Logical Fallacies Project PDF

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Logical Fallacies of Everyday Life

Jake Ratliff & Eli Willis Mr. Schmaltz Honors Composition 19 February 2021

Ratliff & Willis 1 Fallacy 1: Equivocation

Source: https://genius.com/Lil-wayne-6-foot-7-foot-lyrics

“Young Money, Cash Money Paper chasing, tell that paper, ‘Look, I'm right behind ya’ B****, real G's move in silence like lasagna People say I'm borderline crazy, sorta kinda Woman of my dreams, I don't sleep so I can't find her” -Lil Wayne, “6 Foot 7 Foot”

Ratliff & Willis 2 The Silent G The defining characteristic of a talented rapper in the twenty-first century is creative wordplay. One could argue that New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne has garnered so much success due to this very factor. Wayne is known to play with double meanings in his songwriting, and by looking at his discography, this becomes evident. Of all his most interesting and quotable lyrics, however, the one that Lil Wayne fans seem to remember the most is his wordplay on an italian cuisine in his hit track, “6 Foot 7 Foot.” In this song, Wayne remarks, “B****, real G’s move in silence like lasagna.” When first listening to this, it can be quite the head-scratcher. The clever play on words refers to the silent “g” in the word “lasagna.” Wayne uses this to refer to the American slang term for gangster, being “G.” This makes for a memorable and entertaining play on words, but the fallacy of this lyric is that it suggests that the silent letter “g” in “lasagna” refers to a common slang term, which is simply not the case. Clever as it may be, the use of this term is misleading, as it has more than one meaning. The fallacy of equivocation is recognizable, as the double meaning wordplay often causes one to chuckle at is silliness. In the case of Lil Wayne, it is clear that the fallacy was intentional in order to provoke said reaction, but the casual use of this phrase outside of a rap song would most likely be quite confusing.

Ratliff & Willis 3 Fallacy 2: False Authority

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zj_1YihbY

“Superstar tight end Rob Gronkowski is here to tell you that a Hisense ULED TV with Quantum Dot, a billion plus colors, absurd contrast levels, and Dolby Vision HDR is the perfect upgrade for watching the playoffs this Upgrade Season.”

Ratliff & Willis 4 Get What Gronk Got Rob Gronkowski, a renowned football player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With 3 Super Bowl championships won and more played in, Rob would be considered an expert on the football field. This does not include expertise in the field of TVs, electronics, etc. The ad gives him false authority when it comes to talking about TVs and the quality of the product. As he is a super bowl champion his expertise could be in the field of football or stats of greats who played the game before him. The ad suggests that since Gronkowski is a superbowl champion he would want the best so he uses the best TVs suggesting that the TV is great quality and has good uses for what the price of the TV could cost the consumer. Overall, the commercial gives Gronkowski the false authority of being an expert in the field of TVs and electronics to help the customer base expand due to Gronkowski’s wide success on the football field and in the sports world.

Ratliff & Willis 5

Fallacy 3: False Analogy

Source: https://www.flexsealproducts.com/product/flex-seal/

“Like a handyman in a can!” - Phil Swift

Ratliff & Willis 6 Itty Bitty Living Space Phil Swift took the world by storm in 2011 with his creation of a product called Flex Seal and his wild and eccentric commercials to go with the product. Since then, he has garnered over 10 million dollars in assets and has since released multiple more Flex Seal products including Flex Shot, Flex Glue, and Flex Paste. In this online ad a comparison between Flex seal and a handy man in a can. The analogy tries to give the can of spray paint human-like characteristics by calling it a handyman referring to its capability to be able to fix almost anything. This false analogy is widely used in the commercial world because helpful comparisons can be used to sell more products just on the comparison. The false analogy connects the two unlike things and creates a bond that can draw the consumers attention and catch the extra look of helpfulness or whatever the product wants or needs to be like.

Ratliff & Willis 7

Fallacy 4: Ad Hominem

Source: Trump, Donald J. (realDonaldTrump). Twitter.

“Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood… She is a Hillary flunky who lost big.” -Donald J. Trump

Ratliff & Willis 8

Twitter Fingers Business mogul, reality television persona, and the forty-fifth president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, would be considered by many as infamous for his unfiltered presence on the popular social media platform Twitter. As of recent, the former president’s Twitter account was in fact deactivated by the platform’s administration team due to “the risk of further incitement of violence.” Needless to say, Trump’s activity on the platform has indeed caused a great deal of controversy. One of such previous controversies includes Trump’s rebuttal against Hollywood actress Meryl Streep. In the set of Tweets, Trump personally attacks Streep, calling her “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood,” rather than addressing the issues that Streep called out in her rant during the Golden Globes Award Show. This misdirection is clear and is meant to draw the attention away from the subject at hand, be it intentional or not. This demonstrates Ad Hominem as it shows an attack on an individual and not the issue at hand, thus discrediting it through misdirection.

Ratliff & Willis 9

Fallacy 5: Ad Populum

Source: EA Sports. NCAA 08 Football: XBOX 360 Edition.

“#1 SELLING NCAA FOOTBALL FRANCHISE” - EA Sports

Ratliff & Willis 10 We Are Number One Maslow’s hierarchy of needs identifies that one of the basic human needs is that of belonging and fitting in within a society. The desire to do what is popular is inevitable. So when seeing an advertisement buying into the feeling of belonging consumers are naturally drawn toward the item. Whether it’s a new fashion style, or new drink and the list goes on. In this case EA Sports released NCAA Football 08 and at the corner the game claims to be, “#1 Selling NCAA football franchise”. This could be true or it could be false but the most popular game is gonna attract consumers whether they like football or not just because of the feeling of belonging and being hip to the best thing around. When someone wants to fit in they will do anything to be a part of the group that includes buying the in game and products to go along with the group.

Ratliff & Willis 11

Reflection In the creation of this project a whole different side of rhetoric and persuasive writing has been opened up for us. The different fallacies that have been in our lives since we were born have been swaying our decision making in buying different products and even to the way we talk as a whole. The project was very easy in terms of finding the fallacies that we wanted and how many that came across as the searching process went on. Trying to find the best examples of fallacies that were acceptable and easy to explain was the difficult part. At first every commercial looked like an ad populum or all the political commercials calling out other politicians seemed like red herrings. While researching these topics though, many different ideas popped into my head about how fallacies affect my everyday choices and rhetoric. How such a simple rule or phrase as a fallacy can create someone’s entire speech. As a result I tried to see if I used any logical fallacies in my daily speech and tried to catch myself from saying them. Usually, straw man fallacies were the ones I most noticed in my own speech. This would happen when my parents would tell me something to do and I would obviously, as a teen, react with a comment of saying how difficult it is with some sort of smart remark. Saying school is like prison or how homework bores me to death were some of the common remarks. The real blessing of the project shows me how much common fallacies are used in everyday life when it comes to advertisements, rhetoric, and even on social media....