Understanding How Fallacies, Critical Thinking and Decision Making Techniques Are All Linked Togethe

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Understanding how fallacies, critical thinking and decision making techniques are all linked together. What is a logical fallacy? According to the Webster dictionary (1996), a fallacy is a false notion. A statement or argument based on a false or invalid inference. Fallacies can be divided into two different groups; the first one is the fallacy of relevance where the premises are irrelevant to the outcome. The other is fallacy of insufficient evidence, where the premises may be relevant to the outcome but does not have enough evidence to support that outcome. Relevance can be described in three different categories; 1. It can be positively relevant- where it supports a certain statement. 2. It can be negatively relevant-where a statement goes against another statement. 3. It can be logically irrelevant-where it does and does not support the statement (Bassham, 2002).

After reading over the different fallacies, I have decided to pick the following three since I believe they happen more than not without anyone noticing they are doing it. Attacking the person- this fallacy falls under fallacy of relevance where one may attack the arguer rather than the argument itself. However not all personal attacks are fallacies, to be considered a fallacy, (1) an arguer rejects another person's argument and (2) the arguer attacks the person who offers the argument rather than considering the merits of the argument. The other two fallacies I have chosen, falls under the fallacy of insufficient evidence. They are inconsistency- inconsistency or self-contradicting between two statements that are logically incompatible with each other. This fallacy usually occur when the arguer asserts inconsistent premises, asserts a

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premise that is inconsistent with the conclusion or argues inconsistent conclusions. The final fallacy I have chosen is questionable cause; this fallacy is committed when we identify a cause for an occurrence or a fact that is true without sufficient evidence. There are three common questionable cause fallacies; 1. the post hoc, ("after this, therefore because of this"). This is committed when an arguer assumes something happened because of something else without proper evidence. 2. mere correlation, this is committed when the arguer assumes that because something always happen when another thing happens without proper evidence and believe the two situations will always occur together. 3. oversimplified cause, which is the most common, is committed when the arguer assume without evidence that something happened because of something else using that as the sole source when other factors can be considered (2002).

What is critical thinking? Taken from (Greek), critical- is to choose, to decide and thinking- is to contrive, to plan, to view, to imagine or to hold an opinion (Bateman, 2003). There are four components of critical thinking:

1. The study of logic, logic can be deductive or inductive, it basically depend on when one start to think; at the point of general principle or at the point of collected data. Critical thinking involves the formulation of thoughts and the alignment of thoughts into what we call correct reasoning.

2. Problem-solving observation, it you want to know how to do something right, follow the expert. If you want to do something wrong, following the one who never gets it right. When observing, one should keep in mind the following

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questions and upon completion of the observation, you (the observer), will have a refined sense of critical thinking with problem-solving skills.

A. How did you define the problem

B. Where was the focus

C. What are some alternative solutions

D. What aspects was noted

E. What resources were used

F. What was the methods used

3. Reading and writing; knowledge is necessary for critical thinking, you can also develop general skills and skills of conceptual organization through reading books and articles.

4. Group discussion, these seem to be the best way to facilitate critical thinking. During these discussions, once you voice your opinion, fallacies in reasoning come out (Mckenzie, 1992).

A critical thinker is also a human being and somewhat a risk taker, when discussions come up, a thinker always tend to voice own opinions depending on their own personal beliefs, these beliefs will then determine what logically fallacies the conversation will fall into. A critical thinker should also have the ability to reason correctly and try to identify any reasoning that are fallacies, this is why it is so important to know and understand the different fallacies that will interrupt the four components of critical thinking.

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Using the six stages of decision making is a helpful tool to understand and overcome the fallacies of thinking.

1. Identifying and diagnosing the problem- first one must recognize there is a problem and decides that it needs to be solved and then be willing to do something about it.

2. Generating alternative solutions- this is where the problem is being linked to alternative course of actions.

3. Evaluating alternatives- rank the alternatives.

4. Making a choice by using maximizing (best outcome), satisfying (acceptable), and optimizing (best balanced).

5. Implement the decision- carry out the choice you have made.

6. Evaluate the decision- collect data of how well the choice you made worked (Bateman, 2003).

According to Rudolph (1992), he includes that one should also consider using these six key phrases to assist you so you won't fall in the notion of fallacies:

1. So as far as I know

2. Up to a point

3. To me

4. What

5. When

6. Where.

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Organizational examples

Attacking the person

Military,