Week 4 - Identifying Assumptions, Biases, and Common Fallacies

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Introduction

Biases and assumptions are different but interrelated aspects of a person’s viewpoint and thinking.  Bias literally means to demonstrate a particular partiality or prejudice for or against something.  An assumption is something that is taken for granted.  The two are connected in that a particular bias can bring someone to make certain assumptions.  For example, when Europeans arrived in the Americas, they thought of Native Americans as savages.  By thinking of the first Americans as savages, they assumed their inhumane treatment of them was justified.  At the same time, by assuming they represented a higher civilization, Europeans believed they were improving the lives of savages by imposing on them their way of life.  Most Native Americans thought otherwise.

We should distinguish between two kinds of bias: neutral and negative. In the neutral sense, we notice some things rather than others and think in one direction rather than another because we think within a point of view. This is unavoidable. In the negative sense, our bias might blind us to the weaknesses of an argument that agrees with our own viewpoint or to the strengths and insights of an argument that opposes our own viewpoint.

A fallacy is an error in reasoning, a flaw or defect in an argument. A fallacy is meant to deceive or mislead the reader. Being able to "name" a fallacy is not as important as understanding how the human mind uses unsound arguments and intellectual tricks to further its ends.