Saturday, February 13, 2016

Some Communicative Errors in Thinking


Causal Fallacy
This error is assuming that since events A and B happen together, event A is the cause of event B (or vice versa).
Another example of causal fallacy is that, since event B follows event A, event A is the cause of event B.
To prove that event A causes event B is a lot harder than simply finding that events A and B happen together or in sequence.
Inadequate Selection of Examples
It is normal to find evidence to back up an argument.  Nevertheless, if we don’t consider the opposing examples, our argument could still fail since we didn’t take all sides into consideration.
Tautology
A tautology basically consists in saying the same thing twice, but giving this a sense of argumentation simultaneously.
Unjustified Extension of Evidence Value
The evidence drives us to create a hypothesis that later needs to be proven.  The proving step can be long and requires additional evidences, but in the end we expect the acceptance or refusal of the proposed hypothesis.
Authoritative Argument
It is very easy to say, in an argument, that X is true because professor Y said so.  Such adherence to authority is dangerous and is worth doubting.