In the story "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police", I found several fallacies.
"For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a women in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens." In this quote the author is making assumptions that the thirty-eight citizens who witnessed the murder are all similar in character and behavior. Martin Gansberg uses the fallacy of Hasty or Sweeping Generalization in order to grab the reader's attention in his opening paragraph. He continues to use this same fallacy with the quote "But the Kew Gardens slaying baffles him -- not because it is a murder, but because the "good people failed to call the police." In this part of the text, the police officer, as Gansberg did previously, is now the one making the same assumptions that the citizens are all "good" people who should have responded to the terrible crime in a good way.
Gansberg used the fallacy, Appeal to Doubtful Authority in this article when he state, "Assistant Chief Inspector Frederick Lussen, in charge of the borough's detectives and a veteran of twenty-five years of homicide investigations." This use of fallacy occurs with the author's attempt to strengthen his argument by implying that Lussen is an expert when discussing this case. It is true he is highly knowledgeable in the field of homicide investigations, but he is not an expert regarding the dynamics of human behavior in reference to the thirty-eight witnesses. While the investigator's personal opinions are thoughtful, they are still only an opinion.
Non sequitur or It Does Not Follow is another fallacy found in this text. "Today witnesses from the neighborhood, which is made up of one-family homes in the $35,000 to $60,000 range with the exception of the two apartment houses near the railroad station, find it difficult to explain why they didn't call the police." The information about the home values and locations does not logically follow the first part of the statement. That information seems off topic and unnecessary. This fallacy can also be found when he gives the description of the killer. It makes sense to say that has no previous record, that he is married and has two children, but it is illogical and unnecessary to give his exact home address.
It would be interesting to discuss how the world has changed since 1964, and how people would react to a similar situation 2014.
I also read the article "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police". I like in the first one how you pointed out how her opening statement was used to draw the reader in and found two clear cases of the author using the hasty or sweeping generalization. Your last point in the first fallacy is also interesting because it makes you question how good, kind, and caring the people around us actually are.
ReplyDeleteI think you did your second fallacy perfect. The appeal to doubtful authority personally was difficult for me to find a quote to use, but I think the one you used makes a lot of sense and helps me understand it better.:)
I also think that your third fallacy you found is a great example. I can see that the author put the information in to maybe paint a better picture of what that community is like. But it is irrelevant to the point that he is trying to make and as you pointed out it not does not fallow the previous statement and ultimately distracts the reader.
It would be very interesting to see how this situation would play out today, if it would at all. I mean with everyone having a cell phone that has a camera, it may be easier to call the police today than it was back then.
Hey Liver, I also read the essay "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" and I found it very interesting. There are many fallacy's in this essay as you stated. In fact the name of this essay could even be a fallacy because what if not all of these people could call the police for some reason. Your first example ties in with this very well, how does she know they are all law abiding citizens, what if one of them doesn't call the police because they have something they are hiding that is illegal. I had trouble finding a good Appeal to Doubtful Authority fallacy but you did a very nice job with your and the way you put it helps me to see how that makes a lot of sense now. I also like your last example of a fallacy because I feel like people add information like this to their essays all the time and it really doesn't have anything to do with the point they are trying to convey. Olivia you did a very nice job with this fallacy blog keep up the great work! See you tomorrow in first hour! (:
ReplyDelete