Transcript The Crucible Paige Davis

Appeal to Ignorance
Paige Davis
Definition
The fallacy that a proposition is true simply on the basis that
it has not been proved false or that it is false simply because
it has not been proved true.
The man in the picture assumes since aliens have not been discovered
that they exist. He jumps to conclusions without proof which makes
this Appeal to Ignorance.
Examples from The Crucible
Act 1, page 172:
Mrs. Putnam: How high did she fly, how high?
Parris: No, no, she never flewMrs. Putnam: Why, it’s sure she did. Mr. Collins saw her
goin’ over Ingersoll’s barn, and come down light as a bird,
he says!

Mrs. Putnam assumes that Betty did fly simply because
someone told her it happened that it is true. Unless
someone brings her evidence that it didn’t happen she will
continue to believe it.
Continued
Act 3, page 207
Martha Corey’s voice: “I am not innocent to a witch I know not
what a witch is.”
Hathorne: “How do you know, then, that you are not a witch.”

Hathorne’s logic is that because Martha does not know what a
witch is that she cannot say whether or not she is.
Universal Example

Many people assume that since there is no evidence against the
possibility of a god that one exists.

"Pics For Appeal To Ignorance Fallacy." Pics For
Appeal To Ignorance Fallacy. N.p., n.d. Web. 15
Mar. 2015.