Beyond Feelings

CHAPTER 11 Errors of Expression
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the headline as follows: “The sale was such a flop that we’re left with a
warehouse full of inferior merchandise and we’re desperate to have people
buy it.”)
To detect meaningless statements in your writing, look at what you
have said as critically as you look at what other people say. Ask, Am I
really making sense?
Mistaken Authority
The fallacy of mistaken authority ascribes authority to someone who does
not possess it. It has become more common since the cult of celebrity has
grown in the media. A television interviewer once asked actress Cybill
Shepherd, “Did your role in that television drama give you any insights
into adoption fraud?” It would have been reasonable to ask how the role
expanded her knowledge. But to ask her for "insights" assumes a level of
expertise that simply playing a role does not provide; it is much like asking
someone who played a plastic surgeon for insights into surgery. A subtler
form of this error occurs when experts in one field present themselves
as authorities in another; for example, when scientists speak as ethicists or
theologians. This happens more than you might imagine.
To avoid the error of mistaken authority, check to be sure that all the
sources you cite as authorities possess expertise in the particular subject
you are writing about.
False Analogy
An analogy is an attempt to explain something relatively unfamiliar by
referring to something different but more familiar, saying in effect, “This is
like that.” Analogies can be helpful in promoting understanding, particularly
of complex ideas, but they have the potential to be misleading. An
analogy is acceptable as long as the similarities claimed are real. Here is
an example of an acceptable analogy. An author discussing the contemporary
problems of some black inner-city residents in America makes the
point that not all these problems are effects of slavery. An analogy with
cancer illuminates this point:
We can all understand, in principle, that even a great historic evil does
not automatically explain all other subsequent evils. . . . Cancer can
indeed be fatal, but it does not explain all fatalities, or even most
fatalities. 1
A false analogy, in contrast, claims similarities that do not withstand
scrutiny. A humorous example of a false analogy was given by a
University of Pisa professor in 1633: “Animals, which move, have limbs
and muscles; the earth has no limbs and muscles, hence it does not