Week 9, Post 3
While reading the book, I stumbled upon "reasoning in a chain and the slipper slope," which is located in chapter 6 (Compound Claims) of the book. The definition of a slippery slope argument provided by the book says, "A slippery slope argument is a bad argument that uses a chain of conditionals, at least one of which is false or dubious." I didn't quite understand how one simple premise could turn an argument into a slippery slope. However, after researching online, I came across a website that explains the slippery slope argument in depth.
http://www.garlikov.com/philosophy/slope.htm
I learned that if the guidelines are not followed, an argument with a false premise turns into a slippery slope. If one premise is not true, then the whole argument is useless and invalid. When one argument is false then it becomes a chain reaction occurs because the other premises are also invalid and it goes down a slippery slope. The "camel's nose in the tent," the "give and inch," the "crack in the foundation" are also names for the "slippery slope" argument.
I remember the list of examples that Chapter 6 in Critical Thinking gave when speaking about compound claims and types of reasoning. I had the same problem that you had; as it was difficult for me to see the different types of bad arguments and how they appear in real life. That chapter didn’t really give very many concrete examples when it explained things like slippery slopes or other types of reasoning. I find that the definitions the book gives are generally examples that I don’t understand and I have to search for a more easily understandable example that has arguments that illustrate what it is I am trying to define.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, great post! I was also confused when I read about this term in the book. You definitely helped me understand this a lot better, and the website link you provided was very helpful. I wish the book had more examples to give for topics like these, as it was a bit hard to understand at first exactly what the book meant when I first read through the chapter. It's easier once you figure it out obviously, but at first I was pretty confused. The different little names for "slippery slopes" such as "camel's nose in the tent" and stuff like that was also pretty funny to read.
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