Abstract
This paper’s thesis is that the fallacies should not be taught to undergraduates. Besides some bad influences, this is not only because doing so steals time more valuably spent elsewhere, but also because the field is now so complex (overlapping concepts, theories and disciplines), that we lack knowledgeable instructors and sophisticated students. The study of theories involving fallacies, however, remains viable.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blair, J. Anthony. 1995. The place of teaching informal fallacies in teaching reasoning skills or critical thinking. In H.V. Hansen & R.C. Pinto (eds.), 328–338.
Hamblin, C. L. 1970. Fallacies. London: Methuen.
Hansen, Hans V., and Robert C. Pinto, eds. 1995. Fallacies, classical and contemporary readings. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania University Press.
Hitchcock, David. 1995. Do fallacies have a place in the teaching of reasoning skills or critical thinking? In Fallacies, H.V. Hansen & R.C. Pinto (eds.) 319–327.
Johnson, Ralph H. & J. Anthony Blair. 1977. Logical self-defense. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
Nickerson, Raymond S. 2021. Argumentation, The Art of Persuasion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scriven, Michael. 1976. Reasoning. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Tindale, Christopher W. 2007. Fallacies and Argument Appraisal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woods, John & Douglas Walton. 1989. Fallacies, collected Papers 1972–1982. Dordrecht and Providence: Foris Publications.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Blair, J.A. Teaching the Fallacies. Argumentation 37, 247–251 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-023-09604-x
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-023-09604-x