Entry4_ Ngô Thị Minh Phương

ENTRY 4

Argument Structure and Fallacies

Item 1

  

The commercial advert has structure fallacy (Denying the atencedent):

If you drink SLP, then you will be smart.   (If A, then B)

You don’t drink SLP (Not A)

______________________________________________

So you won’t be smart. (Therefore not B)              

However, you can still be smart without drinking SLP.
The right structure:
If A, then B
Not B
Therefore, not A

Entry 2

Pantene commercial

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9yFuvQnCns

 “ 87% muốn sử dụng thêm nữa”

è Content fallacy: fallacy of ambiguity.

It seems that a large number of girls want to continue with this shampoo after trial - 87%. However, this number is ambiguous because the commercial doesn’t provide any details about the total number of girls participating in the experiment. The sixe of population in a research play a quite important role in making the research's results significant or not. There's no statistics to prove 87% to be worth considering. That’s why this commercial is not convincing. It commits a fallacy of ambiguity.

Entry 3

“Bà già đi chợ cầu Đông
Gieo một quẻ bói lấy chồng lợi chăng?
Thầy bói gieo quẻ nói rằng
Lợi thì có lợi nhưng răng chẳng còn”

Source: http://www.cadaotucngu.com/diendan/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=205

=>  Fallacies of ambiguity.

Analysis:
 In this poem, the fortune-teller misunderstand the meaning of the word "lợi" which the elder lady says. She means benefits, advantages of marriage but he supposes that it means the gum- the firm areas of flesh in the mouth to which the teeth are attached.

Item 4

“You can stand with us, or you can stand with the child pornographers”, said Vic Toews Minister of Public Safety.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-eeP6IVlLU

è False dilemma

In fact, there are not only choices. Here you can choose to be neutral