Chapter 6

In chapter 6, I thought the slippery slope argument was really interesting to learn and read about on page 133.

Slippery Slope Argument: A slippery slope argument is a bad argument that uses a chain of conditionals, at least one of which is false or dubious. In other words, basically,the arguer claims that a sort of chain reaction, usually ending in some dire consequence, will take place, but there's really not enough evidence for that assumption. The arguer asserts that if we take even one step onto the "slippery slope," we will end up sliding all the way to the bottom; he or she assumes we can't stop halfway down the hill.

i.e: If I fail English 101, I won't be able to graduate. If I don't graduate, I probably won't be able to get a good job, and I may very well end up doing temp work or flipping burgers for the next year.
Check your argument for chains of consequences, where you say "if A, then B, and if B, then C," and so forth.

Here are some examples that helped me understand this concept a lot better:

There is an old saying about how if you allow a camel to poke his nose into the tent, soon the whole camel will follow.

The fallacy here is the assumption that something is wrong because it is right next to something that is wrong. Or, it is wrong because it could slide towards something that is wrong.

For example, "Allowing abortion in the first week of pregnancy would lead to allowing it in the ninth month." Or, "If we legalize marijuana, then more people will try heroin." Or, "If I make an exception for you then I'll have to make an exception for everyone."




http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacies.html