Research Paper on:
Fallacies & Critical Thinking

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
fallacy and discusses its significant to the critical thinking process, as well as its general application to the decision making process. While every argument makes some assumptions, a cogent  argument makes only those assumptions that are warranted, that is, its assumptions are not questionable or false (Haskins, 2005). As this suggests, fallacies of assumption make up one category of  logical fallacy. One of the most common fallacies of assumption is referred to as "begging the question" (Haskins, 2005). When this occurs the individual employs this fallacy by simply assuming  a point that should be proven. For example, proponents of the concept that paranormal activity is real and can be proven cite the ganzfeld experiments as concrete proof of their  position (Haskins, 2005). The proponents of PSI phenomenon note that a .25 success rate is predicted by chance and that the success rate for these experiments was .34. This  information is presented as incontrovertible proof of paranormal psychic ability; however, this argument is fallacious because while the success rate in these experiments could be evidence of psychic activity, there  could also be some other explanation for this result. The statistic does not, in and of itself, prove what caused it. For example, if someone else did the same experiment,  obtained the same rate, but argued that this result was obtained because aliens were communicating directly with their minds, such a statement would be equally relevant (Haskins, 2005). This  also might be considered a fallacy of insufficient evidence. Lau and Chan (2005) offer an "appeal to ignorance" as an example of this category. "We have no evidence showing that  he is innocent. So he must be guilty." They also list confusing causation with correlation (as in the case above) or drawing statistical inferences based upon a limited or biased