Английский язык для специальных и академических целей: Международные отношения и зарубежное регионоведение. Часть 1 - [61]

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TASK 1.

Watch the video “The Fallacy Project: Examples of fallacies from advertising, politics, and popular culture". Identify the fallacies you did not come across in Units 1 and 2.

TASK 2.

Make a list of fallacies described in the video, and jot down the key words in their descriptions.

Pair work

Compare your list and the key words with those of your partner.

TASK 3.

Look up the definitions of the new additions on your “Logical Fallacies” list.

DEVELOPING LOGICAL THINKING SKILLS

Pair work

Make up a list of 12 most common logical fallacies (see Units 1&2 p. p. 45, 82) adding more from the video above.

TASK 1.

Match your list with examples below. The first is done for you.

	Logical fallacy	Example
1	straw man	Anyone who thinks that interest in books is waning hasn't paid much attention. I love the show Face the Nation and they recently had eight authors on!
2		The Dutch experience demonstrates that legalizing drugs is the best way to fight drug addiction. [no mention of the rise in crime rate and drug addiction in the Netherlands]
3		On 1st January 2015 Lithuania joined the euro zone. In January 2015 the euro hit its lowest as compared to dollar.
4		The French President is not to be trusted given his record of cheating on his partners.
5		Legalising euthanasia will inevitably lead to non-volun-tary euthanasia.
6		Political advertisements appeal to emotions not logic. Therefore, political advertising should be banned.
7		As empires grow older, fatigue, much like metal fatigue, spells their imminent failure.
8		My hairdresser, who also does the MP's hair, says the lady is incapable of dealing with any crisis.

Unit III. EU at the Crossroads

Unit III. EU at the Crossroads

	Logical fallacy	Example
9		The older members of the EU are bound to take on the financial burden of saving the euro as they are the core Europe.
10		Whenever I see a man in the rain without an umbrella, I assume he is Dutch.
11		Adopting a new law on tax evasion will not increase the state revenue. Sending more people to prison will violate human rights and will make this government even more liable to criticism.
12		Facebook is the best way to keep in touch. So many people are using it.

TASK 2.

Read the statements and say whether you find the author's logic convincing?

Can you spot any logical fallacies? Can you suggest ways to improve the statements?

1. We are taking children from their mothers too soon, which leads to increased crime rates. I went to the Department of Education and got a list of kindergartens and I went to the safety department and got the crime report. In general the towns with a kindergarten have 400 percent more crime than other towns in the same county. In every county the town and cities with kindergartens had more crime (New Hampshire Representative Bob Kingsbury).

2. On Monday an environmental group illegally blocked loggers and workers at the nuclear plant in Minnesota. Clearly, environmentalists are radicals who take the law into their own hands.

3. Al Gore should stop speaking on global warming. Every time he does the weather changes for the worse and the temperature falls by several degrees.

4. “It (Obama's) was the most anti-small business administration I've seen probably since Carter. Who would have guessed we'd look back at the Carter^{62 years as the good old days?” said Romney (Republican candidate in the 2012 presidential elections)}

5. One doesn't have to be an expert in economics to see that the country is heading for a new housing bubble. A good friend of mine, who is a real estate agent, says house prices are picking up.

6. Senator Clark: “Why are you not willing to support the antiabortion amendment? Don't you have any feelings at all for the unborn children whose lives are being indiscriminately blotted out?” Senator Rich: “I just don't understand why you people who get so worked up about lives being blotted out by abortion don't have the same feelings about the thousands of lives

that are blotted out every year by the indiscriminate use of handguns. Is not the issue of the sanctity of human life involved in both issues? Why have you not supported us in our efforts at gun-control legislation?”

7. Tensions within the EU like tension in a structure will inevitably lead to its destruction from within.

8. The USA should stop getting involved militarily in other countries. Once the government sends in a few troops, it will then send in thousands to die.

9. Richard Nixon was a family man, an experienced politician, and a world-known leader. He deserves a national monument.

10. William Bonnet, the leader of the antirap campaign claims that “nothing less is at stake than civilization” if rappers are not rendered silent. What makes Bennett qualified to lead a moralistic crusade on behalf of America's minority youth? The very person who urged that “illegitimate” babies be taken from their mothers and put in orphanages!

Do you think these fallacies were made intentionally? If so, to what end? What discourse are these typical of?

Unit III. EU at the Crossroads

NOTES ON A SERIES OF SCANDALS: IS BRITISH DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS?