road and be safer. This would be fine reasoning is you were limited to only two roads, but you’ve falsely gotten yourself into a dilemma with such reasoning. There are many other ways to get to Scotland. Don’t limit yourself to these two choices. You can take other roads, or go by boat or train or airplane. The fallacy is called the â€Å"False Dichotomy Fallacy† when the unfair menu contains only two choices. Think of the unpleasant choice between the two as being a charging bull. By demanding other choices beyond those on the unfairly limited menu, you thereby â€Å"go between the horns† of the dilemma, and are not gored. 12. Suppressed Evidence Intentionally failing to use information suspected of being relevant and significant is committing the fallacy of suppressed evidence. This fallacy usually occurs when the information counts against one’s own conclusion. Perhaps the arguer is not mentioning that experts have recently objected to one of his premises. The fallacy is a kind of fallacy of  Selective Attention. Example: Buying the Cray Mac 11 computer for our company was the right thing to do. It meets our company’s needs; it runs the programs we want it to run; it will be delivered quickly; and it costs much less than what we had budgeted. This appears to be a good argument, but you’d change your assessment of the argument if you learned the speaker has intentionally suppressed the relevant evidence that the company’s Cray Mac 11 was purchased from his brother-in-law at a 30 percent higher price than it could have been purchased elsewhere, and if you learned that a recent unbiased analysis of ten comparable computers placed the Cray Mac 11 near the bottom of the list. FALLACIES OF WEAK INDUCTION 13. Appeal to Ignorance The fallacy of appeal to ignorance comes in two forms: (1) Not knowing that a certain statement is true is taken to be a proof that it is false. 2) Not knowing that a statement is false is taken to be a proof that it is true. The fallacy occurs in cases where absence of evidence is not good enough evidence of absence. The fallacy uses an unjustified attempt to shift the burden of proof. The fallacy is also called â€Å"Argument from Ignorance. † Example: Nobody has ever proved to me there’s a God, so I know there is no God. This kind of reasoning is generally fallacious. It would be proper reasoning only if the proof attempts were quite thorough, and it were the case that if God did exist, then there would be a discoverable proof of this. Another common example of the fallacy involves ignorance of a future event: People have been complaining about the danger of Xs ever since they were invented, but there’s never been any big problem with them, so there’s nothing to worry about. 14. Appeal to Unqualified Authority You appeal to authority if you back up your reasoning by saying that it is supported by what some authority says on the subject. Most reasoning of this kind is not fallacious, and much of our knowledge properly comes from listening to authorities. However, appealing to authority as a reason to believe something  is  fallacious whenever the authority appealed to is not really an authority in this particular subject, when the authority cannot be trusted to tell the truth, when authorities disagree on this subject (except for the occasional lone wolf), when the reasoner misquotes the authority, and so forth. Although spotting a fallacious appeal to authority often requires some background knowledge about the subject or the authority, in brief it can be said that it is fallacious to accept the words of a supposed authority when we should be suspicious of the authority’s words. Example: The moon is covered with dust because the president of our neighborhood association said so. This is a fallacious appeal to authority because, although the president is an authority on many neighborhood matters, you are given no reason to believe the president is an authority on the composition of the moon. It would be better to appeal to some astronomer or geologist. A TV commercial that gives you a testimonial from a famous film star who wears a Wilson watch and that suggests you, too, should wear that brand of watch is committing a fallacious appeal to authority. The film star is an authority on how to act, not on which watch is best for you. 15. Hasty Generalization A hasty generalization is a fallacy of  jumping to conclusions  in which the conclusion is a generalization. See also  Biased Statistics. Example: I’ve met two people in Nicaragua so far, and they were both nice to me. So, all people I will meet in Nicaragua will be nice to me. In any hasty generalization the key error is to overestimate the strength of an argument that is based on too small a sample for the implied confidence level or error margin. In this argument about Nicaragua, using the word â€Å"all† in the conclusion implies zero error margin. With zero error margin you’d need to sample every single person in Nicaragua, not just two people. 