Chapter 5

Fallacies in Legal Reasoning

1. What is Fallacy?
2. Formal and Informal Fallacies
3. Fallacies Ambiguities
3.1 Equivocation
3.2 Amphoboly

Reported by Avelardo C. Obligado

1. What is Fallacy?

A. In the ordinary conversation, it refers to a false yet commonly accepted belief.

For example: sleeping while your hair is wet will lead to blindness is considered by others as
a fallacy because there is no scientific basis for its truth.

B. In logic, a fallacy is not a false belief but a mistake or error in thinking and reasoning. A
passage may be composed of entirely true statements or beliefs but it is fallacy if the kind of
thinking or reasoning used that passage is illogical or erroneous.

Examples:
1. This courts finds that the undisputed evidence established that Hinman is married to an
Asian-American Woman who was described as being strong willed. The court finds that this
fact evidences the fallacy of the Plaintiff's theory that Hinman was biased against Asian-
American Women and expected them to be meek and subservient.

2: Respondent argues this interpretation permits deduction from the obligor parent's gross
income of all taxes payable on the new spouse's income. The fallacy of this argument is
obvious. All taxes payable on the combined income are not deducted from the income of the
obligor parent.

2. Formal and Informal Fallacies

Formal fallacies are a matter of invalid form while Informal fallacies are a matter of unclear
expression. Formal fallacies deal with the logic of the technical structure, while informal
fallacies deal with the logic of the meaning of language.

The word informal does not here mean it is inferior, casual, or improper. It only means that
our focus is not on the form of the argument, but on the meaning of the argument.

An informal fallacy involves such things as: the misuse of language such as words or
grammar, misstatements of facts or opinion, misconceptions due to underlying
presuppositions, or just plain illogical sequences of thought.

A. Formal Fallacies
For example:
1. All men are green.
Socrates is a man.
Therefore Socrates is green.

2. Some men are green.

Socrates is a man.
Therefore Socrates is green.

B. Informal Fallacies
Examples
1. It's just right to give this student a passing mark. You see, she is troubled by serious family
problems at present.

2. Her family can't afford her education; it's her aunt who pays her tuition fee. If she fails in
Algebra, she might not be supported anymore by her aunt.

3. Fallacies Ambiguities

This involves the imprecise use of language.

A. Equivocation ambiguity comes from changing the meanings of the word.

B. Amphiboly ambiguity comes from the way the sentence is constructed.

1. Equivocation
- A word may have more than one distinguishable meaning. An argument may be constructed
around the ambiguity of the meaning of that word. If you use one meaning of the word in a
premise; then another meaning of the word in another premise, or in the conclusion, you may
appear to have proved something.

For example:
1. Gambling should be legalized because it is something we can't avoid. It is an integral part
of human experience; people gamble every time they get in their cars or decide to get
married.

2. Congress can create or abolish laws.

The law of supply and demand is law.
Therefore, congressmen can abolish the low of supply and demand.

3. Logic teaches you how to argue.

People argue entirely too much.
Therefore we don't need to teach people logic.

B. Amphiboly
This fallacy consists in p resenting a claim or argument whose meaning can be interpreted in
two or more ways due to is grammatical construction.
For example:
1. I give and bequeath the sum of Php 500,000 to my nieces Angeline Ramos and Rose
Perez. The loot and the car were listed as stolen by the Manila Police District.

Some of the most typical grammatical errors that render a claim ambiguous are the following:

1. Unclear pronoun reference

- The defendant never argues with his father when he is drunk.
2. Elliptical construction
-John likes logic more than his wife...
3. Unclear modifier
- Going up the stage, the crowd applauded the newly elected president.
4. Careless use of 'only'
- The company will accept male applicants only from Monday to Wednesday.
5. Careless use of 'all'
- All of the bonuses given to the employees amount to five hundred thousand pesos.

Some interesting ones might appear as newspaper headlines:

1. CHR lawyers give poor free legal advice.
2. Mayors can't stop gambling.
3. Police help dog bit victim.