Key Types of Fallacies Explained with Examples
Do you know what a fallacy is? Fallacy means a general kind of appeal or we can say it as a category of argument that looks a lot like a decent perceptive. But we may not find it as convincing.
We need to take into consideration these three points to make our search easier about fallacy:
We should consider fallacies as kinds of arguments.
Fallacies may be invalid or not worthy.
Somebody can claim the argument which can make sense in certain aspects.
The fallacy is a kind of statement that satisfies controversies which is sometimes not possible to solve or state the argument as correct in front of others.
What is Aristotle Fallacy?
In our day-to-day life, we observe many objects and living things in motion. The non-living objects are the only objects that we can set into motion.
Assume that you set a football or a toy car in motion on the plane surface by some external force.
Can you say what happens with those objects? Does it require an external force to stay in motion?
The answer is very simple. This article will provide you with sure information regarding Aristotle’s fallacy laws of motion.
Aristotle Fallacy Explained
In the above paragraph, some questions were asked about football or a toy car. We will discuss the toy that needs an external force to continue to stay in motion. Once you put your hands out of the car, it will stop gradually.
For football, it is also the same. When we roll a football on a lawn or any smooth surface, it comes to rest gradually. We can also set them into motion when we put the external force again.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle observed some practical incidents and made a conclusion that to keep an object in a state of uniform motion, an external force is required. This statement is depicted as Aristotle’s fallacy.
Aristotle Law of Motion
Aristotle made a statement on the laws of motion. According to him, an object stays in the state of uniform motion by the application of an external force. The object should move on with force without stopping.
The laws of motion from Newton denied the Aristotle fallacy. According to him, an object that is in motion should stop gradually without any external force. The force is necessary for the object to be in motion.
When you roll a ball, it stops at some point due to the lack of external force to keep it in continuous motion. However, many forces are applied to the ball, such as frictional force, the force of the wind, and so forth. These forces can make it stop after some time.
Different Kinds of Fallacies
There are many fallacies that destabilize the reasonable strength of the argument. Fallacy means which is logically incorrect. The conversions of humans can have fallacies. Fallacies have numerous forms. This is why they are hard to classify.
Still, the fallacies are classified into two categories, such as:
Structure or formal fallacies
Content or informal fallacies
The formal fallacies are of three types, such as:
Quantification fallacies
Formal syllogistic fallacies
Propositional fallacies
The informal fallacies are of five types such as:
Improper premise
Faulty generalizations
Questionable cause
Relevance fallacies
Red herring fallacies
Logical Fallacies
Logical fallacies are the kind of fallacies that are not easy to spot. You can’t judge someone’s perspective in every case. When someone is speaking loudly, or sneaking into daily meetings, or uttering whispery words, makes it difficult to understand.
Fallacies can help you understand these kinds of phenomena. It is very significant to know about fallacies before going to any debate. Fallacies assist you to stand confidently against any claims or arguments. It is witnessed that there are fifteen common fallacies seen among humans; they are:
The Appeal to Authority Fallacy
The Straw Man Fallacy
The Bandwagon Fallacy
The Hasty Generalization Fallacy
The False Dilemma Fallacy"
The Correlation/Causation Fallacy
The Slothful Induction Fallacy
The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
The Anecdotal Evidence Fallacy
The Burden of Proof Fallacy
The Middle Ground Fallacy
The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy
The Personal Incredulity Fallacy
The Fallacy Fallacy
The Tu quoque Fallacy
Aristotle Fallacies Examples
We can’t keep an object in uniform motion even though we apply external force continuously. As we have discussed, to roll the ball or move the toy car, requires external force. After the release of the external force, it will stop.
The motion vanished due to the act of another force known as friction. The frictional force always applies in a direction opposite to the external force. The wheels of the toy car touch the floor so that the frictional force generated from the surface helps to eliminate the motion.
What is the need for an External Force to keep a Body in a Steady-State?
There is always a requirement to apply an external force on an object to change the motion of the object, that is, to stop a moving object or to move a stationary object. For example, consider a moving automobile that comes to a stop. The moving car stops because of the presence of an external force on the object, that is, frictional force.
The frictional force is experienced by a car because of the contact of the car with the floor. Therefore, the friction force is applied in the direction opposite to the direction in which the car is moving. Therefore, by applying the force in the direction of the moving car, we actually overcome the frictional force so that the car is continuously in the state of moving.
