Hannah House Investigation P-OT & Fallacies Post

 Ashley Medellin 

02.25.2024

COMM 274: Rhetoric 

Dr. Vrooman 

Hannah House Investigation: P-OT & Fallacies Argument Post 

Argument: With the evidence provided from the post, I will argue that, although the site says that the Hannah House is haunted, I say that it is not after examining the P-OT and Fallacies charts. 

Fallacies in the Ghost Post

Unrepresentative Sample	A conclusion is drawn from an insufficiently representative sample.	All of the “examples” of data they caught.
Hasty Generalization	A conclusion is drawn from too small a sample of evidence.	See above.
Begging the question	A circular argument. The conclusion is part of a premise.	Is the place actually haunted? The investigators being there is them trying to answer this question.
Wishful Thinking	Something is true because I want it to be.	At the end, it says Most everyone agreed that the evening was pretty even compared to some past investigations that some from the GRS had attended in the past.” They are still trying to convince themselves of this haunting.
Post Hoc	A thing that happens before another thing caused that.	Underground Railroad Fire is the cause of decaying flesh smell & “evps”.
False Equivalence	A particular word or expression in multiple senses throughout an argument leading to a false conclusion.	Urban Legend

 

 

P-OT Chart

Premises
Supposed Facts/Truth	Probable Data.	The voice audios attached at the bottom.
Premise Modifier
Repetition	Say it again. And again. And again.	The constant mentioning of the Underground Railroad & smell of rotting flesh.
Interpretation	Make the data relevant	Mention of one previous visit, to this one all in attempts to catch ghosts.
Quasi-Logical
Definition	Identifying or linking an expression with a concept.	Urban Legend = Haunted House
Division	Breaking something into parts.	The site has the account of each individual investigator.
Golden Age	Previous time better than now.	Almost all investigators who had been there before say they had more data than that time.
Based on the Structure of Reality
Succession	A cause-and-effect argument	Haunting caused by fire, so is the smell of decaying flesh.
Intention	Various acts reveal a unified essence.	All of the people there believe the house is haunted.
Symbolic Liaison	A thing is connected with an essence.	The house is "rustic".
Establishing the Structure of Reality
Example (Hierarchically arranged)	One event is an example.	House fire > haunting.

 

Resources: 

https://www.ghostresearch.org/Investigations/hannah.html

http://faculty.tlu.edu/svrooman/perelman.htm

http://faculty.tlu.edu/svrooman/fallacies1.htm