Evaluate Arguments

Evaluate Arguments
Institution Affiliation
Date

Evaluate Arguments
Fallacies are small errors in reasoning. They may be in the form of irrelevant points, and in other cases, they may be in the form of wrong arguments (Monteith 2014). Fallacies are usually identified when a claim or an argument lacks evidence to support it. As a result, inconsistencies may undermine the logic of an argument. The following document will identify and explain the logical fallacies encountered in the assigned document. It will also tell the ways through which the fallacies may be avoided.

The first paragraph of the memo introduces us to the manager of the company which goes by the name Valis logistics. We are also introduced to Director Brythe, who is the head of Information Operations in the company, and to whom the memo has been addressed. Brythe is being questioned on the observed trend in employees showing up late to work (Monteith 2014). The manager, in his memo, says that he has done some digging and has discovered that all the two hundred employees under Brythe routinely show up late to work. However, the manager’s argument is not logical. As he explains the source of his information, he mentions that his division has access to time sheets for a few of Blythe’s staff. Hence, the statements are contradictive (Monteith 2014). He had initially stated that all the employees routinely showed up late to work, but he later indicates that several of them are habitually late, and as a result, the blame falls on both the latecomers and the employees who report early to work.

The manager did not handle the whole process correctly. He should have written the memo, reprimanding the latecomers, instead of falling the blame on all the employees at large.
In the second paragraph, the manager claims that the problem of tardiness should be blamed on Bernard Williams, who seems to set an example of habitual lateness on the rest of the staff. He argues that if William is habitually late, then the rest of the employees are usually late. Besides, he concludes that since the other employees are habitually late, then Williams must be habitually late (Monteith 2014). The statements made by the manager are not logical. If Williams was the habitual latecomer, the memo should have been addressed to him instead of Brythe. Moreover, Williams was just a mere employee of the company, and if there is anyone who should lead by example is Director Brythe, as he was the head of the department (Monteith 2014). Concluding that if Williams is habitually late, then the rest of the employees are habitually late is not logical, as the claim lacks evidence to support it, and the whole argument is based on assumption.

Finally, the manager feels that he should offer his professional advice. His advice is that Brythe should lead by example if he wants to get the employees to report early to work (Monteith 2014). However, he fails to understand that the Director has been leading by example and that this advice should have been directed to Williams, who was a routine latecomer. He continues to say that most of the employees who have worked in the company for more than one year work in his division, and he knows this because most of the people in his division has worked at the company for more than a year (Monteith 2014). His arguments and advice are not logical. It is more of common knowledge to understand that the people who are working in the manager’s division have been working for the company for more than one year.

Reference
Monteith, K. (2014). Introduction A “Philosophy… Logical and Boundless”: The Esoteric Life
and Thought of WB Yeats. In Yeats and Theosophy (pp. 9-28). Routledge.