16. False Cause Improperly concluding that one thing is a cause of another. The Fallacy of Non Causa Pro Causa is another name for this fallacy. Its four principal kinds are the  Post Hoc Fallacy, the Fallacy of  Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc,  the  Regression  Fallacy, and the Fallacy of  Reversing Causation. Example: My psychic adviser says to expect bad things when Mars is aligned with Jupiter. Tomorrow Mars will be aligned with Jupiter. So, if a dog were to bite me tomorrow, it would be because of the alignment of Mars with Jupiter. 17. Slippery Slope Suppose someone claims that a first step (in a chain of causes and effects, or a chain of reasoning) will probably lead to a second step that in turn will probably lead to another step and so on until a final step ends in trouble. If the likelihood of the trouble occurring is exaggerated, the slippery slope fallacy is committed. Example: Mom: Those look like bags under your eyes. Are you getting enough sleep? Jeff: I had a test and stayed up late studying. Mom: You didn’t take any drugs, did you? Jeff: Just caffeine in my coffee, like I always do. Mom: Jeff! You know what happens when people take drugs! Pretty soon the caffeine won’t be strong enough. Then you will take something stronger, maybe someone’s diet pill. Then, something even stronger. Eventually, you will be doing cocaine. Then you will be a crack addict! So, don’t drink that coffee. The form of a slippery slope fallacy looks like this: A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D. †¦ Z leads to HELL. We don’t want to go to HELL. So, don’t take that first step A. 18. Weak Analogy The problem is that the items in the analogy are too dissimilar. When reasoning by analogy, the fallacy occurs when the analogy is irrelevant or very weak or when there is a more relevant disanalogy. See also  Faulty Comparison. Example: The book  Investing for Dummies  really helped me understand my finances better. The bookChess for Dummies  was written by the same author, was published by the same press, and costs about the same amount. So, this chess book would probably help me understand my finances, too. FALLACIES OF AMBIGUITY 19. Accent The accent fallacy is a fallacy of ambiguity due to the different ways a word is emphasized or accented. Example: A member of Congress is asked by a reporter if she is in favor of the President’s new missile defense system, and she responds, â€Å"I’m in favor of a missile defense system that effectively defends America. † With an emphasis on the word â€Å"favor,† her response is likely to  favor  the President’s missile defense system. With an emphasis, instead, on the words â€Å"effectively defends,† her remark is likely to be  againstthe President’s missile defense system. And by using neither emphasis, she can later claim that her response was on either side of the issue. Aristotle’s version of the fallacy of accent allowed only a shift in which syllable is accented within a word. 20. Amphiboly This is an error due to taking a grammatically ambiguous phrase in two different ways during the reasoning. Example: In a cartoon, two elephants are driving their car down the road in India. They say, â€Å"We’d better not get out here,† as they pass a sign saying: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR Upon one interpretation of the grammar, the pronoun â€Å"YOUR† refers to the elephants in the car, but on another it refers to those humans who are driving cars in the vicinity. Unlike  equivocation, which is due to multiple meanings of a phrase, amphiboly is due to syntactic ambiguity, ambiguity caused by multiple ways of understanding the grammar of the phrase. 21. Equivocation Equivocation is the illegitimate switching of the meaning of a term during the reasoning. Example: Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too. The term â€Å"nobody† changes its meaning without warning in the passage. So does the term â€Å"political jokes† in this joke: I don’t approve of political jokes. I’ve seen too many of them get elected. FALLACIES OF GRAMMATICAL ANALOGY 22. Composition The composition fallacy occurs when someone mistakenly assumes that a characteristic of some or all the individuals in a group is also a characteristic of the group itself, the group â€Å"composed† of those members. It is the converse of the  division  fallacy. Example: Each human cell is very lightweight, so a human being composed of cells is also very lightweight. 23. Division Merely because a group as a whole has a characteristic, it often doesn’t follow that individuals in the group have that characteristic. If you suppose that it does follow, when it doesn’t, you commit the fallacy of division. It is the converse of the  composition  fallacy. Example: Joshua’s soccer team is the best in the division because it had an undefeated season and shared the division title, so Joshua, who is their goalie, must be the best goalie in the division. 