Fallacies

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Example of Fallacies
Artifact 1: A video from YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLXfRyBMns
In the above YouTube video, a student who has not prepared for test attempts to convince another student to help him cheat. In his argument, the student agrees that he has not prepared for the test but points out that he has worn his lucky socks and he will perform well on the test. This is a ‘false cause’ fallacy because in the argument one event will cause another event to be successful.
Additionally, the student indicates that he will fail the test and consequently be sent to a summer school, causing a lot of problems to his mother (Fallacy Examples n.pag). In this, the student expresses ‘appeal to pity’ fallacy. The fallacy is where the student attempts to make the other student feel sorry for him so that he can cheat his test.
Artifact 2: Page 38 of Oscar Wilde’s book The Picture of Dorian Gray
“[Lord Henry] thought for a moment. “Can you remember any great error that you committed in your early days, Duchess?” he asked, looking at her across the table.
“A great many, I fear,” she cried.
“Then commit them over again,” he said gravely. To get back one’s youth, one has merely to repeat one’s follies” (Wilde 38).
A fallacy is also present in the novel The Picture of Dorian Grey as shown in the above content. On page 38 of the book, Lord Henry, Dorian (often referred to as Duchess), and other characters are having a conversation.

Duchess expresses her regret of getting old and asks Lord Henry if he could tell her how to be young again. After thinking for a while, Lord Henry asks Duchess if she has ever committed a great error in her earlier days, where she responds in the affirmative. Lord Henry says, “Then commit them again” (Wilde 38). Lord Henry argues that for one to be young again, he or she has to repeat past mistakes. This is a fallacy since Dorian had committed numerous errors in the prime of her youth. Rather than make her young again, repeating her past mistakes would only expose Dorian’s immoral and questionable character.
Works Cited
“Fallacy Examples.” YouTube, uploaded by Shalinirughani. N. p., 2018. Web. 12 Aug. 2018. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMLXfRyBMns>
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin, 2003.