Critical Thinking Fallacies

A return to the rigors of logic and critical thinking can help solve a lot of the problems we face today.

Tags: Persuasive Essay On Flowers For AlgernonDivision And Classification Thesis StatementHuman Evolution Research PaperDefinition Of Terms In Writing A Research PaperEssay On Nature DestructionHow To Solve Logic Problems

If someone argues that your organization shouldn’t pursue a project because no one has ever been able to achieve its objective previously, that is not a solid argument.

Appealing to ignorance is used more often than you’d think. Of course, we’re all ignorant of many things, even those things that revolve around the subject of the argument, but that doesn’t mean we throw up our hands and give up.

We give people authority all the time for little to no good reason.

Have you ever been at the supermarket and picked up a product, thinking: “I hear this is great!

Often an adherence to tradition means a reluctance to try new things.

That means a retreat from innovation, which is bad business.Reporting tools and surveys can help you collect the necessary data to avoid hasty generalizations.The classic ad hominem fallacy is when the listener attacks the person who is advancing the argument and ignores what they’re actually saying.As a result of this adherence to emotion, many people and businesses often fall prey to the trap of logical fallacies.A logical fallacy is an incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric that contains a fatal flaw which undermines its soundness, thereby leading to an erroneous, and potentially damaging, conclusion. Unfortunately, businesses can and do commit these fallacies, and the consequences are often immediate and, if not, eventually come and wreak havoc on their bottom line.If this person is arguing, say, why a project must be aware of a certain risk, and you dismiss them because they’re always complaining, you’re making a logical fallacy. It’s okay not to like somebody, but give their argument its due.People who work together might not otherwise spend time together, and people who work together often become irritated with one another’s habits or quirks. Be dispassionate and see if it makes logical sense within context. Ignorance merely shows that one doesn’t know something.This might seem unlikely to impact business decisions if you work for an organization that hires only the best and the brightest.That might be the case, but there are going to be team members who you personally don’t connect with, even though they excel at their job.In order to better understand the affects of logical fallacies on business, let’s just focus on one aspect: decision making.How can logical fallacies harm your decision-making process?