Exercise 3.2

Part I

1. Appeal to pity

2. Argument against the person, circumstantial

3. Red herring

4. Accident

5. Appeal to the people, indirect variety

6. Argument against the person, abusive

7. Appeal to force

8. Straw man

9. Missing the point

10. Tu quoque (you too)

11. No fallacy

12. Appeal to the people, direct variety

13. Red herring

14. Appeal to pity

15. Accident

16. Argument against the person, circumstantial

17. Argument against the person, abusive

18. No fallacy

19. Straw man

20. Appeal to force

21. Red herring

22. Appeal to the people, indirect variety

23. No fallacy (Montana has presented no argument.)

24. Tu quoque

25. Missing the point

Part II

1. False 6. False

2. True 7. True

3. True 8. True

4. True 9. True

5. False 10. True

Part III

The fallacies are noted in brackets throughout the text:

"Thanks for saving us a seat," Jodie says to her friend Frank, as she and Liz sit down with coffee cups in hand in the crowded cafeteria.

"No problem," Frank says.

"We were late getting out of Professor Conklin's social problems class," Jodie says disgustedly. "He's such a jerk! He always keeps us late, and he's the most arrogant snob I've ever met." [No fallacy. No argument of Prof. Conklin is being attacked.]

"I've heard that," Frank says. "What's he covering in class now?"

"Sexual harassment in the workplace," Jodie replies. "But that is a real problem these days."

"How so?"

"Well, my friend Amelia is a dispatcher for a trucking company, and she's told me about dozens of times she's been a victim of sexual harassment. The truckers have Playboy centerfolds tacked up all over the place, they constantly leer at her, they're always asking her for dates. One of them even pats her rear when she leans over at the drinking fountain." [No fallacy]

Frank laughs. "Well, there is such a thing as the First Amendment, which supposedly guarantees freedom of expression. You wouldn't want to deny these guys

their freedom of expression, would you?" [Accident]

"Freedom of expression my eye!" explodes Jodie, looking incredulously at Frank. "Patting someone's rear isn't freedom of expression, it's abusive physical contact. So it's not protected by the First Amendment. [No fallacy] Men! The trouble with you, Frank, is you're a typical man. If you were a woman, you'd see these things for what they are," she says, looking at Liz for support. [Ad hominem circumstantial]

Liz nods her head in strong agreement.

"Well, says Frank, "I think your friend is lucky to have a job, what with all the people out of work these days. I've got a friend who's spent half his retirement savings just putting food on the table for his family, after losing his job. He was in the construction business, which is dead right now. And in other parts of the country it's even worse. You should tell Amelia to quit complaining." [Red herring]

"Stop giving me the run-around," demands Jodie, offended. "The trouble with you men is, you always look at women as sex objects. That makes sexual harassment inevitable." [Red herring]

"What do you mean?" protests Frank. "It's you women who treat us men like sex objects. What about all your make-up and perfume? And the tight pants and all the see-through stuff you wear? You think men are just a pack of animals--nothing but instinct--and you think that will make us fall for you. Isn't that how you see us?" [Tu quoque]

"I won't dignify that with a reply," fumes Jodie. "Anyone who isn't blind can see that Amelia's being victimized by those truckers. [Ad hominem abusive] If you can't see it, maybe pouring this hot coffee over your thick head will wake you up!" she threatens. [Appeal to force]

"Calm down," says Frank with a startled look. "Everyone is beginning to stare at us. Okay, suppose I agree that Amelia is a victim. The question is, what do we do about it?"

"To begin with," says Jodie firmly, "the trucking company should transfer Amelia out of dispatch and give her a better job, like executive secretary in the regional office. Her husband ran out on her recently, leaving her with all five kids--and little Tommy needs braces. She could really use the extra money." [Appeal to pity]

"You're joking!" Frank laughs sarcastically. "Didn't you tell me once that Amelia never finished high school and is functionally illiterate? She could never handle a job like that." [No fallacy]

Thinking for a moment, Jodie then replies, "well, maybe you're right. But at least the company should adopt a policy forbidding all forms of sexual harassment. Maybe that would make the truckers see how abusive they are, and then they might stop acting that way. [No fallacy] Practically every company in the country has such a policy, but Amelia's bosses are dragging their feet." [Appeal to the people--indirect]

"Okay. But then how do you define sexual harassment?" Frank asks. "'Cause if you can't define it, any policy is useless."

"Well, I don't exactly know," Jodie hesitates. "I'll have to think about that."

"Aha! I knew it!" exclaims Frank, triumphantly. "You can't define it, which means you don't even know if it exists! [Missing the point] If you weren't such a radical feminist, you would see that all these claims of sexual harassment are hooey." [Ad hominem abusive]

"Me, radical?" Jodie explodes. "The truth is you're a radical sexist. [Tu quoque] What you're saying is, women are only chattel, like they were two hundred years ago, and men can use or abuse them any way they please. [Straw man] Liz, that's what he's saying, isn't it?"

"Absolutely," Liz affirms.

"What a crazy argument," says Frank scornfully. "What you're saying is, we should abolish all distinctions between men and women and create a unisex society in which everyone acts like a bunch of robots. [Straw man] Isn't that right, Liz?"

"No, not at all," insists Liz. "She's trying to--"

"You're completely insane, Frank" Jodie interrupts, rising determinedly from her chair, "and your arguments are wacko!" [Ad hominem abusive]--and then she throws the remains of her coffee at Frank. [No fallacy] The other students who have been listening to the heated argument rise up shouting, "Right on Jodie!" Some begin chanting, "End sex harassment! End sex harassment!" As more students join the demonstration, they surrounded Frank, gesturing crudely. [Appeal to the people--direct]

Angry and humiliated, he breaks away and dashes out the door.