Sunday, January 24, 2010

Examples of Fallacies

This news article on GMA goes to show the use of two different fallacies. The first and most notable has to do with the hasty generalization that all overweight people are "unhealthy". It also suggests that the new Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin's appearance will undermine her position. This would be an example of a strawman fallacy because the argument does not go into detail about her expertise on the issue of medical care. It uses the weaker argument of her weight to say it will not set a good example.