Research Paper on:
Logical Fallacies

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
these errors in logic relate to the processes of critical thinking, and how its application can be found within the decision making process. Fallacies of assumption refer to errors  in logic that are commonly referred to as "begging the question" (Haskins). This happens when a person assumes a particular point as a given fact when that point should be  proven. For example, people who believe in PSI experience cite a particular set of experiments where a .34 success rate (which is better than for the rate by chance)  was achieved as "proving" the existence of paranormal psychic activity. This assumption is fallacious because another researcher could conduct precisely the same experiment and achieved precisely the same result, but  argue that the result was due to aliens communicating directly with the minds of the subjects and this conclusion would be equally valid (Haskins). As this indicates, fallacies of assumption  confuse effect with causality. The fact that the experiment exceeded the results obtainable by chance does not necessarily "prove" that PSI ability is responsible for these results. Similarly, a manager  might note that particular shift at a factory has a low production rating. Seeing that this shifts personnel roster is almost entirely composed of ethnic minorities, fallacious assumption would be  to assume that this demographic is the cause. A similar category are fallacies of insufficient evidence. Lau and Chan refer to this category as an "appeal to ignorance." This is  the sort of argument that runs something like this: "We have no evidence showing that he is innocent, so he must be guilty" (Lau and Chan). These authors also connect  this fallacy with arguments that confuse causation with correlation (as in the category discussed above (Lau and Chan). Determining the legitimacy of an argument, when it is embedded in the