24. Figure of Speech or Parallel-word Construction A fallacy characterized by ambiguities due to the fact that different words in Greek (and in Latin) may have different cases or genders even though the case endings or gender endings are the same. Since this is not widespread in other languages or since it coincides with other fallacies (e. g. quivocation, see above) writers tend to interpret it very broadly. Examples: Activists have been labeled as idealists, sadists, anarchists, communists, and just about any name that can come to mind ending in  -ist, like  samok-ist, saba-ist, bad-ist,  and of course, who could forgetdevil-ist? (The writer has the unsaid argument that any name ending in  -ist  is viewed as trouble-m akers by our society. ) An introductory book on philosophy has an appendix entitle List of Isms the proceeds to list the schools of thought in philosophy. (Not all words that end in  -ism  is a school of thought: take for example,  syllogism. ) Types of Fallacies Essay Example Types of Fallacies Essay FALLACIES OF RELEVANCE 1. Appeal to Force If you suppose that terrorizing your opponent is giving him a reason for believing that you are correct, then you are using a scare tactic and reasoning fallaciously. Example: David: My father owns the department store that gives your newspaper fifteen percent of all its advertising revenue, so I’m sure you won’t want to publish any story of my arrest for spray painting the college. Newspaper editor: Yes, David, I see your point. The story really isn’t newsworthy. David has given the editor a financial reason not to publish, but he has not given a relevant reason why the story is not newsworthy. David’s tactics are scaring the editor, but it’s the editor who commits the scare tactic fallacy, not David. David has merely used a scare tactic. This fallacy’s name emphasizes the cause of the fallacy rather than the error itself. 2. Appeal to Pity You commit the fallacy of appeal to emotions when someone’s appeal to you to accept their claim is accepted merely because the appeal arouses your feelings of anger, fear, grief, love, outrage, pity, pride, sexuality, sympathy, relief, and so forth. We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Fallacies specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Example of appeal to relief from grief: [The speaker knows he is talking to an aggrieved person whose house is worth much more than $100,000. ] You had a great job and didn’t deserve to lose it. I wish I could help somehow. I do have one idea. Now your family needs financial security even more. You need cash. I can help you. Here is a check for $100,000. Just sign this standard sales agreement, and we can skip the realtors and all the headaches they would create at this critical time in your life. There is nothing wrong with using emotions when you argue, but it’s a mistake to use emotions as the key premises or as tools to downplay relevant information. Regarding the fallacy of  appeal to pity, it is proper to pity people who have had misfortunes, but if as the person’s history instructor you accept Max’s claim that he earned an A on the history quiz because he broke his wrist while playing in your college’s last basketball game, then you’ve committed the fallacy of  appeal to pity. *Appeal to Snobbery 3. Ad Hominem You commit this fallacy if you make an irrelevant attack on the arguer and suggest that this attack undermines the argument itself. It is a form of the  Genetic Fallacy. Example: What she says about Johannes Kepler’s astronomy of the 1600? s must be just so much garbage. Do you realize she’s only fourteen years old? This attack may undermine the arguer’s credibility as a scientific authority, but it does not undermine her reasoning. That reasoning should stand or fall on the scientific evidence, not on the arguer’s age or anything else about her personally. If the fallacious reasoner points out irrelevant circumstances that the reasoner is in, the fallacy is a circumstantial ad hominem. Tu Quoque  and  Two Wrongs Make a Right  are other types of the ad hominem fallacy. The major difficulty with labeling a piece of reasoning as an ad hominem fallacy is deciding whether the personal attack is relevant. For example, attacks on a person for their actually immoral sexual conduct are irrelevant to the quality of their mathematical reasoning, but they are relevant to arguments promoting the person for a leadership position in the church. Unfortunately, many attacks are not so easy to classify, such as an attack pointing out that the candidate for church leadership, while in the tenth grade, intentionally tripped a fellow student and broke his collar bone. *Ad Hominem Circumstantial Guilt by association is a version of the  ad hominem  fallacy in which a person is said to be guilty of error because of the group he or she associates with. The fallacy occurs when we unfairly try to change the issue to be about the speaker’s circumstances rather than about the speaker’s actual argument. Also called â€Å"Ad Hominem, Circumstantial. Example: Secretary of State Dean Acheson is too soft on communism, as you can see by his inviting so many fuzzy-headed liberals to his White House cocktail parties. Has any evidence been presented here that Acheson’s actions are inappropriate in regards to communism? This sort of reasoning is an example of McCarthyism, the technique of smearing liberal Democrats that was so effectively used by the late Senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s. In fact, Acheson was strongly anti-communist and the architect of President Truman’s firm policy of containing Soviet power. 