In the absence of frictional force, there would have been no need to apply any force to keep the automobile in the moving state. Therefore, we can state that in absence of an external force on any object, the moving car will continue to move in the same direction for an indefinite period of time. This concept was misunderstood by Aristotle because he made his conclusions on the basis of his personal experiences, and therefore, this is known as Aristotle’s fallacy because of his erroneous concepts.
Thus, opposing forces are naturally always present in the real world and thus, an external force is always required to overcome these opposing forces of the natural world.
Aristotle Fallacies: at a Glance
According to the theory of Aristotle, an external force is required to keep a moving object in a state of uniform motion.
Since the theory of Aristotle was framed by considering just one side of the motion.
He also wasn't able to explain how a moving object comes to rest. This introduced the world to the concept of friction used as an opposing external force.
FAQs on What Is the Aristotle Fallacy in Physics?
1. What is Aristotle's Fallacy in the context of Physics?
Aristotle's Fallacy is the historically significant but incorrect idea that an external force is required to keep an object in uniform motion. According to this view, the 'natural state' of an object is rest, and it would stop moving as soon as the force is removed. This was the accepted explanation of motion for nearly 2000 years before being corrected.
2. Can you provide a simple, real-world example that explains Aristotle's Fallacy?
A common example is pushing a box across the floor. When you stop pushing, the box quickly comes to a stop. Based on this observation, Aristotle concluded that your push (the external force) was necessary to sustain its motion. The fallacy lies in not recognising the role of an opposing, unseen force: friction. The real reason you must keep pushing is to counteract the force of friction, not to sustain the motion itself.
3. Who corrected Aristotle's Fallacy, and what was the new concept introduced?
Aristotle's Fallacy was primarily corrected by the work of Galileo Galilei through his experiments with inclined planes, and later formalised by Sir Isaac Newton in his First Law of Motion. The revolutionary concept they introduced was inertia, which is the inherent property of an object to resist any change in its state of rest or of uniform motion.
4. Why did Aristotle's idea about motion seem logical for so many centuries?
Aristotle's idea seemed correct because it aligns with everyday experiences on Earth. In our world, forces like friction and air resistance are always present and act to slow down moving objects. Since these opposing forces are not immediately obvious, it appears that an object’s natural tendency is to come to rest. Therefore, the conclusion that a continuous force is needed for continuous motion was an intuitive, though flawed, explanation of the observable world.
5. How did Galileo's thought experiments with inclined planes challenge Aristotle's view?
Galileo imagined a ball rolling on two inclined planes facing each other. He reasoned that:
- If a ball rolls down one plane, it will roll up the second plane to nearly the same height.
- If the slope of the second plane is reduced, the ball has to travel a longer distance to reach the same height.
- If the second plane is made perfectly horizontal and smooth, the ball would have to travel forever in an attempt to reach its original height.
6. How does the modern concept of inertia directly contradict Aristotle's Fallacy?
Inertia fundamentally contradicts Aristotle's Fallacy by redefining an object's 'natural state'. Aristotle believed rest was the only natural state. In contrast, Newton's First Law (the Law of Inertia) states that both rest and uniform motion in a straight line are equally natural states. A force is not needed to sustain motion; rather, a net external force is only required to change the state of motion (i.e., to cause acceleration or deceleration).
7. If Aristotle was wrong, why do things in the real world eventually stop moving?
Objects in the real world stop moving because they are almost never free from external forces. A rolling ball or a sliding puck is constantly subjected to opposing forces that we often don't see, such as:
- Friction between the object and the surface.
- Air resistance, or aerodynamic drag.
8. What is the difference between Aristotle's view of 'natural motion' and Newton's concept of motion?
The key difference lies in what is considered 'natural'.
- For Aristotle, 'natural motion' was the tendency of objects to seek their proper place (e.g., a rock falling to Earth). All other motion was 'violent' and required a continuous cause. The natural state was fundamentally rest.
- For Newton, there is no such distinction. Both being at rest and moving with a constant velocity are equally natural states. An object's inertia ensures it will maintain its current state unless acted upon by an external, unbalanced force. Motion doesn't require a cause, but acceleration does.
