12. QUESTIONS FOR ORIGINAL THOUGHT AND INVESTIGATION.
(1) Is there any difference in content between error and fallacy? Illustrate.
(2) In what ways do trusts indulge in sophisms?
(3) May the sophism be used conscientiously by the country doctor? Explain.
(4) Give in substance Aristotle’s classification of fallacies.
(5) Select the fallacies which could with justice be called fallacies of interpretation. See Creighton.
(6) Explain in full the popular conception of equivocation.
(7) Indicate the marks which distinguish the following: Ambiguous middle, fallacy of four terms, non sequitur, figure of speech.
(8) “Why should Jeremy Bentham employ a person to read to him who habitually read in a monotonous tone of voice?” Jevons—Hill.
(9) Originate a sentence of about ten words and through the fallacy of accent secure as many different meanings as possible.
(10) Show that the fallacy of figure of speech might be classed as a fallacy of four terms.
(11) To what fallacies, in your opinion, are teachers especially given?
(12) Show that the fallacy of accident could be classed as one of ambiguous middle.
(13) “When the Puritan settlers in New England passed their three famous resolutions—Resolved, first, that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; secondly, that he hath given it to his Saints; thirdly, that we are his Saints. What fallacy did the Puritan Fathers commit?” Ryland.
(14) A Dutchman afflicted with pneumonia arises at midnight and eats a large quantity of sauerkraut. The Dutchman gets well, whereat his physician writes in his little book on remedies, “Sauerkraut sure cure for pneumonia.” The physician was guilty of what fallacy? Why?
(15) De Morgan quotes from Boccaccio this: “A servant who was roasting a stork for his master was prevailed upon by his sweetheart to cut off a leg for her to eat. When the bird came upon the table the master desired to know what hadbecome of the other leg. The man answered that storks never had more than one leg. The master, very angry, but determined to strike his servant dumb before he punished him, took him next day into the fields where they saw storks, standing each on one leg, as storks do. The servant turned triumphantly to his master; on which the latter shouted, and the birds put down their other legs and flew away. Ah, sir, said the servant, you did not shout to the stork at dinner yesterday; if you had done so he would have shown his other leg.” What fallacy does this quotation from Boccaccio illustrate?
(16) Why should begging the question and irrelevant conclusion be classed as fallacies of the “forgotten issue?”
(17) From the standpoint of both form and meaning test the validity of the following:
(1) “Virtue is the child of knowledge and vice of ignorance; therefore education, periodical literature, traveling, ventilation, drainage and the arts of life, when fully carried out, serve to make a population moral and happy.” Hibben.
(2) “The civil power has the right of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and administration, therefore parliament may impose articles of faith on the church or suppress dioceses.” Hibben.
(3) “Seeing that abundance of work is a sure sign of industrial prosperity, it follows that fire and hurricane benefit industry, because they undoubtedly create work.” St. Andrews—1895.
(4) “Riches are for spending, and spending for honor and good action; therefore, extraordinary expense must be limited by the worth of the occasion.” Bacon.
(5) “And let a man beware how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.” Bacon.
(6) “He that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great riches; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break and come to poverty. It is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that they may uphold losses.” Bacon.