Showing posts with label Fallacy: Quoting out of Context. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fallacy: Quoting out of Context. Show all posts
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Slanting
This error occurs when the issue is not treated fairly because of misrepresenting the evidence by, say, suppressing part of it, or misconstruing some of it, or simply lying. See the following fallacies: Lying, Misrepresentation, Questionable Premise, Quoting out of Context, Straw Man, Suppressed Evidence.
Quoting out of Context
If you quote someone, but select the quotation so that essential context is not available and therefore the person's views are distorted, then you've quoted "out of context." Quoting out of context in an argument creates a straw man fallacy.
Example:
Smith: I've been reading about a peculiar game in this article about vegetarianism. When we play this game, we lean out from a fourth-story window and drop down strings containing "Free food" signs on the end in order to hook unsuspecting passers-by. It's really outrageous, isn't it? Yet isn't that precisely what sports fishermen do for entertainment from their fishing boats? The article says it's time we put an end to sport fishing.Jones's selective quotation is fallacious because it makes Smith appear to advocate this immoral activity when the context makes it clear that he doesn't.Jones: Let me quote Smith for you. He says "We...hook unsuspecting passers-by." What sort of moral monster is this man Smith?
Labels:
_Q,
Fallacy,
Fallacy: Quoting out of Context,
Fallacy: Straw Man,
Logic
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)