4. Appeal to the People If you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is correct simply because it’s what most everyone believes, then you’ve committed the fallacy of appeal to the people. Similarly, if you suggest too strongly that someone’s claim or argument is mistaken simply because it’s not what most everyone believes, then you’ve also committed the fallacy. Agreement with popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of truth, and deviation from popular opinion is not necessarily a reliable sign of error, but if you assume it is and do so with enthusiasm, then you’re guilty of committing this fallacy. It is essentially the same as the fallacies of ad numerum, appeal to the gallery, appeal to the masses, argument from popularity, argumentum ad populum, common practice, mob appeal, past practice, peer pressure, traditional wisdom. The â€Å"too strongly† mentioned above is important in the description of the fallacy because what most everyone believes is, for that reason, somewhat likely to be true, all things considered. However, the fallacy occurs when this degree of support is overestimated. Example: You should turn to channel 6. It’s the most watched channel this year. This is fallacious because of its implicitly accepting the questionable premise that the most watched channel this year is, for that reason alone, the best channel for you. If you stress the idea of appealing to a  new  idea of the gallery, masses, mob, peers, people, and so forth, then it is a bandwagon fallacy. *Bandwagon If you suggest that someone’s claim is correct simply because it’s what most everyone is coming to believe, then you’re committing the bandwagon fallacy. Get up here with us on the wagon where the band is playing, and go where we go, and don’t think too much about the reasons. The Latin term for this fallacy of appeal to novelty is Argumentum ad Novitatem. Example: [Advertisement] More and more people are buying sports utility vehicles. Isn’t it time you bought one, too? [You commit the fallacy if you buy the vehicle solely because of this advertisement. ] Like its close cousin, the fallacy of appeal to the people, the bandwagon fallacy needs to be carefully distinguished from properly defending a claim by pointing out that many people have studied the claim and have come to a reasoned conclusion that it is correct. What most everyone believes is likely to be true, all things considered, and if one defends a claim on those grounds, this is not a fallacious inference. What is fallacious is to be swept up by the excitement of a new idea or new fad and to unquestionably give it too high a degree of your belief solely on the grounds of its new popularity, perhaps thinking simply that ‘new is better. ’ The key ingredient that is missing from a bandwagon fallacy is knowledge that an item is popular because of its high quality. Appeal to Past People (â€Å"You too†) 5. Accident We often arrive at a generalization but don’t or can’t list all the exceptions. When we reason with the generalization as if it has no exceptions, we commit the fallacy of accident. This fallacy is sometimes called the â€Å"fallacy of sweeping generalization. † Example: People should keep their promises, right? I loaned Dwayne my knife, and he said he’d return it. Now he is refusi ng to give it back, but I need it right now to slash up my neighbors who disrespected me. People should keep their promises, but there are exceptions to this generaliztion as in this case of the psychopath who wants Dwayne to keep his promise to return the knife. 6. Straw Man You commit the straw man fallacy whenever you attribute an easily refuted position to your opponent, one that the opponent wouldn’t endorse, and then proceed to attack the easily refuted position (the straw man) believing you have undermined the opponent’s actual position. If the misrepresentation is on purpose, then the straw man fallacy is caused by lying. Example (a debate before the city council): Opponent: Because of the killing and suffering of Indians that followed Columbus’s discovery of America, the City of Berkeley should declare that Columbus Day will no longer be observed in our city. Speaker: This is ridiculous, fellow members of the city council. It’s not true that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. I say we should continue to observe Columbus Day, and vote down this resolution that will make the City of Berkeley the laughing stock of the nation. The speaker has twisted what his opponent said; the opponent never said, nor even indirectly suggested, that everybody who ever came to America from another country somehow oppressed the Indians. The critical thinker will respond to the fallacy by saying, â€Å"Let’s get back to the original issue of whether we have a good reason to discontinue observing Columbus Day. † 7. Missing the Point The conclusion that is drawn is irrelevant to the premises; it misses the point. Example: In court, Thompson testifies that the defendant is a honorable person, who wouldn’t harm a flea. The defense attorney commits the fallacy by rising to say that Thompson’s testimony shows once again that his client was not near the murder scene. The testimony of Thompson may be relevant to a request for leniency, but it is irrelevant to any claim about the defendant not being near the murder scene. 