Logical Errors

Logical Fallacies

Faulty Premises

Misleading Terms

Personification

The fallacy of personification involves describing an inanimate object or abstract institution in terms that imply it has human characteristics or that it functions like a living thing. Such phrases as "the stock market today, flexing its muscles on heavy trading" tend to lead the hearer into conceiving of some living, breathing creature actually behaving in some measurable way, rather than to consider that a large number of people took certain kinds of actions. Although the use of personifying terms does not in itself constitute a fallacy, basing conclusions solely on personification may well amount to one. For example, one might say, "I just couldn't leave XYZ Company. The company's been good to me. It wouldn't be right to quit, even for more money." In this case, the speaker has based a conclusion on a misleading verbal map-the idea that some imaginary "person" called the company would somehow be hurt or disappointed if he or she quit. News reports sometimes personify government agencies terms like "the CIA denied any involvement in the matter," or "the White House said that plans are underway for the new project." Many people refer to America as "she" and talk about "her spirit," "her attitude," and "her mood." Personification does not always produce unsound propositions, but the risk is much greater than with concrete descriptive terms.

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Map of Logical Errors