2. Risk, Biases, and Logical Fallacies

2018 ◽  
pp. 52-79
Keyword(s):  
Logical Fallacies

Putting the Madhyamaka Trick in Context: A Contextualist Reading of Huntington’s Interpretation of Madhyamaka

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-124
Author(s):  
Michael Dorfman
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Correspondence Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rational Analysis ◽  
At Command ◽  
Rational Argumentation ◽  
Logical Fallacies ◽  
Key Terms

In a series of works published over a period of twenty five years, C.W. Huntington, Jr. has developed a provocative and radical reading of Madhyamaka (particularly Early Indian Madhyamaka) inspired by ‘the insights of post- Wittgensteinian pragmatism and deconstruction’ (1993, 9). This article examines the body of Huntington’s work through the filter of his seminal 2007 publication, ‘The Nature of the M?dhyamika Trick’, a polemic aimed at a quartet of other recent commentators on Madhyamaka (Robinson, Hayes, Tillemans and Garfield) who attempt ‘to read N?g?rjuna through the lens of modern symbolic logic’ (2007, 103), a project which is the ‘end result of a long and complex scholastic enterprise … [which] can be traced backwards from contemporary academic discourse to fifteenth century Tibet, and from there into India’ (2007, 111) and which Huntington sees as distorting the Madhyamaka project which was not aimed at ‘command[ing] assent to a set of rationally grounded doctrines, tenets, or true conclusions’ (2007, 129). This article begins by explicating some disparate strands found in Huntington’s work, which I connect under a radicalized notion of ‘context’. These strands consist of a contextualist/pragmatic theory of truth (as opposed to a correspondence theory of truth), a contextualist epistemology (as opposed to one relying on foundationalist epistemic warrants), and a contextualist ontology where entities are viewed as necessarily relational (as opposed to possessing a context-independent essence.) I then use these linked theories to find fault with Huntington’s own readings of Candrak?rti and N?g?rjuna, arguing that Huntington misreads the semantic context of certain key terms (tarka, d???i, pak?a and pratijñ?) and fails to follow the implications of N?g?rjuna and Candrak?rti’s reliance on the role of the pram??as in constituting conventional reality. Thus, I find that Huntington’s imputation of a rejection of logic and rational argumentation to N?g?rjuna and Candrak?rti is unwarranted. Finally, I offer alternate readings of the four contemporary commentators selected by Huntington, using the conceptual apparatus developed earlier to dismiss Robinson’s and Hayes’s view of N?g?rjuna as a charlatan relying on logical fallacies, and to find common ground between Huntington’s project and the view of N?g?rjuna developed by Tillemans and Garfield as a thinker committed using reason to reach, through rational analysis, ‘the limits of thought.’

“Scientism”: Abusing the Scientific Method

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Di Ventra
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
Logical Fallacies

This chapter warns against a bad form of “religion” that may be called Scientism. It shows that the abuse of the scientific method in context that are not addressable via experimental means leads to contradictions, inaccuracies, and logical fallacies.

Comparing two equivalence‐based instruction protocols and self‐study for teaching logical fallacies to college students

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-456
Author(s):  
Emily E. Gallant ◽  
Kenneth F. Reeve ◽  
Sharon A. Reeve ◽  
Jason C. Vladescu ◽  
April N. Kisamore
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Based Instruction ◽  
Logical Fallacies

Avoiding Errors in Reasoning: An Introduction to Logical Fallacies

2006 ◽  
Vol 187 (5) ◽  
pp. W469-W471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Gunderman ◽  
Christopher Sistrom
Keyword(s):  
Logical Fallacies

Logical fallacies in the running shoe debate: let the evidence guide prescription

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (24) ◽  
pp. 1552-1553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Napier ◽  
Richard W Willy
Keyword(s):  
Logical Fallacies

scholarly journals Using Rhetorical Approach of Ethos, Pathos and Logos by Malaysian Engineering Students in Persuasive Email Writings

