How Do We Identify Illogical Arguments?

Mere assertion

To make a mere assertion is a speech act in which something is claimed to hold with respect to sometime, or, of some person with respect to sometime. To demonstrate an example of mere assertion, let's take for example the "burden of proof" rule. If someone believes in religion, but isn't proclaiming their beliefs to be fact, does this affect the application of this rule?

And doesn't the mere assertion of either perspective as "true", warrant the rule? The religious can't show a "God", but those opposing religion can't say a mere lack of evidence "proves" the non-existence of any god(s) or goddess (es).

Ad hominem

Ad hominem is the act of attacking or finding reason to attack the person or facilitator that initiated the argument or claim instead of the argument itself. A good example of ad hominem would be Von Daniken's books about ancient astronauts. A lot of people feel as though Von Daniken's books are worthless because he was convicted for forging and embezzlement.

Red herring

Red herring refers to a misleading clue which draws attention away from the real evidence. For

instance, in 1970, a Green Beret medical doctor, Jeffrey MacDonald, apparently brutally and

horrifically murdered his wife and two young children in their beds as they slept. MacDonald

he was also supposedly a victim of the brutal attack claiming that it was by a bunch of

"hippies". The police spent months trying to track down this 'gang' of hippies, but couldn't find a

single clue to substantiate MacDonald's claims of their existence. Later, the police charged

MacDonald with the murders because they felt he was using the claim of the hippies to keep

them from realizing the real truth.

Pseudo-questions

The word pseudo means to be false or fake. Pseudo-question is the act in which a person that considers

themselves to be skeptic pretends to ask a question, which isn't meant honestly but often has underlined

intentions associated and can be easily disproven. I can recall a pseudo-question posted on a discussion

board from a previous class I took that stirred up quite the controversy. The question asked was "Who

feels safer with Bush and Cheney in the White House?" It is very clear that the individual that

posted this question had no intent of getting any positive answers to the question about Bush and

Cheney because it was sometime after the 9/11 attacks.

False cause

False cause is committed when the conclusion rests on the presumption of between two

phenomena, when in fact all that has been shown is a correlation. For instance, the school board

argues that our schools are in desperate need of physical repair. However the real reason our

students