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AT LEAST THREE PHILOSOPHICAL CAMPS that reject “God-based morality” ([1] the non-theists, [2] those who say that there may be God but morality does not at all come from a Supernatural being, and [3] those who hold that “Godless morality” is better than “God-based morality” regardless of whether or not there is God) offer various explanations for some facts about morality. Let us check if their explanations that do away with the idea of God could really explain the ethical facts they wish to explicate.

WELL, TEACHERS TOO sometimes commit them. And these errors occur not just in students’ papers but also during recitations and in answering essay questions during exams.

Tim O’Keefe of University of Minnesota at Morris, in his article “Some Common Grammar and Usage Mistakes in Undergraduate Philosophy Papers” (© 2001 Tim O'Keefe), explains how the following terms are properly used:

 1. “They” and “their”

This sentence is grammatically incorrect: “Billy exclaims that someone has to be responsible for their actions, they have to be accountable to their own deeds.” O’Keefe explains that “’they’ and ‘their’ are plural pronouns, not singular ones.” Since “someone” is a singular pronoun, “their” and “they” are not supposed to be used in the sentence.  O’Keefe gives, as an example, the following sentence that contains a similar mistake: “A person who cares only about their own happiness will not achieve happiness.”

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INFORMAL FALLACIES > Miscellaneous Fallacies

The following types of invalid arguments do not fall under the fallacies of relevance, presumption, and ambiguity, but are nonetheless considered informal fallacies.

Self-contradiction

It involves submitting an argument which carries contradictory or inconsistent premise(s).

            The doctor cured the incurable disease.

Remember that an inconsistent premise can never produce a necessarily true conclusion.

False Analogy

In a false analogy, one erroneously presupposes that because two things are alike in one aspect, they must be alike in others.

In His will to gather the children of Jerusalem together, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, “… I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…” (Mt. 23:37)

Prea © 2010 by Jensen dG. Mañebogcher: Therefore, Jesus Christ, like a real hen, must have (physical) wings ...

INFORMAL FALLACIES > Fallacies of Ambiguity

Some forms of invalid arguments originate from the imprecise use of language. An ambiguous word, phrase, or sentence is that which has two or more distinct meanings. Hence, the fallacies of ambiguity all include a confusion of two or more different senses.

Equivocation

This takes place when an ambiguous word or phrase in one of its meanings is used in one of the statements and in another of its meanings in other proposition(s).

e.g. Man is a rational being. No woman is a man. Therefore, no woman is a rational being ...

INFORMAL FALLACIES > Fallacies of Presumption

FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION are ineffective in providing sufficing reason for their conclusion to be accepted as true. However, in cases such as these, the erroneous reasoning is the result of an inferred supposition of some further proposition, the truth of which is doubtful or still debatable.

Accident

The fallacy of accident states some principle that is generally true and errs when it applies this principle to an accidental or exceptional case. In other words, this fallacy is committed when one takes a general rule and applies it to its atypical or exceptional cases ...

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INFORMAL FALLACIES > Fallacies of Relevance

LOGICAL FALLACIES ARE ERRORS in reasoning that occur frequently enough, either alone or in combination, to deserve special attention. Fallacy is false reasoning, a bad method of argument, whether deductive or inductive ...

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... The collapse of standards of morality observed in contemporary societies (which is the concern of today’s sociologists and social philosophers) prompts many to feel that there is a real need to rebuild the edifice of morality. That however would require that a superstructure of morality must be constructed, and in so doing, the very foundations of morality must be examined meticulously ...