al-Mughalatat al-Mantiqiyya
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- Hindawi Foundation
al-Mughalatat al-Mantiqiyya: Tabiatuna al-Thaniyya wa-Khubzuna al-Yawmi (Fusūl fi al-Mantiq Ghayr al-Suri) (Logical Fallacies: Our Second Nature and Daily Bread – Chapters in Informal Logic) is a book on informal logic and argumentative fallacies by Adil Mustafa, published in Cairo in 2007 by the Supreme Council of Culture .
Background and Purpose
Mustafa states in his preface that he was prompted to write the work after observing pervasive basic errors in public debates across satellite television channels and other media, which routinely rendered discussions futile and abortive from their inception . To counter this, he sought to reintroduce readers to the rules of sound argumentation and fruitful dialogue through informal or practical logic, focusing on its negative dimension—the identification, dissection, and avoidance of logical fallacies, as well as clarifying the specific contexts in which certain argument types are legitimate rather than fallacious .
Scope and Contents
The work examines informal logic as the application of logical reasoning to analyze and evaluate arguments occurring in everyday discourse . In the introductory section, Mustafa discusses the historical origins of fallacy theory, tracing its classical foundations to Plato in the dialogue Euthydemus and Aristotle in Sophistical Refutations, as well as later philosophical contributions by John Locke, Richard Whately, Arthur Schopenhauer, John Stuart Mill, and Jeremy Bentham . The book also outlines modern debates in the field, including objections from scholars influenced by communication theory who argue that focusing solely on fallacies is insufficient without studying the underlying rules of valid dialectic .
The main body of the work is divided into thirty chapters, each dedicated to a specific logical fallacy:
- Chapter 1: Begging the question (al-musadara 'ala al-matlub)
- Chapter 30: Form over substance (al-mazhar fawq al-jawhar)
The text also contains supplementary discussions and question-and-answer segments addressing practical nuances, including how various informal fallacies frequently overlap or interchange, and how pedagogical curricula and media outlets ought to integrate fallacy awareness into general education .
Abridgment
The work was abridged by Dr. Murdi al-Anazi, Associate Professor of Comparative Jurisprudence at Northern Border University, under the title Mukhtasar al-Mughalatat al-Mantiqiyya . Al-Anazi prepared the condensation by removing extended elaborations and select examples while maintaining the author's primary text, and published it after receiving written permission via email from Adil Mustafa . The abridgment was published by Dar al-Hadara in Riyadh, reaching its second edition in 1443 AH / 2022 CE .
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