Note: It's the end of the summer semester, which means all of my essays are due and have either been graded, or will be graded soon.
Since I haven't had time today to write anything specifically for writer's group, here's a paper I wrote for my Argumentation and Logic course I took this summer. We were challenged to pick apart three of our biggest logical "pitfalls" in a reflection essay. I got a 20/20 on this piece (which, to be honest, I half-assed). I finished it last week and got my grade back for it today.
Enjoy!
Analyzing My Own Impediments Paper
As much as I would like to be completely logical at all times, I cannot always be logical and reasonable because I’m human. This means that I will always fall into logical fallacies. However, by doing a little bit of self-reflection, I can figure out which logical fallacies I fall for the most, so I can avoid them better in the future.
The first logical fallacy I tend to fall for is the “Appeal to Authority” fallacy, particularly when I’m citing someone who’s an expert at one thing as though they’re also an expert at another thing. The “Appeal to Authority” fallacy happens when someone appeals to an expert without looking into what that expert actually thinks, believes, vouches for, etc, (Boardman, Cavender, & Kahane, 2018, pg. 75). I often do this when I’m debating about science with my conservative, Christian family members. After all, I know that faith is very important to my family members (and it’s also important to me), so in an attempt to get the “science skeptics” of my family to agree with me, I’ll cite people like Dr. Francis Collins, who is both a great scientist (who “believes” in evolution) and a devout Christian. However, Dr. Collins isn’t an expert of Theology. So, by pointing to him as a reason to be both a Christian and believe in science, I’m likely committing the “Appeal to Authority” fallacy.
The second logical fallacy I tend to fall for is the “Guilt by Association” fallacy, which happens when one refutes an argument by pointing out that some horrible person or ideology also agreed with the argument (Boardman, Cavender, & Kahane, 2018, pg. 85). There have been times in my life where I renounced various ideas not because I thought long and hard about them, but because I learned that some detestable group or ideology also liked those ideas.
For instance, I’ve always thought that modern architecture and interior design were ugly, but I never really voiced my honest opinion out of fear of being lumped in with the Nazis, who also believed that modern architecture was ugly and needed to be “beautified”, and used it as a way to manipulate the German public into accepting Nazi ideas (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2025). In a similar way, I’ve come to be a bit wary of admitting that I’m a Christian, out of fear of being lumped in with hardline conservative Christians whom I strongly disagree with in many ways.
The third logical fallacy I tend to commit the most (out of every other logical fallacy) is by “lacking a good sense of proportion”, which can cause people to react to certain situations in irrational ways (Boardman, Cavender, & Kahane, 2018, pg. 162).
I struggle from a diagnosed (and rather intense) anxiety disorder. Growing up, I had an irrational fear about pretty much everything, from bugs to people. While I’ve gotten over a lot of my irrational childhood fears, there are a handful I still haven’t been able to get over, despite years of therapy and practicing logic and reasoning. For instance, despite having flown around the world, knowing how planes work, and never once having a bad experience on an airplane, I’m still afraid of flying.
Logically, I know that my fear is irrational. I know that the chances of the plane crashing are exceptionally low, and that even if there was an incident involving my plane, the chances of me being killed or even injured during that incident are also exceptionally low. And yet, I still get freaked out whenever I’m about to board a plane. Interestingly, however, once I’m on the plane, my anxiety disappears, and I leave it wondering why I spent so much time worrying about it. Only for my anxiety to spike again the next time I board an airplane.
Also, one fear I haven’t even tried to combat yet, is my fear of camping. As much as I love and cherish the great outdoors, I have always been terrified of camping. I’m not sure where the fear stems from, especially since I haven’t been camping before since I was very little (and nothing bad happened when I did go camping as a little girl, as far as I know). I just know that my fear of camping is very strong, to the point that I’ve turned down many opportunities to spend quality time with friends and family in nature, due to my intense fear of sleeping in a flimsy tent, or even in a camper or a car.
How, then, can I stop committing these fallacies, especially the last one, which quite literally prevents me from living life to the fullest? By reflecting on the fallacies I commit, I’ve already begun the process of preventing myself from committing those fallacies in the future. However, doing so is much, much easier said than done, especially when it comes to overcoming my greatest, irrational fears.
Stopping myself from appealing to authority or using guilt by association while coming up with valid arguments will be very easy, compared to stopping myself from surrendering to my irrational fears, even though I know my mind’s blowing them way out of proportion. Like I mentioned, I’ve been in therapy for years (since I was four years old), and I’m still a very anxious person who’s irrationally afraid of a lot of things. However, I also recognize that I’m a lot less anxious and irrationally fearful today, than I was just a year ago. I mean… last summer, the mere thought of driving on the highway scared me just as bad as flying scares me today. But, since then, I’ve forced myself to drive on the highway almost every day, which has drastically reduced my fear of driving on the highway.
In other words, the best way to build a good sense of proportionality, is to face my irrational fears head-on every day, or as much as I possibly can. Much like how I overcame my fear of driving on the highway by forcing myself to drive on the highway every day until I lost my fear, I ought to treat camping and flying in the same way. Of course, I can’t camp or fly every single day. But I can aim to camp at least twice per year, and fly at least six times per year (so, three round-trips per year), until my irrational fears gradually dissipate into the background. At least, that’s what I’ve concluded after years and years of therapy focusing on my silly and irrational fears.
References:
Boardman, F., Cavender, N., & Kahane, H. (2018). Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric (thirteenth edition). Cengage Learning.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2025). Deceiving the Public. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/deceiving-the-public/
