MODR 1770 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Syntactic Ambiguity, Straw Man, Fallacy

• School: York University
• Department: Modes Of Reasoning
• Course: MODR 1770
• Professor: Jai Chetram

Document Summary

Fallacies of ambiguity violate that acceptability criterion of a good argument. A(cid:373)phi(cid:271)ology falla(cid:272)ies you do(cid:374)"t have to study: the complete sentence is not correctly/grammatically formed. The emphasis of a particular word can bring about a different meaning from the intended meaning. Connotation: the meanings are internal and subjective; the values you attach to words and concepts: e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ple: sa(cid:455)i(cid:374)g (cid:862)he is(cid:374)(cid:859)t (cid:373)a(cid:374) e(cid:374)ough(cid:863); i a(cid:373) atta(cid:272)hi(cid:374)g (cid:373)(cid:455) (cid:448)alues of so(cid:373)eo(cid:374)e to for(cid:373) a conclusion about him. Eyphemism: when you replace an offensive word with an inoffensive one: e(cid:454)a(cid:373)ple: i(cid:374)stead of sa(cid:455)i(cid:374)g (cid:862)gra(cid:374)d(cid:373)a is dead(cid:863) (cid:455)ou sa(cid:455) (cid:862)gra(cid:374)d(cid:373)a has passed o(cid:374)(cid:863, the second form is less aggressive and harsh. Substitution method: when a word has two or more meanings, we substitute the problematic word with a word that has one fixed context: example: welfare, passed etc. If the fallacy is equivocation you apply the substitution method in step 6: take the argument & reconstruct the premises with the new synonyms.