Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Fallacy

I wanted to think of a fallacy that I could connect with or recognize, but it took me a long time to think of it. I then remembered reading that if you got out of bed the same side you went on before you went to sleep, then you were going to have a good day. If you got out of bed on the opposite side, then you weren't. This fallacy falls under the faulty causation. If you went to bed on the right side, and got out of bed on that same side, you ended up having a good day, After I read this, I tried it out to see if it was true, but I never really paid attention to which side it was I was going in and out of, so I don't know if this is really true. After thinking about this, I don't know if this would be considered a superstition, but it's just something I thought of.

There was another fallacy I thought of, which I think would fall under association or causation. It has been stated that people who attend church are 4 times less likely to commit suicide, therefore, those who don't attend church will commit suicide. There is another fallacy I've heard that goes with this category. Conventional bombs did more damage in WWII than nuclear bombs, so conventional bombs are more dangerous than nuclear bombs.

1 comment:

Grizzle said...

Amanda...

These are all great examples. The bomb example was especially interesting. They really aren't comparable...I mean, think about the destruction if you were to drop an equal amount of nuclear bombs. Their argument looks ridiculous at that point, indeed.

And the bed thing is interesting. Faulty causation, for sure. The two ideas aren't related by any observable law. Some people might make their day's bad by simply believing that idea though--self-fulfilling prophecy.

good work.