Introducing #FallacyFriday on Pasquines. Every week, Oliver Diaz Neda will post a logical fallacy and an example to help you all become better debaters, persuaders and rational thinkers.
What is a logical fallacy? It is defined as – a flaw in the structure of an argument which renders the argument invalid.
This week’s fallacy is probably the most widely used one of them all…
Today’s fallacy
Anecdote
Anecdotal arguments use personal experience or isolated examples as supporting evidence or as the foundational proof, rather than quantifiable data or logical reasoning.
Example:
Roger
Global warming is a total hoax, you know that right?
Christy
97% of climate scientist in peer-reviewed, published studies agree that increased Carbon emissions drive global warming, roughly equal to the scientific consensus on the link between smoking and lung cancer.
Roger
Are you kidding me? Last year was the coldest winter in my lifetime. I don’t buy that liberal climate change crap.
Roger judges the validity of decades of research as less compelling than his experience last winter. Don’t be a Roger.