8. Red Herring A red herring is a smelly fish that would distract even a bloodhound. It is also a digression that leads the reasoner off the track of considering only relevant information. Example: Will the new tax in Senate Bill 47 unfairly hurt business? One of the provisions of the bill is that the tax is higher for large employers (fifty or more employees) as opposed to small employers (six to forty-nine employees). To decide on the fairness of the bill, we must first determine whether employees who work for large employers have better working conditions than employees who work for small employers. Bringing up the issue of working conditions is the red herring. FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION 9. Begging the Question A form of  circular reasoning  in which a conclusion is derived from premises that presuppose the conclusion. Normally, the point of good reasoning is to start out at one place and end up somewhere new, namely having reached the goal of increasing the degree of reasonable belief in the conclusion. The point is to make progress, but in cases of begging the question there is no progress. Example: â€Å"Women have rights,† said the Bullfighters Association president. â€Å"But women shouldn’t fight bulls because a bullfighter is and should be a man. † The president is saying basically that women shouldn’t fight bulls because women shouldn’t fight bulls. This reasoning isn’t making any progress. Insofar as the conclusion of a deductively valid argument is â€Å"contained† in the premises from which it is deduced, this containing might seem to be a case of presupposing, and thus any deductively valid argument might seem to be begging the question. It is still an open question among logicians as to why some deductively valid arguments are considered to be begging the question and others are not. Some logicians suggest that, in informal reasoning with a deductively valid argument, if the conclusion is psychologically new insofar as the premises are concerned, then the argument isn’t an example of the fallacy. Other logicians suggest that we need to look instead to surrounding circumstances, not to the psychology of the reasoner, in order to assess the quality of the argument. For example, we need to look to the reasons that the reasoner used to accept the premises. Was the premise justified on the basis of accepting the conclusion? A third group of logicians say that, in deciding whether the fallacy is committed, we need more. We must determine whether any premise that is key to deducing the conclusion is adopted rather blindly or instead is a reasonable assumption made by someone accepting their burden of proof. The premise would here be termed reasonable if the arguer could defend it independently of accepting the conclusion that is at issue. 10. Complex Question You commit this fallacy when you frame a question so that some controversial presupposition is made by the wording of the question. Example: [Reporters question] Mr. President: Are you going to continue your policy of wasting taxpayer’s money on missile defense? The question unfairly presumes the controversial claim that the policy really is a waste of money. The fallacy of complex question is a form of begging the question. 11. False Dichotomy A reasoner who unfairly presents too few choices and then implies that a choice must be made among this short menu of choices commits the false dilemma fallacy, as does the person who accepts this faulty reasoning. Example: I want to go to Scotland from London. I overheard McTaggart say there are two roads to Scotland from London: the high road and the low road. I expect the high road would be too risky because it’s through the hills and that means dangerous curves. But it’s raining now, so both roads are probably slippery. I don’t like either choice, but I guess I should take the low road and be safer. This would be fine reasoning is you were limited to only two roads, but you’ve falsely gotten yourself into a dilemma with such reasoning. There are many other ways to get to Scotland. Don’t limit yourself to these two choices. You can take other roads, or go by boat or train or airplane. The fallacy is called the â€Å"False Dichotomy Fallacy† when the unfair menu contains only two choices. Think of the unpleasant choice between the two as being a charging bull. By demanding other choices beyond those on the unfairly limited menu, you thereby â€Å"go between the horns† of the dilemma, and are not gored. 