Can anyone which fallacy this is please

Question

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
Top Categories Suggested by Community
Comments

Want to get notified of all questions as they are asked? Update your mail preferences and turn on "Instant Notification."

Uncomfortable Ideas: Facts don't care about feelings. Science isn't concerned about sensibilities. And reality couldn't care less about rage.

This is a book about uncomfortable ideas—the reasons we avoid them, the reasons we shouldn’t, and discussion of dozens of examples that might infuriate you, offend you, or at least make you uncomfortable.

Many of our ideas about the world are based more on feelings than facts, sensibilities than science, and rage than reality. We gravitate toward ideas that make us feel comfortable in areas such as religion, politics, philosophy, social justice, love and sex, humanity, and morality. We avoid ideas that make us feel uncomfortable. This avoidance is a largely unconscious process that affects our judgment and gets in the way of our ability to reach rational and reasonable conclusions. By understanding how our mind works in this area, we can start embracing uncomfortable ideas and be better informed, be more understanding of others, and make better decisions in all areas of life.

Get 20% off this book and all Bo's books*. Use the promotion code: websiteusers

* This is for the author's bookstore only. Applies to autographed hardcover, audiobook, and ebook.

Get the Book

Answers

Kostas Oikonomou

"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

Kostas Oikonomou Suggested These Categories

Comments

2	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

Andy

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

Andy Suggested These Categories

Comments

1	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

Mchasewalker 0	Circulus in Demonstrando
	answered on Friday, Oct 08, 2021 02:12:15 PM by Mchasewalker
Mchasewalker Suggested These Categories
Comments

TrappedPrior (RotE)

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)

TrappedPrior (RotE) Suggested These Categories

Comments

1	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

0	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