Identify the formal fallacy committed in the following argument "No tragic actors are idiots, Some comedians are not idiots. Therefore some comedians are not tragic actors."

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UGC NET Official Paper 1: Held On 17 June 2023 Shift 2
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  1. Exclusive premise
  2. Existential fallacy
  3. Denying the antecedent
  4. Affirming the consequent

Answer (Detailed Solution Below)

Option 1 : Exclusive premise
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UGC NET Paper 1: Held on 21st August 2024 Shift 1
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The formal fallacy committed in the given argument is Exclusive Premise.

Important Points

The correct formal fallacy committed in the given argument is the fallacy of exclusive premises.

The fallacy of exclusive premises occurs when both premises of a categorical syllogism (a type of argument with two premises and a conclusion) are negative. In the given argument:

No tragic actors are idiots. (Negative premise)
Some comedians are not idiots. (Negative premise)
In a valid categorical syllogism, at least one premise should be affirmative. Since both premises are negative in this argument, it commits the fallacy of exclusive premises. As a result, the conclusion "Therefore, some comedians are not tragic actors" cannot be logically inferred from the given premises.

Therefore, the correct answer is option 1) Exclusive Premise.

Additional Information

Existential fallacy: This fallacy occurs when one mistakenly assumes that the existence of individuals with a particular property implies a particular relationship between those individuals.

Denying the antecedent: This fallacy involves incorrectly denying the consequent of a conditional statement based on the denial of the antecedent.

Affirming the consequent: This fallacy occurs when one mistakenly assumes that if the consequent of a conditional statement is true, then the antecedent must also be true.

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