12. Suppressed Evidence Intentionally failing to use information suspected of being relevant and significant is committing the fallacy of suppressed evidence. This fallacy usually occurs when the information counts against one’s own conclusion. Perhaps the arguer is not mentioning that experts have recently objected to one of his premises. The fallacy is a kind of fallacy of  Selective Attention. Example: Buying the Cray Mac 11 computer for our company was the right thing to do. It meets our company’s needs; it runs the programs we want it to run; it will be delivered quickly; and it costs much less than what we had budgeted. This appears to be a good argument, but you’d change your assessment of the argument if you learned the speaker has intentionally suppressed the relevant evidence that the company’s Cray Mac 11 was purchased from his brother-in-law at a 30 percent higher price than it could have been purchased elsewhere, and if you learned that a recent unbiased analysis of ten comparable computers placed the Cray Mac 11 near the bottom of the list. FALLACIES OF WEAK INDUCTION 13. Appeal to Ignorance The fallacy of appeal to ignorance comes in two forms: (1) Not knowing that a certain statement is true is taken to be a proof that it is false. 2) Not knowing that a statement is false is taken to be a proof that it is true. The fallacy occurs in cases where absence of evidence is not good enough evidence of absence. The fallacy uses an unjustified attempt to shift the burden of proof. The fallacy is also called â€Å"Argument from Ignorance. † Example: Nobody has ever proved to me there’s a God, so I know there is no God. This kind of reasoning is generally fallacious. It would be proper reasoning only if the proof attempts were quite thorough, and it were the case that if God did exist, then there would be a discoverable proof of this. Another common example of the fallacy involves ignorance of a future event: People have been complaining about the danger of Xs ever since they were invented, but there’s never been any big problem with them, so there’s nothing to worry about. 14. Appeal to Unqualified Authority You appeal to authority if you back up your reasoning by saying that it is supported by what some authority says on the subject. Most reasoning of this kind is not fallacious, and much of our knowledge properly comes from listening to authorities. However, appealing to authority as a reason to believe something  is  fallacious whenever the authority appealed to is not really an authority in this particular subject, when the authority cannot be trusted to tell the truth, when authorities disagree on this subject (except for the occasional lone wolf), when the reasoner misquotes the authority, and so forth. Although spotting a fallacious appeal to authority often requires some background knowledge about the subject or the authority, in brief it can be said that it is fallacious to accept the words of a supposed authority when we should be suspicious of the authority’s words. Example: The moon is covered with dust because the president of our neighborhood association said so. This is a fallacious appeal to authority because, although the president is an authority on many neighborhood matters, you are given no reason to believe the president is an authority on the composition of the moon. It would be better to appeal to some astronomer or geologist. A TV commercial that gives you a testimonial from a famous film star who wears a Wilson watch and that suggests you, too, should wear that brand of watch is committing a fallacious appeal to authority. The film star is an authority on how to act, not on which watch is best for you. 15. Hasty Generalization A hasty generalization is a fallacy of  jumping to conclusions  in which the conclusion is a generalization. See also  Biased Statistics. Example: I’ve met two people in Nicaragua so far, and they were both nice to me. So, all people I will meet in Nicaragua will be nice to me. In any hasty generalization the key error is to overestimate the strength of an argument that is based on too small a sample for the implied confidence level or error margin. In this argument about Nicaragua, using the word â€Å"all† in the conclusion implies zero error margin. With zero error margin you’d need to sample every single person in Nicaragua, not just two people. 16. False Cause Improperly concluding that one thing is a cause of another. The Fallacy of Non Causa Pro Causa is another name for this fallacy. Its four principal kinds are the  Post Hoc Fallacy, the Fallacy of  Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc,  the  Regression  Fallacy, and the Fallacy of  Reversing Causation. Example: My psychic adviser says to expect bad things when Mars is aligned with Jupiter. Tomorrow Mars will be aligned with Jupiter. So, if a dog were to bite me tomorrow, it would be because of the alignment of Mars with Jupiter. 