The three different types of informal fallacies the textbook mentions are fallacies of ambiguity, fallacies of relevance, and fallacies of unwarranted assumptions (Boss, 2017. p.137)

Learning Goal: I’m working on a psychology discussion question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

reply whether you agree or not and if there is anything to add.

The three different types of informal fallacies the textbook mentions are fallacies of ambiguity, fallacies of relevance, and fallacies of unwarranted assumptions (Boss, 2017. p.137). Fallacies of ambiguity typically tend to include poor grammatical structure. This includes forms of amphiboly and equivocation, both including a particular grammatical mistake or misunderstanding. For example, “every individual should fight for what they believe in and if you disagree with my beliefs, I will punch you in the nose.” The term “fight” has more than one meaning in this phrase therefore this example displays forms of equivocation. Other poor communication skills include fallacies of accent and fallacies of division resulting in the creation of uncertainty. An example a fallacy of division, can look like, “my mother said Colombians are very humble individuals. Therefore, my next-door neighbor who is from Bogota must be really humble.” In this example if we cannot assume that simply because the next-door neighbor is from Bogota that she is automatically humble. The fallacies of relevance Consist of appeals to force appeals to pity appeals to ignorance and the most popular, personal attack. An example of this can look like, “Elizabeth argues that she should have full custody of her kids, but we all know that Elizabeth smells funny therefore Elizabeth should not have full custody of her kids.” In this example we judge Elizabeth for smelling funny and in doing so is not allotted in the custody of her kids. Fallacies of unwarranted assumptions occur when an argument is not supported by facts or nor evidence. For instance, “McDonald’s is the one and only fast food chain restaurant in America.” This statement is faulty as everyone knows that McDonald’s is not the one and only fast-food restaurant in America.

Growing up my favorite season was winter. My brothers and I used to love gathering around the fire pit to do smores. Looking back, an error in reasoning I’d typically commit is when my mother used to say, “stop playing with those sticks” and I’d reply to her saying, “But mom I’m not playing with the stick I’m using them to make the fire bigger.” Today I’m able to distinguish that this is a fallacy of accent.