第56章 (第2/3页)
fied? This is an example of the fallacy called appeal to ignorance.
This fallacy occurs when it is argued that because we cannot prove a proposition true, it must be
false; or if we cannot prove a proposition false, it must be true. As an example, think about this
statement: “There has never been any scandal about this candidate for President. Therefore, he
must be an honest, moral person.” Is that really true?
· “If you don’t pick up your clothes before you go to bed at night, pretty soon you’ll be knee
deep in dirty clothes.”
Is that the way it is? This is an example of the slippery slope fallacy; certain applications of it have
152
CHAPTER 9: COGNITIVE PROCESSES
been called the domino theory. The argument is that if the first in a possible series of steps or events
occurs, the other steps or events are inevitable. Here is an example from a letter to the editor of a
metropolitan newspaper, in which the writer was responding to an article discussing the morality
of euthanasia in the case of a person with advanced multiple sclerosis. “If we allow this to happen,
where do we stop? Who would decide at what point someone should die? Do we give them poison
the moment they know they have multiple sclerosis or cancer, before they have any suffering?”
. “TV can’t be harmfu
（本章未完，请点击下一页继续阅读）