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Krishnan Isai Amutan Isai ◽  
Teoh Mel Lin ◽  
Hee Sio Ching ◽  
Ramalingam Selvajothi ◽  
Elanttamil Maruthai
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
University Students ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Rhetorical Theory ◽  
Logical Fallacies

It seems that many English language learners have deficiency to write persuasively. This portent has been observed among university students, particularly those from technical fields. Therefore, the present study examines the use of ethos, pathos and logos in persuasive email writing and determines if these features were used appropriately. The participants involved in this research were 43 third-year Malaysian engineering students. The task evaluated was persuasive email writing, and the data was obtained from an official university website forum. The data was analysed qualitatively by using Aristotelian rhetorical theory. The results show that there were some persuasive techniques used by the students in their email writing. It appears that the appeal to pathos was preferred highly in directly connecting with the emotions of the instructors. This was followed by appeals to ethos, where the students used their own ethicality and credibility to persuade the instructor into giving them an extension deadline of their classwork. The findings further revealed that appeal to logos were not used in a very persuasive manner, which could also due to avoiding logical fallacies. Therefore, the present study shows the engineering students prefer to link with emotions in their email writing in achieving their goals.   

scholarly journals Reuters: Principles Of Trust Or Propaganda?

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry I. Silverman
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Affective Behavior ◽  
Middle East Conflict ◽  
Logical Fallacies ◽  
Ethical Failures

This paper examines a sample of fifty news-oriented articles related to the Middle East conflict published on the Reuters proprietary websites across a three month study window. A combination of Ethnographic Content Analysis and primary survey data are employed to identify, code and validate reporting/ethical failures in the articles, i.e., propaganda, logical fallacies, and violations of the Reuters Handbook. Tests are run to measure for 1) shifts in audience attitudes and support for the primary belligerent parties in the Middle East conflict following readings of the sample and, 2) associations between the reporting/ethical failures and audience attitudes/support. Over 1,100 occurrences of reporting/ethical failures across forty-one subcategories are identified and a significant shift in audience attitudes and support following article readings is observed. Significant associations are found between 1) the use of atrocity propaganda and audience favorability/sympathy toward the Arabs/Palestinians; 2) the use of the appeal to pity fallacy and audience favorability/sympathy toward the Arabs/Palestinians; and 3) the use of atrocity propaganda, appeal to pity and appeal to poverty fallacies, and audience motivation to take supportive action on behalf of the Arabs/Palestinians. It is inferred from the evidence that Reuters engages in systematically biased storytelling in favor of the Arabs/Palestinians and is able to influence audience affective behavior and motivate direct action along the same trajectory. This reflects a fundamental failure to uphold the Reuters corporate governance charter and ethical guiding principles.

scholarly journals When consequences are causes : Texts as guided paths

1999 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Carlos Inchaurralde Besga
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Political Language ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Evaluative Process ◽  
Language And Communication ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
Ordinary Conversation ◽  
Logical Fallacies ◽  
Linguistic Usage

Causation is a very important structuring principle of our perception of reality, but causation is, very often, imposed, and it basically depends on the observer and his or her perspective. It will be illustrated here how causation can be manipulated, as well as the relevance of this fact for language and communication. In scientific texts, the reader is guided through an evaluative process whose main goal is persuasion, but in this kind of message there is little room for manipulation concerning the ordering of causes and consequences. Logical fallacies, which may appear in ordinary conversation but also in more specialized varieties of linguistic usage (e.g. political language) illustrate it better. However, where this manipulative resource excels is in messages constructed around big metaphorical mappings. This is exemplified with the case of the treatment of the Gulf War in the mass media, as Lakoff (1992) very clearly explains. Moreover, we have that mass media exchanges between two different sides normally try to assign causes and consequences in a manipulative manner too, and there is a last example presenting this fact. Finally, our conclusion shows how all these possibilities share some configurational properties.

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