Thursday, February 21, 2013

Fallacies- Acceptable or Not?


Fallacies in the world are so commonly used.  It’s difficult to go even a day without hearing an inaccurate statement or a skewed fact.  Often times the good intentions behind a fallacy can be compromised if the fallacy is not morally correct. The moral correctness of something like a fallacy is very difficult to pin down.  In my personal opinion, fallacies are okay to use as long as are used for a good purpose and not taken over the top.  An example of a fallacy that would be acceptable in my opinion would be the skewing of data in countries that have very poor living conditions but not drastically low death rates.  Since living conditions often lead to life expectancy. I believe it would be acceptable to skew the data slightly to show that a change must be made soon. Or I would show how poor living conditions leads to life expectancy decrease. However, controversy arises when discussing how much tampering of the truth is morally correct.  I believe that the skewing of something such as data, very minimally, to make a point that otherwise count be made would be acceptable.  For example, if a country, in order to be considered for world aid, had to have one million people in poverty, and in reality I was fifty people short of the mark,  I would probably skew the data in order to better the welfare of the people that are in poverty.  Most situations I would not create such a fallacy but I believe in certain situations fallacies are acceptable to use. Determining when it is acceptable can be very challenging however. 
            In my writing I seldom use fallacies.  I would more than likely only use a fallacy if it was for a very good cause and it was very close to the truth.  I personally feel that facts are more powerful in writing, and help develop trust with the audience.  I would honestly feel slightly uncomfortable putting a intentional fallacy in my paper, but I would do it, if the situation was just right.  

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