Is There Any Informal Fallacy That One Might Be Justified In Using, Or Is One Ethically Bound Never To Mislead Others On Purpose? Discuss This Question With Reference To Specific Fallacies.
In order to determine whether a fallacy can be justified in using or is ethically wrong, one must examine the specific situation they are in and must study the consequences which they might face. Informal fallacies are not mistakes in the formal structure of an argument, but are based either in the failure of the evidence to be relevant or in some linguistic ambiguity. Informal fallacies include defending a statement by appealing to force, pity, authority, or popular belief. In other words, informal fallacies are alterations of the truth, therefore they are not the complete truth, therefore are lies, which is why the Czech Proverb is accurate: "Half a truth is often a great lie.". This is because a lie is an assertion of something which is inaccurate and untrue with an intent to mislead and deceive. For example, an informal fallacy would be: a doctor discovers that his patient is dying of a fatal disease, but, due to his pity for him and not to take away the patient's hopes, he tells the patient that he has a harmful disease but he should not worry because 'everything is going to be alright', even though, the patient is going to die at the end. A 'perfect world' is usually imagined as a world with no lies, but to many peopl
This means that every lie which is said by someone harms him and society in general. Lying causes corruption in the society and this might lead to larger conflicts such as war. "With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back" This man suggested that exaggeration makes a dull story become exciting, even though it is not completely true. The lie told in the example of the doctor and his patient is a white lie. These are harmless variations of the truth mainly used for protection or to keep others from harm (not just physical harm, but emotional harm). In the situation of the doctor, what he did was, despite the reality of the patient's terminal illness, he lied to make the patient feel at ease and also because he felt pity for him. "An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie" Telling lies can save people time, energy, possessions, and protects them. This is why most of the people around the world lie and this is why it is justifiable to lie. If an informal fallacy is used for selfish reasons or will harm others, then it is not justifiable and it is wrong and immoral. An example of an informal fallacy which is not justifiable is Stalin's 'show trials'. These trials were held in front of an audience and victims were forced to lie and agree to what they were accused for and if they disagreed and told the truth, they would be prosecuted in front of everyone. This statement is true because when someone lies, they have to remember the lie so if it comes up in the future, they do not forget it and get caught lying. "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." Lying is also wrong because once someone starts lying, they enter a web of deceits. They must then lie to cover up their first lie and they can never return and take back what they said because than they will be thou
Some common words found in the essay are:
Aldous Huxley, Czech Proverb, James Callaghan, Russian Proverb, , Mark Twain's, Ralph Emerson, informal fallacies, informal fallacy, white lie, example informal fallacy, people world, caught lying, example informal, truth lie, people believe, tell truth, ethically bound,
Approximate Word count = 1241
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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