17. Slippery Slope Suppose someone claims that a first step (in a chain of causes and effects, or a chain of reasoning) will probably lead to a second step that in turn will probably lead to another step and so on until a final step ends in trouble. If the likelihood of the trouble occurring is exaggerated, the slippery slope fallacy is committed. Example: Mom: Those look like bags under your eyes. Are you getting enough sleep? Jeff: I had a test and stayed up late studying. Mom: You didn’t take any drugs, did you? Jeff: Just caffeine in my coffee, like I always do. Mom: Jeff! You know what happens when people take drugs! Pretty soon the caffeine won’t be strong enough. Then you will take something stronger, maybe someone’s diet pill. Then, something even stronger. Eventually, you will be doing cocaine. Then you will be a crack addict! So, don’t drink that coffee. The form of a slippery slope fallacy looks like this: A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D. †¦ Z leads to HELL. We don’t want to go to HELL. So, don’t take that first step A. 18. Weak Analogy The problem is that the items in the analogy are too dissimilar. When reasoning by analogy, the fallacy occurs when the analogy is irrelevant or very weak or when there is a more relevant disanalogy. See also  Faulty Comparison. Example: The book  Investing for Dummies  really helped me understand my finances better. The bookChess for Dummies  was written by the same author, was published by the same press, and costs about the same amount. So, this chess book would probably help me understand my finances, too. FALLACIES OF AMBIGUITY 19. Accent The accent fallacy is a fallacy of ambiguity due to the different ways a word is emphasized or accented. Example: A member of Congress is asked by a reporter if she is in favor of the President’s new missile defense system, and she responds, â€Å"I’m in favor of a missile defense system that effectively defends America. † With an emphasis on the word â€Å"favor,† her response is likely to  favor  the President’s missile defense system. With an emphasis, instead, on the words â€Å"effectively defends,† her remark is likely to be  againstthe President’s missile defense system. And by using neither emphasis, she can later claim that her response was on either side of the issue. Aristotle’s version of the fallacy of accent allowed only a shift in which syllable is accented within a word. 20. Amphiboly This is an error due to taking a grammatically ambiguous phrase in two different ways during the reasoning. Example: In a cartoon, two elephants are driving their car down the road in India. They say, â€Å"We’d better not get out here,† as they pass a sign saying: ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR Upon one interpretation of the grammar, the pronoun â€Å"YOUR† refers to the elephants in the car, but on another it refers to those humans who are driving cars in the vicinity. Unlike  equivocation, which is due to multiple meanings of a phrase, amphiboly is due to syntactic ambiguity, ambiguity caused by multiple ways of understanding the grammar of the phrase. 21. Equivocation Equivocation is the illegitimate switching of the meaning of a term during the reasoning. Example: Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too. The term â€Å"nobody† changes its meaning without warning in the passage. So does the term â€Å"political jokes† in this joke: I don’t approve of political jokes. I’ve seen too many of them get elected. FALLACIES OF GRAMMATICAL ANALOGY 22. Composition The composition fallacy occurs when someone mistakenly assumes that a characteristic of some or all the individuals in a group is also a characteristic of the group itself, the group â€Å"composed† of those members. It is the converse of the  division  fallacy. Example: Each human cell is very lightweight, so a human being composed of cells is also very lightweight. 23. Division Merely because a group as a whole has a characteristic, it often doesn’t follow that individuals in the group have that characteristic. If you suppose that it does follow, when it doesn’t, you commit the fallacy of division. It is the converse of the  composition  fallacy. Example: Joshua’s soccer team is the best in the division because it had an undefeated season and shared the division title, so Joshua, who is their goalie, must be the best goalie in the division. 24. Figure of Speech or Parallel-word Construction A fallacy characterized by ambiguities due to the fact that different words in Greek (and in Latin) may have different cases or genders even though the case endings or gender endings are the same. Since this is not widespread in other languages or since it coincides with other fallacies (e. g. quivocation, see above) writers tend to interpret it very broadly. Examples: Activists have been labeled as idealists, sadists, anarchists, communists, and just about any name that can come to mind ending in  -ist, like  samok-ist, saba-ist, bad-ist,  and of course, who could forgetdevil-ist? (The writer has the unsaid argument that any name ending in  -ist  is viewed as trouble-m akers by our society. ) An introductory book on philosophy has an appendix entitle List of Isms the proceeds to list the schools of thought in philosophy. (Not all words that end in  -ism  is a school of thought: take for example,  syllogism. )