Unit 5 Responses

Good evening,

Please provide a 100 word response for both of the below discussions.

Response 1:

Logical Fallacies

I often times face challenges dealing with logical fallacies and their negative impact on our daily lives. One fallacy that’s a challenge for me would be changing my belief based on some of my friends beliefs on a topic or situation. I’m not imposing that this is a constant challenge for me, but in certain situations this could be a challenge. Changing a belief solely because someone says they believe something will have a negative impact on you as a person. I think it’s acceptable to have the same opinion about something, but I would need to give a reason why I have that opinion versus having an opinion because of someone else’s direct opinion. I can argue that some people have the ability to be pervasive and that could also have a negative impact. Everybody has their right to their own opinion, but that doesn’t mean it’s correct or factual. Overcoming this challenge shouldn’t be difficult; giving reasoning behind the opinion eliminates copying someone else’s opinion. The second fallacy that I feel could be challenging to me is not having facts but believing something is true or false without proving it’s true or false. This is very similar to the first challenging fallacy because facts are needed to make them factual. This fallacy also has a negative impact because no one can say something is true or false without proving that is actually true or false. This could impose negativity on someone else having them believe something is true when its indeed false or changing a belief based off someone else’s. Overcoming this fallacy is quite simple; all that needs to be done is prove or have proof that something is true or false.

Response 2:

A Duracell commercial that I recently watched used the “appeal to emotion” logical fallacy. The commercial started with a man who was in the army; he then began to put Duracell batteries into a teddy bear. This bear was a gift to his daughter so that he could see her everyday as if he was still home. The commercial then showed the little girl becoming upset simply because she was not able to spend time with her father. The following day the father’s gift had arrived. The daughter opened the gift full of excitement and joy. The commercial made it seem as if Duracell batteries made life easier for these people, in which it did. The slogan in the is commercial was , “trusted by everyone.” In order to win over the audience, this brand used appeal to emotion to manipulate the audience.

A sprite commercial that I most recently watched had an appeal to authority logical fallacy. In the commercial was a famous rap artist recording music in a studio .The artist was not motivated to finish the song . The commercial made it seem as if he was having a very bad day. Once the artist mentioned that he was not feeling the song , his producer handed him a sprite. After the artist drunk the sprite, his body began to reload with energy. After drinking the product he was then able to perform the song at a higher energy level . The slogan of this Sprite commercial was “The Spark”. This slogan was used to let the audience believe that if you drink a bottle of sprite , you will have a boost of energy. This is a common way to appeal to authority. Because Sprite used a famous musical artist , they were able to get the audience to believe that this was a way to “gain energy”. In the commercial the famous artist was the “authority”. Because many people are fans of his music, sprite used his image to win over the audience.