Critical Thinking Erroneous Thinking Term Paper

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Business Case Studies

Critical Thinking -- Erroneous Thinking

Logical Fallacies in Business Reporting

Although the reporting of facts and figures is often thought of as an objective science, quite frequently even business reporting is characterized by logical fallacies, including but not limited to appeals to ignorance, hasty generalizations, and ad hominem attacks. In fact, one could argue that these logical fallacies, however, are particularly common and pernicious in business reporting because of the frequently technically complex nature of the subject matter in regards to facts and figures, combined with the emotional texture of business reporting that involves the fabric and texture of individuals lives. Reporters wish to attract attention and render complexities comprehensible, but frequently fall into logically fallacious traps to accomplish these objectives.

Fallacy

Hasty Generalization hasty generalization is often characterized by an all or nothing style of reporting. The fallacy of the hasty generalization is a failure of analogical or inductive reasoning, where one specific example is assumed to stand for all examples of similar or disparate cases, however tangential or irrelevant the similarities. For instance, during the recent Martha Stewart scandal, Stewart's woes were initially assumed to bode ill for all company products bearing her name. But now: "Instead of haughtily brushing off charges and refusing to answer questions, as she did on The Early Show while wielding a knife to chop up a now-infamous salad, Stewart has since pursued a humbler public image.

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While she still maintains that she did nothing wrong, the domestic doyenne is more open and more thankful for public support." ("What's Cooking at the Martha Trial," Business Week Online, January 9, 2004, retrieved on January 19, 2004 at (http://www.aol.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jan2004/nf2004019_2816_db016.ht)

Stewart's change of public image is assumed to bode well for all companies headed by a single, magnetic CEO.

This is important because, when considering investing in companies with a highly prominent 'brand name' individuals at the helm, an investor should not assume that merely because Stewart's fortunes are suddenly being reversed in the public eye, that she is out of the clear in the long-term, nor that her rehabilitated image will rebuild, in the long-term, the safety of investing in all companies where one person 'brands' the name of the company with his or her image. Furthermore, as the trial goes on, "she'll [Stewart] have to contend with a cross-examination that could be brutal, aimed at exposing inconsistencies in her story." ("What's Cooking at the Martha Trial," Business Week Online, January 9, 2004, retrieved on January 19, 2004 at (http://www.aol.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jan2004/nf2004019_2816_db016.ht)

The fallacy hasty generalization is often used in business reporting, because quite often decisions to buy and….....

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