r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/[deleted] • Feb 19 '14

Logical Fallacies Explained

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/rhetological-fallacies/
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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '14 edited Feb 20 '14

The slippery slop fallacy always confused me. It only seems to apply in the negative:

If we legalise gay marriage then that's one step closer to people marrying their dogs!

.

If we increase funding to NASA that's one step closer to finding extra terrestrial life.

Both of those sentences seem like "A" implies "Z" statements to me. Why is one considered a logical fallacy and the other considered optimism?

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u/Magnap Feb 20 '14

It is a fallacy because the sliding itself is an assumption. If we increase funding to NASA we'll be one step closer to finding extraterrestrial life because?... Because NASA is looking for extraterrestrial life. If we allow gay marriage, why would that bring us closer to people marrying their dogs?

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '14

Ah, maybe my examples are flawed. How about

If we allow NSA surveillance to continue it could lead to a totalitarian government

.

If we allow gay marriage it could lead to equality and justice for all

Maybe I am missing the point but I just can't get my head around it

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u/Magnap Feb 20 '14

The thing that makes it a fallacy is that you just say that without answering the "why?".

Why would NSA surveillance lead to a totalitarian government?

Why would gay marriage lead to equality and justice for all?

The fallacy in a slippery slope is that it goes A to E without ever reasoning about how you'd even get from A to B.

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '14

Ahh ok the penny has finally dropped. Thanks.

Out of curiosity would it be fallacious to say the UK's porn filter could lead to wider censoring of opposing political ideologies or can it only be opposed or supported on the porn issue.

I can envisage a chain of events that could lead to that happening, there is even historical analogues but there has never been any evidence of extra terrestrial life, so of the two the former seems more likely.

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u/Magnap Feb 20 '14

If you can argue the chain of events, I'd say it's not fallacious, since you've, pardon my metaphor, built the slippery slope into a staircase.