Explain the Fallacy in your own words. Give a real world example that you heard in the past.
Content Fallacy
In the Epstein book, we discover that there are “many arguments that are bad because they use or require for repair a false or dubious premise” (Epstein 201) and when we have some reason to believe that there is an error in an argument we refer to the argument as a fallacy.
There are many different examples of Content Fallacies in our Epstein Book; however, I chose to reflect on the “bad appeal to common belief fallacy.”
The bad appeal to common belief fallacy is a fallacy that affects humans both young and old. People fall victim to the bad appeal of common belief all the time when the chose to believe or do what is considered the popular thing in society.
For example, women in America were not always considered equal to men. It was the common belief that a women’s role in society was in the home and nowhere else. At the time, almost all men believed that women should be homemakers and because almost all of them shared this similar belief, they didn’t doubt themselves that they could be wrong. In other words, because a majority of them believed that a women’s place was in the home then they assumed that this popular belief must be true. However, this was a bad appeal to common belief because as we observe today, women can benefit society in more ways than one.
Another example of the bad appeal to common belief fallacy is when teenagers fall into the trap of believing that drinking is a good thing at parities because it loosens them up and makes them more sociable. They believe that because everyone is doing it, then it must be a good thing for them to do too. However, this is a bad appeal to common belief because drinking isn’t the best thing to do at a young age. Just because you’re friends are doing it doesn’t mean that it’s a good thing. You’re brain is still developing and you could damage cells in your frontal lobe. Drinking could also lead to health problems or addiction in the future so even if it’s the popular thing to do, that doesn’t mean you should do it too.
I liked reading your blog because you provided many clear examples that were very informative. I liked how your examples displayed the fallacy in various scenarios and showed how it affects different people. Peer pressure is a good example of the bad appeal to common belief fallacy. A person will assume that simply because they hear that everyone does this or everyone believes this, that it is right. When in reality, not everyone is doing it. I also think your example about women in America is a good example because it shows the fallacy and shows that not everything that is a common belief is actually correct and true.
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