A Critical Study of Informal Fallacies in Some Socio-Political Discourse in Ghana

A CRITICAL STUDY OF INFORMAL FALLACIES IN SOME SOCIO-POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN GHANA BY RICHARD ANSAH submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PhD) in the subject PHILOSOPHY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: Dr Ezekiel SN Mkhwanazi CO-SUPERVISOR: Prof MLJ Koenane 2019 1 DECLARATION Name: RICHARD ANSAH Student number: 58556893 Degree: DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PHILOSOPHY) Exact wording of the title of the thesis as appearing on the electronic copy submitted for examination: A CRITICAL STUDY OF INFORMAL FALLACIES IN SOME SOCIO-POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN GHANA I declare that the above thesis is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. I further declare that I submitted the thesis to originality checking software and that it falls within the accepted requirements for originality. I further declare that I have not previously submitted this work, or part of it, for examination at Unisa for another qualification or at any other higher education institution. (The thesis will not be examined unless this statement has been submitted.) ________________________ February 10, 2020 SIGNATURE DATE 2 DEDICATION To my late mother, Agnes Obo and my late mother-in-law, Elizabeth Agyapong 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My profound gratitude goes to the Almighty God for strength to complete this work. Again, I wish to express my warmest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisors, Dr. Ezekiel SN Mkhwanazi and Professor Koenane Mojalefa for their patience, very important suggestions and inputs which aided in the successful completion of this work. I also thank Dr. Ezekiel Mkhwanazi especially for the amount of time he spent to go through my work and suggest corrections where necessary. My special thanks go to my dear wife, Mrs. Juliet Oppong-Asare Ansah, for always standing by me and offering me support through her love and very kind words of encouragement. I thank my employer and sponsor, the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, for sponsoring me for this degree – I am very grateful to Professor Peter K. T. Grant (my former head of department), my Dean (Faculty of Arts) my Provost (College of Humanities and Legal Studies), the Division of Human Resource Development and the Vice Chancellor of the University. Finally, I am grateful to all my family members and friends who contributed in diverse ways to help me bring this work to fruition. To all scholars whose works I used (cited) in this work and duly referenced, I appreciate you. 4 SUMMARY OF THE THESIS The research undertakes a critical study of informal fallacies in some socio-political and religious discourses in Ghana. It clearly and aptly demonstrates that the aforementioned discourses are mostly, if not, always laced with fallacies which obscure and distort clear and critical thinking. The study shows that language, which is the fundamental means by which to engage in socio-political discourse, can be viewed as a complicated tool which is open to misuse and abuse. It shows that language used in socio-political discourses is more often than not utilized poorly, and as such assertions and appeals can be confused with factual/logical inaccuracies. Statements can be formulated in ways that make their content dangerously vague, ambiguous or generally misleading. The research shows that although fallacies can be committed intentionally or unintentionally, in discourses in general, they are mostly, if not always, committed intentionally in socio-political discourse so as to achieve political gains and agenda. Another area of discourse that is tackled in this work where fallacies frequently occur is the religious sector. The study notes that matters of religion are mostly matters that are delicate to handle as these matters are mostly, again if not always, based on faith. It is shown herein that many a time, religious personalities use fallacious as means to drive their religious agenda across. The research then looks at what these aforementioned fallacies imply in relation to socio-political and religious discourses. It proceeds to discuss the positive implications of fallacies before it progresses to the negative implications of same. It then asks how a fallacy will be beneficial to a person and or how it will disadvantage the same person. If fallacies often occur in socio-political and religious discourses, then one must have the ability to detect these fallacies and try to avoid them. The work discusses how to detect fallacies and how to avoid them. It makes bold claims that if one has knowledge about fallacies then one will be able to avoid them. 5 KEY TERMS IN THE THESIS Logic, Arguments, Fallacy, Formal and Informal