FIS - ACIS

English for Further Studies

Presented by: Fathmath Rizna & Aminath Fareesha

#$*&@..

You should

talk politely..

Then why

are you

shouting!

Example:

“A cloud is 90% water. A watermelon is 90% water. Therefore, since a plane can fly through a cloud, a plane can fly through a watermelon.”

What is a fallacy?

A fallacy is an error in logic – a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking.

Explanation:

The tu quoque fallacy is committed when it is assumed that because someone else has done a thing there is nothing wrong with doing it.

Tu quoque literally means “you too” and that is to object to a view or advice from a person because the person doesn’t adhere to the advice.

Consider this dialogue:

Father: “Don’t smoke; it is bad for you.”

Son: “But dad you smoke, so I should be able to.”

The son’s reply is irrelevant to the advice and is thus an instance of the tu quoque fallacy.

What is Tu Quoque?

(The concept of “someone else did it so I can”) Translation: "You, also" or "You're another", Latin

Examples and Observations: "It is clear that a tu quoque response to an accusation can

never disprove the accusation. Consider the following:

Moosa: You cheated on your Tax. Don't you realize that's

wrong?

Ahmed: Hey,You cheated on your Income tax last year. Or have you forgotten about that?

Ahmed may be correct in his counter-accusation, but that

does not show that Wilma's accusation is false."

Example 2:

America: We urge Maldives to halt death penalty. It might effect your population.

Maldives: You are already sentencing for death penalties. So who are you to advice about it. Huh?

EXERCISE

Tick the Tu Quoques from the following:

1. “Philosophers try to convince us that we should try to be as rational as possible. But I surely know that they aren’t rational all the time!”

2. “Almost everybody in Maldives approves of voting. So It must be okay.”

3. “Fatimah believes in ghosts. That’s fine. But for me, they don’t exist.”

4. “My sister has a lot of nerve criticizing me for to study further in Islamic studies to improve my education. When she had left school after grade seven!

5. Mom how can you tell me not to experiment with fire when you do the same thing at kitchen everyday?

6. The majority of Maldivians like Rihaakuru, therefore Rihaakuru is good.

7. Man: You forgot to deposit the cheque into the Islamic bank yesterday.

His friend: Even you had forgotten last week.

8. I think the government should be more strict in taking zakaai then taking tax.

References: Page 4: (W. Hughes and J. Lavery, Critical Thinking,

Broadview, 2004)

Page 6 : http://www4.uwsp.edu/philosophy/dwarren/CTStraightText/Ch8SIFExQuAcAnswers.pdf

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque‎