Question

Identify the fallacy of relevance committed by the following argument, giving a brief explanation for your answer. If no fallacy is committed, write "no fallacy."
Mr. Rhodes is suffering from amnesia and has no recollection whatever of the events of the past two weeks. We can only conclude that he did not commit the crime of murdering his wife a week ago, as he has been accused of doing.
True or False?

Answer 1

Answer: Missing the point

Explanation:

A fallacy is an argument that has one or more faulty premises. Missing the point is a type of fallacy where the premises are unrelated to the conclusion.

In this question, a random connection is made between the premise and the conclusion when a different and correct conclusion can be drawn from the presented premise.

For instance, Mr. Rhodes is suffering from amnesia and has no recollection whatever of the events of the past two weeks. We can only conclude that he does not remember whether he killed his wife or not.

However we cannot conclude that he did not kill his wife on the basis of his amnesia.