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Andy

Can anyone which fallacy this is please

Beauty is power. Power corrupts people.  Therefore,  beautiful people are corrupt. 

asked on Friday, Oct 08, 2021 01:09:26 PM by Andy

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Answers

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Kostas Oikonomou
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"Beauty is power. "

"Power corrupts people.  "

"Therefore,  beautiful people are corrupt. "

The conclusion should be "powerful people are corrupt." They may or may not be beautiful. 

answered on Friday, Oct 08, 2021 03:57:04 PM by Kostas Oikonomou

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Kostas Oikonomou writes:

Yes but if we accept that "beauty is power" then beautiful people are powerful. So if powerful people are corrupt, then beautiful people are also corrupt. There is a factual error though in that "power corrupts people". That's not definite. It's stereotyping as GRBaset mentions in his post.

posted on Saturday, Oct 09, 2021 04:54:49 PM
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Andy
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First off, the argument is ambigous. Does the second premise mean that power corrupts some people or all people? If it's the former, the argument is invalid as the conclusion seems to refer to all beautiful people, you can't deduce a universal property from a particular one (I couldn't find anything specific, so I'd say it's a non sequitur).

If it's the latter, then, while the argument is valid, there's no evidence provided for either of the premises, so they're unsupported claims. I'd also say it's a case of stereotyping (the fallacy), as the premises make general claims based on stereotypes (like "powerful people are corrupt").

answered on Friday, Oct 08, 2021 03:04:20 PM by Andy

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Andy writes:

Thank you for your answer,  I was thinking either it was equivocation or non sequitur. Thank you again:)

posted on Friday, Oct 08, 2021 03:14:15 PM
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Mchasewalker
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Circulus in Demonstrando

answered on Friday, Oct 08, 2021 02:12:15 PM by Mchasewalker

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TrappedPrior (RotE)
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P1) Beauty is power

P2) Power corrupts people

C) Therefore beautiful people are corrupt

P1) doesn't necessarily relate to P2). This is because while beauty may be one form of power, we cannot assume it is the only one! There may be others, like wealth, influence, or intelligence. Thus, even if power corrupts people, it isn't necessarily true that it is the beauty form of power that is corrupting people.

This also leads to a non sequitur moving from P2) to C). If the beauty form of power is not the one corrupting people, then it does not follow that beautiful people are corrupt. 

answered on Sunday, Oct 10, 2021 05:33:53 PM by TrappedPrior (RotE)

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account no longer exists writes:

I really like this answer and I was wondering if there is a fallacy that describes assuming that something might have only one type. For example, you pointed out that while beauty might be power, it might not be the only type of power.

posted on Monday, Oct 11, 2021 03:30:23 PM
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TrappedPrior (RotE) writes:

Assume beauty = a form of power

If beauty, then power

Power

Therefore, beauty

This is converse error (affirming the consequent).

posted on Wednesday, Oct 13, 2021 06:45:50 PM