Ebook: Fallacies Arising from Ambiguity

We are happy to present to the reader the first book of our Applied Logic Series. Walton's book on the fallacies of ambiguity is firmly at the heart of practical reasoning, an important part of applied logic. There is an increasing interest in artifIcial intelligence, philosophy, psychol­ ogy, software engineering and linguistics, in the analysis and possible mechanisation of human practical reasoning. Continuing the ancient quest that began with Aristotle, computer scientists, logicians, philosophers and linguists are vigorously seeking to deepen our understanding of human reasoning and argumentation. Significant communities of researchers are actively engaged in developing new approaches to logic and argumentation, which are better suited to the urgent needs of today's applications. The author of this book has, over many years, made significant contributions to the detailed analysis of practical reasoning case studies, thus providing solid foundations for new and more applicable formal logical systems. We welcome Doug Walton's new book to our series.

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This book is a contribution to the growing literature on fallacies - verbal deceptions and logical errors of different kinds that commonly occur in argumentation. The particular subject of this book is ambiguity in language, and the fallacies that can arise from it. These include the traditional fallacies of equivocation, amphiboly, accent and figure of speech. Also included are some related fallacies that pose problems because, although they are often classified as fallacies of ambiguity, their claim to this categorization is dubious or problematic. These include fallacies like composition and division, quibbling (or confusing a verbal and a real dispute), obfuscation, gobbledygook, wrenching from context, special pleading, and figurative language (although the names for these fallacies are not consistent in the textbook treatments of them).