Logical Fallacies In Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

In “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell attempts to prove to his audience that their idea behind how success is attained in the United States is considerably different than what many Americans would like to think. In America many people believe in the concept of a hard-working individual pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and earning their success through dedication and talent. Gladwell attempts to prove while individual efforts are a big role in success, theses outliers would have never been as successful as they are without luck and opportunity. Throughout “Outliers,” Gladwell points out certain key opportunities that arose in the lives of many successful people and argues that these rare and exceptional opportunities are the reasons behind people’s success. While analyzing multiple stories of success, to persuade his readers into agreeing with his opinion on success, Gladwell incorporates the use of multiple logical fallacies that throw his entire perspective on success into question. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” is a book about how having enough foresight to take advantage of opportunities, not simply hard work and talent, can lead to real success. This idea that success relies on opportunity resonates well with educated people of the middle-class. The audience for this book is less …show more content…
Despite the acceptable underlying basis of the book, Gladwell unknowingly incorporates a constant use of logical fallacies that causes his readers to question everything he says. These fallacies create a lack of persuasion that make the book hard to continue reading. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell attempts to teach his audience that there are more important factors behind success than just innate talent and dedication, but his use of logical fallacies weakens his argument to a point where his audience may lose faith in Gladwell’s ability to rationalize