CHAPTER 19: FALLACIES • The word fallacy is often used to describe a popular mistaken belief. “ Fat is bad ” might be said to be a fallacy, since many people do not know that some fats are good for health. • However, such factual mistakes are not regarded as fallacies in critical thinking. • A fallacy is a mistake that violates the principles of correct reasoning. Under this definition, a person can commit a fallacy without making any factual error. Suppose someone argues as follows: • Some cats have short tails . Some cats have black hair . Some cats have short tails and black hair . • This is not a good argument because the conclusion does not follow from the premises . It is quite possible that those cats with short tails are different from those with black hair. Of course, as a matter of fact, some cats have both short tails and black hair. So the premises and the conclusion are all true. But this is still a bad argument. Someone who accepts this arg
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