Description

This week you will be sharing your research on fallacies with the class. The purpose is to show how widespread the use of reasoning fallacies is in the media and to help you learn to pick out a fallacy when you see one.

This assignment relates to the following Course Learning Requirements:

• CLR2: Distinguish between fact and opinion as they are expressed in a variety of viewpoints.
• CLR3: Reframe the context and content of several current Canadian social and political issues.

Task

This is primarily a participation-based assignment. You are asked to research the Internet, news and/or advertising this week and look for an example of a fallacy that you can share with the class. You can use a URL link to share the example and then add a few sentences to identify and explain the fallacy.You are to show that you understand fallacies by identifying them in the media, so if you just Google a particular fallacy and use someone else's example and explanation, you will not get any marks.

Example

"An opponent of same-sex marriage, Maggie Gallagher,stated the following when asked what tangible harm has come from same-sex marriage in those states that have allowed it? "...that marriage threatens to be re-normed as the union of two people of whatever sex, which means that children may not (by definition) have both a mother and a father."

Begging the question on marriage equality The Economist (blogs) , May 08, 2012).Retrieved from The Economist

This is a good example of begging the question because the conclusion, i.e. that redefining marriage will mean that marriage will be redefined is a perfect circle of logic...getting us nowhere.