fallacies, Socio-political discourse, Political argumentation, Political persuasion, Religion, Fideism, Prophet, Prophetic ministry 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page 1 Declaration 2 Dedication 3 Acknowledgements 4 Summary of the Thesis 5 Key terms in the Thesis 6 Table of Contents 7 General Introduction 12 Chapter One 20 Pre-text of Informal fallacies: Ghana’s current socio-political environment 20 1.1 Introduction 20 1.2 Ghana – Meeting place for Africans 21 1.3 The social environment of Ghana today 22 1.3.1 Social stratification of Ghana 22 1.3.2 Social situations in Ghana today 23 1.4 Education and Critical thinking in Ghana today 36 1.5 The political environment of Ghana today 37 7 1.6 Conclusion 51 Chapter Two 53 Context of Informal fallacies 53 2.1 Introduction 53 2.2 Definition of key terms or concepts 54 2.3 Common groupings of informal fallacies 64 2.3.1 Fallacies of relevance 64 2.3.2 Fallacies of weak induction 73 2.3.3 Fallacies of weak analogy 80 2.3.4 Fallacies of presumption 81 2.3.5 Fallacies of ambiguity 88 2.4 Conclusion 90 Chapter Three 91 Some common informal fallacies in political discourses in Ghana 91 3.1 Introduction 91 3.2 Political discourses, political arguments and political persuasions 92 3.3 Political discourse and logical reasoning 96 8 3.3.1 The appeal to pity 98 3.3.2 The red herring 101 3.3.3 Argument against the person fallacy 105 3.3.4 The appeal to force or stick fallacy 111 3.3.5 The appeal to ignorance fallacy 114 3.3.6 The appeal to irrelevant authority 115 3.3.7 The false cause fallacy 117 3.3.8 The slippery slope fallacy 120 3.3.9 The fallacy of hasty generalization 121 3.3.10 The fallacy of weak analogy 123 3.3.11 The wishful thinking fallacy 125 3.3.12 Appeal to the masses 126 3.3.13 The fallacy of missing the point 128 3.3.14 The false dilemma fallacy 129 3.3.15 Fallacy of ambiguity: equivocation 130 3.3.16 Fallacy of accident 131 3.3.17 Complex or loaded question 132 3.3.18 The straw man fallacy 133 9 3.4 Conclusion 134 Chapter Four 136 Some common informal fallacies in religious discourses in Ghana 136 4.1 Introduction 136 4.2 Religion, argumentation and reasoning 137 4.3 Some instances of social (religious) discourses based on faith 147 4.4 Examples of informal fallacies in religious discourses in Ghana 149 4.4.1 Appeal to pity 149 4.4.2 Argument against the person 151 4.4.3 Weak analogy 153 4.4.4 Appeal to the masses 156 4.4.5 False cause fallacy 158 4.4.6 Missing the point 161 4.4.7 Begging the question 162 4.4.8 Appeal to force 164 4.4.9 Appeal to ignorance fallacy 166 4.4.10 Accent 167 4.4.11 Straw man 168 10 4.5 Conclusion 169 Chapter Five 171 Possible implications of informal fallacies in socio-political discourse 171 5.1 Introduction 171 5.2 Positive implications of informal fallacies in socio-political discourses 171 5.3 Negative implications of informal fallacies in socio-political discourses 175 5.4 Detecting and avoiding fallacies in socio-political discourses 182 5.4.1 Detecting or identifying fallacies 183 5.4.2 Strategies to avoid committing fallacies 191 5.5 Conclusion 205 Chapter Six 207 General conclusion and recommendations 207 6.1 General conclusion 207 6.2 Recommendations 217 Bibliography 221 11 General Introduction … arguments, like men, are often pretenders – Plato. It would be a very good thing if every trick could receive some short and obviously appropriate name, so that when anyone use this or that particular trick, they could at once be reproved for it – Arthur Schopenhauer. Background of the study From Aristotle’s time till today, the creative aspects of logic (what may be termed informal logic, where informal fallacies feature prominently) and their connections with or to natural language have been greatly overpowered and supplanted by formal characterization of the subject. Informal Fallacies are pitfalls into which any of us may stumble and misstep in our reasoning. In our day-to-day interactions with others as humans, we mostly commit fallacies - knowingly or unknowingly - in our quest to argue and reason logically. It shall be seen in this research that fallacies have become inseparable with our everyday socio-political discourse. Since fallacies may be tools used for propaganda, Ghanaian politicians and social commentators deliberately or ignorantly deploy some of them to aid their arguments. It must be noted that some of these politicians and social commentators are well educated and aware of such fallacies. Even so, they overlook the implications of using such fallacies in their arguments. I will argue that the reason for this is that politicians and social commentators either take the majority of Ghanaians as people who are unaware and hence ignorant of such fallacies, or they consider such fallacies as acceptable discourses in Ghanaian socio-political life.

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