Chapter 1
Hello, Chapter 1 was assigned.
I think the topic of Logical Fallacies would be most interesting to discuss. There is a table that describes sets of logical fallacies in page 18 of the textbook.
As I read through each fallacy, I was surprised that most of these fallacies could have been easily encouraged by dictatorial governors.
The incessant nationalistic propagandas of the those regimes may trap their people in emotional reasoning fallacy. Those people, fooled by highly sensationalizing propagandas, may consider themselves individuals with sound patriotism; however, as they have fallen into emotional fallacy, they, unable to point out the wrong doing of their leader, would follow him with no reason. Doing something with no reason is something that is directly opposite of the scientific motivation.
Most of the dictatorial governments deify their leader to encourage appeal to authority fallacy. As leader becomes more influential, more people may be attracted. Also, those regimes often penalize people who do not follow. This severe ruling puts incentives for people to follow. As more and more people submit to their leader, bandwagon fallacy may arise. As many are joining and even supporting the dictator, the chance is that it is harder to go against.
Nice application of the fallacies.