Exam 3: Informal Fallacies

Mr. Quigley, who is a lobbyist for the oil industry, says that the government should subsidize oil exploration. In view of Mr. Quigley's credentials, it follows that the government should certainly do this.

Sugar is sweet. Therefore, its chemical components, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, are sweet.

Johnny, you better not tell anyone that I stole the apple from the teacher's desk. I'm sure you don't want to come to class with a bloody nose and a black eye tomorrow.

Poor Scooter Libby should never have been sent to jail for lying to a grand jury. Scooter is an honorable man. He devoted his whole life to working for his country. One administration after another asked for his help. And Scooter was always there, ready to serve. Scooter deserved a medal-not jail time.

Old Mrs. Fogarty has won at Bingo on the last six weekends, which is quite remarkable. Therefore, she is almost certain to lose next weekend.

The proposal to ban smoking in the workplace is a terrible idea. Consider the plight of the poor smokers. Just to get a puff, they'll have to go outside, where they'll face the icy blasts of winter, torrential rains in the spring, and the blazing sun in summer. Nobody should ever be subjected to such torture.

Jason is a terrible chess player. But every chess player is a human being. Therefore, Jason is a terrible human being.

Standard & Poors, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America-all of these companies continue to pay their top executives huge bonuses. It must be the case that every American company pays its top executives huge bonuses.

Every component in this boat is made of rust-proof material. Therefore, the entire boat is rust-proof.

Republicans are clearly better able to run the country because they're more experienced in handling money.

Tim has lost money at the roulette wheel for the last five nights. Therefore, it is extremely likely that he will win tonight.

Max argues that we should upgrade our firefighting equipment by purchasing a fleet of new trucks with all the bells and whistles. But it's only natural that he should argue this way. Max is a firefighter himself, and he just wants a fancy new truck to ride around in.

Nobody has ever seen Janice Rogers eat beef, chicken, lamb, pork, or any other kind of meat. We conclude that Janice is not a meat eater.

Some tunes are oldies and some oldies are classics. Therefore, some tunes are classics.

The fallacy in which an arguer attempts to discredit an argument by making its author appear as a hypocrite is:

The gambler's fallacy is a variety of:

Which of the following fallacies involves distributive predication in the conclusion of an argument?

Mary Beth complains that our curriculum is weak in areas relating to diversity. But have you seen that girl's tattoos? They're really something else-especially the red one right above her rear. And she must have a pound of metal stuck in her body. Two big loops hang from her ears, there's a small bar bell through her tongue, and another through her navel. Let's see ... . Shall we move on to the next topic?

Philosopher Peter Singer argues for the right to kill handicapped newborn babies. But Singer is a disgusting irreligious crypto Nazi who is sometimes described as the most dangerous man in the world today. Obviously his arguments are nonsense.

What fallacy often involves collective predication in the premise of an argument?