Logical Fallacies Ad

Some people would watch this Audi commercial and they would think," Whoa Audis are uniquely cool;" some people rebuke the commercial's attempt to make the product look better than Lexus, but every viewer is somewhat aware of the logical fallacies that are consisted in this commercial.
The first fallacies that I noticed were poisoning the well and hasty generalization. The cinnercial hasty generalizes by showing that literally everybody has a Lexus, and it uses poisoning the well by implying that Lexus is for cookie cutters. The advertisers also use fallacies on behalf of them by making the Audi look special. They use spotlight by making a jet black Audi drive by amidst grey/silver Lexuses.They also use appeal to emotion by making only the boy with the Audi happy, unlike the sad kids with Lexuses.

What was I thinking?

In our materialistic world, there are many people secretly battling compulsive shopping. Most people can agree that their sense of reasoning is overshadowed by their fervor for shopping, and once the desire sets in for something they have to get it, despite the cost or utility. After they come back from their shopping spree, reality returns, and they end up returning half of what they splurged on, or atleast wonder what they were thinking. There are countless other situations where reality is dominated by emotions, because unreasonableness is the tragic part of human nature.

In the article, the researcher stated that people are inclined towards FREE, which is very true for almost everybody. Yet there is the timely phrase," Nothing is ever free," which should always be kept in mind. Majority of the times when something is supposedly given for free there is a catch, such as Amazon's Super Shopping Discount which has a requirement of a $25 purchase. This was a ruse devised by sly businessmen, because now careless people are spending several more bucks than the original price with shipping. The exhilaration of receiving something we do not deserve ends up being the trick that leads many people to bankruptcy.

Sometimes it is inconvenience that hinders us from making the right choices. There was a part in the article where they said that less Americans signed up for donor donations, rather than the Swedes who had to sign up to not give donors. Everything becomes a better deal when it is directly given to us; the slightest effort can convince us not to do something.

We try to defend our faulty actions by rationalization, not reason. Our rationalization can make any fallacy sound true. Human's are never consistent, even our logic. Many times our emotions make exceptions for different situations. Even people with tact and control can not always restrain from such unpremeditated desires.

FREE is one of the many words that excites our emotions. Many stores use this strategy by using,"Buy 2 for $40 and get one free," instead of " 3 for $40." This article identifies the "following your heart/gut" problem of human nature. This article shows that people make the wrong choices through impulsive and unreasonable decisions. Spontaneity may be fun, but people should always be fully aware of the consequences.

Logical Fallacies

1. Dicto Simpliciter is an argument based on unqualified generalization: Icecream is tasty, therefore everybody loves icecream.

2. Hasty Generalization is stereotyping: My caucasion friends have nice parents, so all caucasion parents are nice.

3. Post Hoc is generalization due to certain events: Everytime I wear this charm bracelet I get an A on my tests, so as long as I wear this bracelet I will always get As.

4. Contradictory Premises is when two premises contradict each other, therefore no conclusion can be drawn: You said you'll do anything for me, so you have to jump off this bridge for me.

5. Ad Misericordiam is argument that targets emotions: Why should I not go to jail? Because I have a broken leg, my cat just died, and my life already sucks.

6. False Analogy is comparing two events that have no relation with each other: My hamster does not need much attention, so dogs shouldn't be so hard to take care of.

7. Hypothesis Contrary to Fact is to create a false hypothesis, then draw conclusions from it: I am a good friend who made my friends good people. The reason for her transgression is because I am not her friend anymore.

8. Poisoning the Well is attacking a premise to make everybody emotionally veer from it: Don't trust him; I heard he cheated on his girlfriend before.

9. Fallacy of accidents is a generalization that disregards exceptions: America promises freedom, so I can freely beat up that kid.

10. Affirming the consequent is to draw conclusion from premises that do not support the conclusion by assuming Q implies P on the basis that P implies Q: People are getting sick from swine flu. John is sick. He has swine flu.

11. Denying the antecedent is to draw conclusion from premises that do not support the conclusion by assuming Not P implies Not Q on the basis of P equals Q: Music calms a person down. Sarah is going nuts; she hasn't been listening to music lately.

12. Fallacy of many questions is to group more that one question to form one question: Have you stopped stealing and selling drugs?

13. Appeal to Authority is to believe anything a president says or does: Obama smoked marijuana, so it is okay for everyone to smoke mj.

No to the Truman World

After Truman realizes that he is living in a conspiratory world he does whatever it takes to escape. When he is given the final ultimatum (if he would remain in the Truman Show) he leaves the world without any hesitation. The reason behind his decision was not surprising because Truman's desire for the truth was evident. It was important that Truman left the world because every second he lived in that world he was wasting his life. Truman lived in a world where everything was controlled but him. He was a victim of a social experiment created by his own kind.

While living in the world, the only thing remotely productive that he had done was entertain people with no lives in the real world. Everything was a dead-end for Truman. He worked at a job where his work was useless, and he "loved" a woman who had no intention of ever reciprocating his love. The only positive aspect of living in a false world was that Truman was immune to bankruptcy. The false world did not offer the many perks of the real world: spontaneity, individuality, privacy, authenticity, freedom to explore, and many other factors. A world without any truth has no meaning. Lies are substanceless and meaningless. It is one thing to believe a lie, but it is worse to live a lie. For thirty years, Truman was barred from anything pristine. Without any exception, I think that it was essential for Truman to live in the real world.

Without any doubts I can say that I'd rather live in the world I live in as opposed to Truman's world. Even though it was called the Caroline Show I wouldn't want to live in it. I already hate the feeling that my every move is being judged and watched when I am in public, but the idea that literally every move I make is being scrutinized is very frightening. I hate deception, but living in the show would mean that I would never experience any natural reaction from people. I already fear being mislead by people; I don't want it to be a lifestyle. Truman also does not get what he truly wants while living in that world. He does not get the girl, nor does he get to travel as he wishes, and his dad was also cruelly taken away from him. If I ever choose the artificial world over the real world, the artificial world would atleast have to satisfy my every desire and fantasy. I do not ever want to be confined to anything. The real world isn't that big (in my opinion) but being limited to that small world is so not ambitious.

After defending the real world, my values of truth rose to the surface. If I reflect, honesty has always been valuable to me. I hate deception because it makes it harder to become vulnerable and put trust in things. If we put our trust it things we can rely, and depend upon it, which is a good feeling. Truth also has structure, and people need balance in their lives, because instablity is not good. It is hard to compeltely simplify and rationalize why I value truth, because my value for truth happens so naturally. Other things I value of the real world, that make me not want to live in the Truman world are spontaneity, privacy, and the other things I listed before.

These two worlds are as different as the two sayings," Tell me what I want to here," and, " What do you think, honestly?" From what I have observed most people see what they want to see, and a few people chase the truth. It is hard to explain why truth is so important, but it's the only thing we can depend upon. It is like a spine for the world and it needs to exist, because I don't think people can ever flourish in a world completely comprised with lies.