ANSWERS: 12
  • "Have you quit beating your wife?"
  • Do these pants make me look fat?
  • "does this dress make me look fat?"
  • "Do you enjoy being a deadbeat, Mr. so and so?" "Why is Christianity full of weak minded fools?" "Is there anything worse than an overbearing zealot?"
  • "did black people really deserve to be freed from slavery?"
  • "Do you want a fully 'loaded' baked potato"? "Is that gun'loaded'"? LOL
  • Your question is a loaded question.
  • Do you have any Irish in you? ;)
  • "Do you agree that gun control is only an attempt to take away the rights of citizens to protect themselves?"
  • 1) "Many questions, also known as complex question, presupposition, loaded question, "trick question", or plurium interrogationum (Latin, "of many questions"), is an informal fallacy or logical fallacy. It is committed when someone asks a question that presupposes something that has not been proven or accepted by all the people involved. This fallacy is often used rhetorically, so that the question limits direct replies to those that serve the questioner's agenda. An example of this is the question "Are you still beating your wife?" Whether the respondent answers yes or no, he will admit to having a wife, and having beaten her at some time in the past. Thus, these facts are presupposed by the question, and in this case an entrapment, because it narrows the respondent to a single answer, and the fallacy of many questions has been committed. The fallacy relies upon context for its effect: the fact that a question presupposes something does not in itself make the question fallacious. Only when some of these presuppositions are not necessarily agreed to by the person who is asked the question does the argument containing them become fallacious. A related fallacy is begging the question, in which a premise is included that is likely to be at least as unacceptable to an opponent as the proposed conclusion." "Implied form One form of misleading discourse is where something is implied without being said explicitly, by phrasing it as a question. For example, the question "Does Mr. Jones have a brother in the army?" does not claim that he does, but implies that there must be at least some indication that he does, or the question would not need to be asked. The person asking the question is thus protected from accusations of making false claims, but still manages to make the implication in the form of a hidden compound question. The fallacy isn't in the question itself, but rather in the listener's assumption that the question would not have been asked without some evidence to support the supposition. This example seems harmless, but consider: "Does Mr. Jones have a brother in jail?" In order to have the desired effect, the question must imply something uncommon enough not to be asked without some evidence to the fact. For example, the question "Does Mr. Jones have a brother?" would not cause the listener to think there must be some evidence that he does, since this form of general question is frequently asked with no foreknowledge of the answer." "Types of complex questions Each of these questions has an assumption built into the question that is asked: Loaded questions: contain an incriminating assumption that the questioned person seems to admit to if she answers the question instead of challenging it. For example, "Are you still beating your wife?" Buttering-up: actually asks two questions, one that the questioned person will want to answer "yes" to, and another that the questioner hopes will be answered with the same "yes". For example, "Would you be a nice guy and loan me five bucks?" Legitimately complex questions (not a fallacy): A question that assumes something that the hearer would readily agree to. For example, "Who is the Queen of England?" assumes that there is a place called England and that it has a queen, both true. Illegitimately complex question: On the other hand, "Who is the Queen of America" would commit the complex question fallacy because while it assumes there is a place called America (true), it also assumes it has a queen (false). But since this answering the question does not seem to incriminate or otherwise embarass the speaker, it is complex but not really a loaded question." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question Further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_language 2) "Your father: Did you enjoy spoiling the dinner for everyone else? Your mother: Well, I hope you enjoyed making a fool of me in front of all my friends. Your boss: Can you begin to appreciate this wonderful opportunity I'm making available to you? Your significant other: Have you finally stopped flirting with Dana? Your critical thinking instructor: Aren't you ashamed about how little effort you've made in this class?" Source and further information: http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/itl/graphics/adhom/loaded.html Further examples: http://www.bothand.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=16
  • How are the dynamics in your family?
  • In an elevator---"So, have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

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