Name/Class/Period/Date (5 points)

Logical Fallacy (10 points):

Madeleine Hayes
Mrs. Henderson AP English p.7
16 April 2015

False Dichotomy

Total Points
_100

Textbook Defnition (10 points):

In false dichotomy, the arguer sets up the situation so it looks like there are only two choices.
The arguer then eliminates one of the choices, so it seems that we are left with only one
option: the one the arguer wanted us to pick in the frst place. But often there are really many
different options, not just twoand if we thought about them all, we might not be so quick to
pick the one the arguer recommends!

Defnition in Your Own Words (15 points) Explain Thoroughly:

In false dichotomy, the arguer makes it seem like there are only two possible choices, but
upon closer scrutiny, there are actually more than just the two options represented.

Your Real World Example (Commercial, Print Ad, etc. Describe it) (10 points):
A scene from The Princess Bride where Vizzini, a know-it-all criminal mastermind, is holding
Princess Buttercup captive on the top of a mountain, waiting for Dread Pirate Roberts to show
up. When he does, Dread Pirate Roberts challenges Vizzini to a battle of wits; he sets two
goblets on a table and tells Vizzini to choose which goblet he thinks is not poisoned.
Explain and Provide a Detailed Description of How Your Example Uses the Logical Fallacy (20
points):
Vizzini, when asked which goblet has the poison, says: But it's so simple. All I have to do is
divine from what I know of you: are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own
goblet or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own goblet, because
he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool,
so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a
great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
Vizzini says that the only two possibilities are that either his goblet or Dread Pirate Roberts
goblet is poisoned, when in fact both of the goblets had been poisoned, so no matter which
Identify the Rhetorical Appeals and Explain How They are Used or Not Used in the Ad (30
points):
Logos:
While Vizzini does use logos to try and determine which goblet has the poison, his logic is
flawed and he does not consider the fact that Dread Pirate Roberts could have poisoned both
goblets.
Pathos:
Vizzini does not use pathos in his argument, as he tends to think very logically until he
overthinks the situation. The two options that he does come up with have nothing to do
whatsoever with emotions, and he does not try to get any pity from Dread Pirate Roberts.
Ethos:
On one hand, Vizzini has some ethos since he is a criminal mastermind and is very smart and
clever, but on the other hand, he cannot be all that trustworthy because of the fact that he is a
criminal hired to murder Princess Buttercup.

Name/Class/Period/Date (5 points)

Logical Fallacy (10 points):

Madeleine Hayes
Mrs. Henderson AP English p.7
16 April 2015

Red Herring

Total Points
_100

Textbook Defnition (10 points):

Partway through an argument, the arguer goes off on a tangent, raising a side issue that
distracts the audience from whats really at stake. Often, the arguer never returns to the
original issue.

Defnition in Your Own Words (15 points) Explain Thoroughly:

In a red herring fallacy, the arguer goes entirely off topic in the middle of an argument to
distract people from the main focus and tries to distract the audience with an irrelevant topic,
with the arguer more often than not never returning to the issue at hand.

Your Real World Example (Commercial, Print Ad, etc. Describe it) (10 points):
The opening scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when King Arthur comes to ask the
guards if he may enter the castle to speak with the king about any knights that will join his
royal court in Camelot.
Explain and Provide a Detailed Description of How Your Example Uses the Logical Fallacy (20
points):
After King Arthur asks, the two guards ignore his question and immediately begin to pester
Arthur about the fact that he did not travel by horse, but by his servant and coconuts. The
guards then begin to ponder where the coconuts even came from, since coconuts are tropical
and a swallow could not carry a fve pound coconut. The guards continue to argue and banter
with Arthur, and never come back to the original topic, even after Arthur asks a second time
about their lord.

Identify the Rhetorical Appeals and Explain How They are Used or Not Used in the Ad (30
points):
Logos:
The guards only use a tiny bit of logos in their argument despite being rather absurd and
extremely off topic; they bring up a valid point: how on Earth did the coconuts even end up in
Europe?
Pathos:
The guards do not use pathos when arguing with King Arthur, since they only continually
question him about what type of swallow could carry a coconut to Europe; if any sort of
emotion had been used, it would have just been to make Arthur angry.
Ethos:
The two guards lack any sort of credibility since they are simply two guards back in medieval
times and this is a Monty Python movie. Many Monty Python movie scenarios often are just
full of nonsense.