Slippery+Slope

First Name: Sara Period: 3 School: Thomas S. Wootton

Definition #1: An informal fallacy. A slippery slope argument states that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect, much like an object given a small push over the edge of a slope sliding all the way to the bottom. The strength of such an argument depends on the warrant, i.e. whether or not one can demonstrate a process which leads to the significant effect. The fallacious sense of "slippery slope" is often used synonymously with continuum fallacy, in that it ignores the possibility of middle ground and assumes a discrete transition from category A to category B. Modern usage avoids the fallacy by acknowledging the possibility of this middle ground.

Source: WIKIPEDIA

Definition #2: A "**slippery slope**" argument is a common rhetorical device which suggests that a seemingly innocent small action will lead inevitably to a disasterous result. An argument of this form is **invalid** as there is no necessary logical connection between its premise and its conclusion. Indeed, it barely has any formal structure beyond if p, then q. Whilst it is therefore a logical fallacy, its emotive appeal remains a depressingly effective way of convincing those who don't know their //modus ponens// from their elbow. If the conclusion does follow from the premise, then the argument is not a fallacious slippery-slope argument, but instead a //reductio ad absurdum,// which is a valid argument.

Source: Conservapedia

Definition in your own "student friendly" words: You take a small example and compare it to something much larger, stating that a snowball effect will lead to an inevitable collapse or other effect.

Link to example #1 (text, advertisement, video, speech, etc): []

2-3 sentence explanation of why it is a good example: The band Evanescence is headed by Amy Lee, who writes about a breakup that took away everything. "How can you see into my eyes like open doors? Leading you down into my core where I’ve become so numb Without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold until you find it there and lead it back home" Such a momentary pain, one breakup of many relationships she will have, seems to have destroyed her. Link to example #2 (text, advertisement, video, speech, etc): []

2-3 sentence explanation of why it is a good example: The film "Pleasantville" contains a nice example of the slippery slope fallacy. The elders of the town believe that having colors appear will by degrees lead to a total breakdown of society. And by the end of the movie, when everything is in color, some things have changed, but it's far from a breakdown of society. This woman, for example, would be ignored and/or persecuted by her town for being colorful. First Name: Alice Period: 4 School: Thomas Wootton H.S

Definition #1: This type is based upon the claim that a controversial type of action will lead inevitably to some admittedly bad type of action. It is the slide from **A** to **Z** via the intermediate steps **B** through **Y** that is the "slope", and the smallness of each step that makes it "slippery".

Source: []

Definition #2: The "slippery slope" argument format (also known as the "camel's nose in the tent," the "give an inch," the "crack in the foundation", and other names) is essentially that if you make any exceptions to a rule, or if you make rules that depend on fine distinctions, pretty soon people will be ignoring the rule or rules entirely because they won't accept the difference between the exception and everything else. "If you allow exceptions to a rule, it creates a slope away from the absoluteness of the rule, down which people will slide further and further until they will not obey the rule at all." "If you give people an inch, they will take a mile" or "If you let the camel put its nose into the tent, pretty soon the whole camel will be in your tent." As I write this the most recent application I have seen of the argument is that "if we allow embryonic stem cell research, which sacrifices early-stage embryos, the next thing will be that infanticide and euthanasia of the terminably ill will be permitted so that we can use their body parts for research or cures. If you don't hold all life to be sacred, then no life will be held to be sacred."

Source: []

Definition in your own "student friendly" words: The slippery slope argument presents a hypothetical situation and follows it with several examples of what would happen if this situation would occur. Normally, the results will add up to a "bad" type of action. Because of the gradual build up of effects, this is the "slope" part of the argument. What makes the slope "slippery" is the slight change between each action.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/slippery-slope.html : This is a good example because it shows examples of fallacious slippery slope arguments. The number of steps of each example are too few, and make it obvious that there is no real reason why one of these steps must follow the other. The situation then goes from seemingly reasonable to disastrous within a single step.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope#Slippery_slope_arguments

The page shows various types of valid and fallacious slippery slope arguments. It also notes that even though an argument may be valid, the conjunction fallacy brings to light that even though one of these steps happening is very likely, all of these steps happening following the other is very unlikely.

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Definition #1: Source:

Definition #2: Source:

Definition in your own "student friendly" words:

Link to example #1 (text, advertisement, video, speech, etc): 2-3 sentence explanation of why it is a good example:

Link to example #2 (text, advertisement, video, speech, etc): 2-3 sentence explanation of why it is a good example: