Examining the various types of fallacies in Gholam Hossein Sharegh Yazdi’s Kitab Homayoun

Gholam Hossein Sharegh Yazdi (1847-1928) is a recent Iranian poet who was also a teacher, a judge and a lawyer with a good knowledge of logic. His philosophical-sophistic Masnavi is renowned for highlighting weak and invalid reasoning and arguments. He follows an elaborative approach to different aspects of fallacy. Fallacy, or errors in thought, is a mixed comparison by means of similarities and illusions. The present study uses a descriptive-analytical method to examine the fallacies in Sharegh Yazidi’s Masnavi. The main question asked in this study is “what frameworks are presented by Sharegh Yazdi to avoid thought errors?” The results showed that the poet elaborates on the status of fallacies and answers illusive objections made by fake scholars through highlighting different types of thought errors and erroneous reasoning. It is notable that the pathology of fallacy and baseless claims, which are mostly rooted in emotions and criticizing misleading ambiguous topics, were the most mental damages mentioned by Sharegh. These features have also enriched the educational aspects of his work. This means that the poet was aware of fallacious reasoning and highlighted them intentionally in his poems. In addition, the poet’s adherence to religion has filled his poems with reasons rooted in religious beliefs.