Logical fallacies for 1th graders

March 14, 2010 3:10 PM

Teaching Filter: I'm doing a unit for 11th graders on persuasive writing and would like to include a lesson on logical fallacies. Ideally, I would like to illustrate these with video. However, I have neither the time nor the google fu to locate them all. So Hivemind, can you find me famous examples of logical fallacies on video?

I've found an example for Post Hoc, ergo propter hoc. I would like to find examples for:
Begging the Question
Non Sequitur
Faulty Analogy
Ad hominem
hasty generalization
Ignoring the question
Straw Man
Either/or
Slippery Slope
False Authority
Tu Quoque

posted by FakePalindrome to Education (14 answers total)

Best answer: Faulty analogy: She's a witch!
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 3:16 PM on March 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Might I suggest checking out the Daily Show archives? Stewart absolutely loves calling BS on...well, anybody. He doesn't name the fallacies as such (maybe an advantage, if you want to quiz your students?), but I'd imagine even just a couple of shows worth of clips would pull together all of those for you.
posted by Rallon at 3:24 PM on March 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Heheheh...Homer Simpson gives an excellent example of a non sequitur fallacy.

Specifically, it's an example of an "Affirming the Consequent" fallacy.
posted by darkstar at 3:32 PM on March 14, 2010

The Colbert Report would be an equally fruitful resource, if perhaps not more so. Plus you get a bonus lesson about satire.
posted by lilac girl at 3:32 PM on March 14, 2010

The recent Jon Stewart interview with Marc Thiessen would be a good one - I bet you find more than one logical fallacy - ignoring the question, straw man, faulty analogy, hasty generalization, slippery slope, false authority -they're all in there. It might be worth it to find the full unedited interview at the Daily Show website...it goes on for a while.
That guy is a real piece of work!
posted by smartypantz at 3:35 PM on March 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Upon second thought, I'm using this video of U.S. government propaganda during the 1950s red scare in my history class next week. The first half of the video is basically "he's a communist because he reads communist newspapers! She's a communist because she attends communist rallies!" Perhaps an example of begging the question?
posted by lilac girl at 3:37 PM on March 14, 2010

Best answer: And there are more fallacies than you can shake a stick at in political and religious discourse. For example, the "Death Panels" rhetoric is an appeal to emotion and a strawman.

Though, you may be wanting to steer clear of overtly political/religious content for your class.
posted by darkstar at 3:46 PM on March 14, 2010

Best answer: The movie "Thank You for Smoking" has a good example of straw-man fallacy. Kinda makes my skin crawl, but it's a good example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrnZdFFovBE
posted by Iggley at 4:27 PM on March 14, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions!
Sadly, I'm trying to avoid The Daily Show (I had an excellent appeal to authority with John Hodgman) because I'm reasonably sure that the school network will block the site, and unlike Youtube, there's no obvious way of downloading the clips to my computer
posted by FakePalindrome at 5:02 PM on March 14, 2010

this page is a pretty neat reference for logical fallacies:

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/taxonomy.html
posted by DavidandConquer at 5:31 PM on March 14, 2010

Best answer: Frenzy by Hitchcock. Most Monty Python.
posted by eccnineten at 10:58 PM on March 14, 2010

Best answer: This episode of autotune the news highlights several logical fallacies in speeches by politicians on both sides of the aisle. I believe the first one is a false dichotomy (either/or), which the singers point out. ("Can we please choose something in-between?") I believe the next two speeches also contain some, but I am too lazy to cross reference and figure out which one is which.

I don't know, I'm sort of out of touch, but I think maybe this would appeal to 11th graders. One of the episodes even has a guest appearance from T-Pain, who popularized the whole auto-tune thing. (I believe it's #8...)
posted by ZeroDivides at 1:52 AM on March 15, 2010

Best answer: The Chewbacca Defense is a classic red herring / non sequitur fallacy. Video. Some swearing in the first 27 seconds though, so you'd have to FF over that.
posted by yeti at 9:47 AM on March 15, 2010

Best answer: Argument by Gibberish (Bafflement). Hilarious.
posted by yeti at 10:02 AM on March 15, 2010