7.17.2007

The Logic Of Booze: Fallacies of Relevance

Argumentum Ad Lapidem
Dismissal as absurd without pointing out the reasons the argument is absurd.
Implying that my heavy drinking caused blindness is simply ridiculous.

Accident (a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid)
Dismissing or destroying the logical exception to a case.
I must be drunk, there's an empty bottle in front of me. (even though there are several potential exceptions).

Argumentum Ad Ignorantiam
Dismissing a subject from ignorance.
I never saw any bouncer, pour me a drink.

Argumentum A Silentio
Dismissing a subject because of lack of references in an argument; second-person ignorance.
You obviously don't know where another bar is.

Argumentum Ad Populum
Known as 'the authority of many'.
Millions of people drink regularly without a hitch, pour me another.

Plurium Interrogationum
The fallacy of complex (loaded) questions with insufficient options.
Do you still throw up after one drink? (the subject may have never had this condition.)

Argumentum Ad Temperantium
Argument of temperance; middle ground; argument of compromise.
You say I shouldn't drink and I say I should; pour me a single.

Argumentum Ad Hominem
Arguing as an attack of person.
You only say I shouldn't drink because you're a booze nazi.

Argumentum Ad Verecundiam
Arguing due to assumed authority.
Doctors are saying that booze is good for you now, so let's have it.

Argumentum Ad Antiquitatum
Arguments of tradition.
Mankind has been mostly drunk throughout history, why stop now?

Argumentum Ad Crumenam
Arguments of wealth.
If you're smart enough to know when to stop drinking, why aren't you rich?

Argumentum Ad Lazarum
Arguments of poverty.
Of course homeless people drink. They're poor.

Reductio Ad Nazium
Obvious, innit?
Booze nazi.

So if you can remember all this high flown Latin in a barroom, well, then, you must not have been paying attention.

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