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Pandas

Looking up fallacies is always funny. There are nerdy jokes, political argument, and panda pictures. I was looking at some of these laughable pictures and a came across a picture of a panda. My love for pandas immediately drew me to it. Upon taking a closer look I read what it said; "If silent movies are black and white and pandas are black and white, then pandas must be silent movies!" That statement is a logical fallacy.

A logical fallacy is an argument based off of an illogical statement or invalid information. A non sequitur fallacy is a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow the previous argument or statement. Basically that means that because thing 'B' has something in common with thing 'A' it must also have the same relation to thing 'C' that thing 'A' has.

Just because pandas and silent movies share the trait of being black and white does not mean that they are mutually the same, as we can tell. This form of rhetoric and fallacy seems to not be used as often as things like hasty generalization and ad hominem abusive because of it's bold, easily recognizable ways. Hopefully  with our skills acquired from rhetoric we will be able to steer clear of these more deceitful fallacies.
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  1. Kate weberMarch 22, 2015 at 3:33 PM

    That photo made me laugh. I think you are right though, this type of fallacy is not seen very often, or at least noticeable. I think that is because it is clearly false and it difficult to convince people that it isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 25, 2015 at 9:38 AM

    I like how you used the non sequitur fallacy to back up your point. I didn't even know that was a fallacy until now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clay BuxtonMarch 27, 2015 at 6:07 AM

    The photo is pretty funny, but does have a point because "all pandas are silent movies" right? This kind of thing is probably meant to be a joke, but has a fallacy nonetheless. It is attempting to relate things that don't go together at all.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 27, 2015 at 7:42 PM

    I think this is an uncommon type of fallacy that is found as an indirect inspiration for more common arguments. When vague terms are used in this kind of argument, it becomes even more difficult to determine its validity. Whether the term is panda or salvation, the argument is still fallacious.

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