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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1827 edition. Excerpt: ... 220 CHAPTER XI. ON FALLACIES. (Whately's Elements, Ch. III. p. 131.) Dr. Whately's chapter on Fallacies is introduced by the following exposition of the subject: " By a fallacy is commonly understood any unsound mode of arguing, which appears to demand our conviction, and to be decisive of the question in hand when in fairness it is not." This definition may be fully applicable to all apparent arguments, in which an erroneous conclusion is deduced from the premises by a mere play upon words ; as, for ex. " No cat has two tails, one cat has a tail more than no cat, therefore, one cat has three tails and of which the very absurdity of the conclusion is enough to shew the error. But is the above definition equally applicable to that most dangerous of all classes of fallacies, to that which most of all needs detection and exposure; namely, to that which, without producing any direct conviction, tends to throw confusion in the way of conception, and to give to a false and pernicious argument a degree of probability far more difficult to destroy than any fact which, though apparently proved, is, prima facie, absurd ? A much more general and comprehensive exposition is given by the editor of Mr. Bentham's Book of Fallacies ; which exposition I shall here transcribe, in order that the reader may judge whether his or Dr. Whately's is the most applicable to the term fallacy, in its most ordinary and most useful sense. " By the name of fallacy, it is most common to designate any argument employed or topic suggested, for the purpose, or with the probability of producing the effect of deception,--of causing some erroneous opinion to be entertained by any person, to whose mind such argument may have been presented." Book of Fallacies, p. 1. Before' I...
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