srakarenta.blogg.se - Def of a red herring logical fallacy

#DEF OF A RED HERRING LOGICAL FALLACY HOW TO#

Joanna: “Why did you buy that new fishing rod? It exceeds our monthly budget that we both agreed upon.” John: “Well, because it was on sale.Whether someone else would charge that rate or not is irrelevant to the real issue of it being unethical. It’s unethical.” Jonathan: “Well, if I didn’t charge them that rate, someone else would.” Kim: “You shouldn’t charge your clients 25% interest on their loans.

We pay our taxes.” “Surely global meltdown is infinitely worse than a little inconvenience?” Example in Business “The police should stop environmental demonstrators from inconveniencing the general public.

#DEF OF A RED HERRING LOGICAL FALLACY HOW TO#

The following example involving politics was given by Madsen Pirie in his book How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic: The politician in the example uses a red herring in order to avoid answering the real question.

Politician: “I have been working hard ever since I came into office, and I’m happy to say that I met with many business leaders throughout the country, who all say that they are glad to see that our hard work is paying off.”.

Reporter: “It’s been two years since your policies were implemented, and so far they have failed to reduce unemployment rates.”.

Now, let’s look at some examples of red herrings in politics, media, and real life to better understand it. Furthermore, this fallacy is also known as “ignoratio elenchi”, “irrelevant conclusion”, “beside the point”, “false emphasis” and the “Chewbacca defense”.