Understanding How Fallacies, Critical Thinking and...

How it all comes together 1 Understanding how fallacies, critical thinking and decision making techniques are all linked together. What is a logical fallacy? According to the Webster dictionary (1996), a fallacy is a false notion. A statement or argument based on a false or invalid inference. Fallacies can be divided into two different groups; the first one is the fallacy of relevance where the premises are irrelevant to the outcome. The other is fallacy of insufficient evidence, where the premises may be relevant to the outcome but does not have enough evidence to support that outcome. Relevance can be described in three different categories; 1. It can be positively relevant- where it supports a certain statement. 2. It can†¦show more content†¦During these discussions, once you voice your opinion, fallacies in reasoning come out (Mckenzie, 1992). A critical thinker is also a human being and somewhat a risk taker, when discussions come up, a thinker always tend to voice own opinions depending on their own personal beliefs, these beliefs will then determine what logically fallacies the conversation will fall into. A critical thinker should also have the ability to reason correctly and try to identify any reasoning that are fallacies, this is why it is so important to know and understand the different fallacies that will interrupt the four components of critical thinking. How it all comes together 4 Using the six stages of decision making is a helpful tool to understand and overcome the fallacies of thinking. 1. Identifying and diagnosing the problem- first one must recognize there is a problem and decides that it needs to be solved and then be willing to do something about it. 2. Generating alternative solutions- this is where the problem is being linked to alternative course of actions. 3. Evaluating alternatives- rank the alternatives. 4. Making a choice by using maximizing (best outcome), satisfying (acceptable), and optimizing (best balanced). 5. Implement the decision- carry out the choice you have made. 6. Evaluate the decision- collect data of how well the choice you made worked (Bateman, 2003). According to Rudolph (1992), he includes that one