The exercises in the previous section show examples of logical fallacies. The excerpts that follow contain logical fallacies that may be more difficult to pinpoint, but the practice will provide a more realistic experience in detecting fallacies.
Excerpt #1:
Examine the logic in this passage from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. What logical fallacies does the Pigeon commit? The first fallacy is highlighted for you. Click on the highlighted fallacy to read an explanation below the passage. Next hunt for and highlight two more fallacies—a non-sequitur and a circular reasoning—and complete Part 1 of the graphic organizer.
Use the graphic organizer to write about the two additional fallacies you find in the excerpt about Alice and the Pigeon. Some of the answers are provided for you. When you’re finished, check your understanding by hovering on the check marks for sample responses. Important: keep the graphic organizer open for the remainder of this lesson in order to retain your work. You can also download and print it and write your answers. Graphic Organizer Instructions
Excerpt #2:
Read this opening passage from Max Shulman’s short story “Love Is a Fallacy.” You should note several logical fallacies. The first fallacy is highlighted for you. Click on the highlighted fallacy to read an explanation below the passage. Next hunt for and highlight two more fallacies and complete Part 2 of the graphic organizer.
Use the graphic organizer to write about each of the three fallacies you find in the excerpt from “Love Is a Fallacy.” Graphic Organizer Instructions
Note: You might wish to read the entire short story. The main character tries to teach his girlfriend the following logical fallacies. Though they are not all listed in our glossary above, you will find the fallacies clearly defined in the story itself: dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, post hoc, contradictory premises, ad misericordiam, false analogy, hypothesis contrary to fact, and poisoning the well. Go to this website: http://www.mountsaintvincent.edu/library2/shulman.htm
Excerpt #3: First, watch the “She’s a Witch!” scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. See if you can recognize any logical fallacies in the following video clip.
Source: “She’s a Witch!,” Monty Python, Youtube
Read the script below and use the graphic organizer to write about each of the four fallacies you find. Graphic Organizer Instructions
Bedevere: How do you know she is a witch?
Peasant: She looks like one.
[Crowd indistinctly shouts.]
Bedevere: Bring her forward!
Girl: I’m not a witch.
Bedevere: But you are dressed as one . . .
Girl: They dressed me up like this. [Crowd murmurs.]
Girl: And this isn’t my nose. This is a false one.
Bedevere: [inspects the nose and confirms] Well?
Peasant: Well, we did do the nose.
Bedevere: The nose?
Peasant: And the hat. She's a witch!
Peasant Crowd: Burn her!
Bedevere: Did you dress her up like this?
Peasant Crowd: No, no, no! [beat] Yes, yes. A bit. But she’s got a wart.
Bedevere: Why do you think that she is a witch?
Peasant: Well, she turned me into a newt.
[Bedevere gives him a disbelieving look.]
Bedevere: A newt?
[Silence]
Peasant: Well, I got better.
Peasant Crowd: Burn her anyway!