Question

determine the error in each example of deductive reasoning. a) it is snowing today and it only snows in december therefore it is december. b) a bmw is driven by rich people. a bmw is the type of car i drive. therefore, i am a rich person. c) sean is a high school student. all high school students dislike cooking. therefore, sean dislikes cooking. d) all squares have four right angles. quadrilateral abcd has four right angles. therefore, abcd is a square.

Explanation:

• a) Just because it is snowing and it only snows in December doesn't mean it is December. There could be snow on other months in some regions. This is a non - sequitur fallacy.
• b) Just because BMWs are driven by rich people and one drives a BMW doesn't necessarily mean one is rich. One could lease it, borrow it etc. This is a hasty generalization fallacy.
• c) Just because all high - school students dislike cooking and Sean is a high - school student, we can't be sure Sean dislikes cooking. There could be individual exceptions. This is a hasty generalization fallacy.
• d) While it's true that squares have four right angles, just because a quadrilateral ABCD has four right angles doesn't necessarily mean it's a square. It could be a rectangle. This is a non - sequitur fallacy.

Answer:

a) Non - sequitur fallacy.
b) Hasty generalization fallacy.
c) Hasty generalization fallacy.
d) Non - sequitur fallacy.