Helping Children Learn How to Recognize Difference Between Opinion and Fact

Logic is the study of reasoning and examines the structure and content of arguments. Logic helps describe various types of arguments and evaluates why good arguments work and bad ones fail. Some people use dogmatism to state their position. Dogmatism is of course when a person claims their opinion to be true. There is a difference between opinion and fact. An opinion is a belief based on what someone thinks to be true or likely. A fact is something that has actually happened or that is really true and reality.

A fallacy is a mistake in reasoning. There are around 23 fallacies a person can use when making an argument. The begging the question fallacy is when a person commits a mistake in reasoning by assuming what one seeks to prove. For example, everyone wants the latest iphone when it comes out because it is the hottest phone of the season. This is a fallacy and an example of begging the question because there are some people who don't like or use iphones. Another type of fallacy is the argument of scare tactics. This fallacy is used to play on a person's fears in order to get the person to do something or believe something to be true. For example, if a dad tells a guy to leave his daughter alone and to let her believe he doesn't care about her or he as the dad will do something to either the guy or his daughter-whatever the threat may be to get the guy to leave his daughter alone- the dad has played on the fears of the guy in order to get him to leave his daughter alone and the guy has believed the dad will do whatever the dad has threatened to do.

There are other forms of fallacies such as scapegoating, the red herring and many more. Regardless of what fallacy a person uses the fallacy uses informal logic which is why these are never true. However, because children's brains are still developing, they can be influenced to believe the generalizations that fallacies use when people use them to prove their claim. When fallacies are used, the claims are usually false and cannot be proven. Children need guidance from adults to consider whether a claim is true or whether they can actually do legally what they claim they will do.