Can you outthink the college admissions fallacy? - Elizabeth Cox episode artwork

EPISODE · Jul 26, 2026 · 9 MIN

Can you outthink the college admissions fallacy? - Elizabeth Cox

from TED-Ed · host TED-Ed

Explore the circular reasoning fallacy, which occurs when the end of an argument comes back to the start without having proven itself.--It’s 1990. A prospective student has filed a complaint about Virginia Military institute’s admissions policy that excludes women. The state argues that VMI’s single sex education is an “important governmental objective” and that the exclusion of women from VMI is essential to that objective. Can you spot the problem with this argument? Elizabeth Cox explores the circular reasoning fallacy.Lesson by Elizabeth Cox, directed by TOGETHER.Support Our Non-Profit Mission----------------------------------------------Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreonCheck out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop----------------------------------------------Connect With Us----------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletterFollow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebookFind us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitterPeep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram----------------------------------------------Keep Learning----------------------------------------------View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/can-you-outsmart-the-college-admissions-fallacy-elizabeth-coxDig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/can-you-outsmart-the-college-admissions-fallacy-elizabeth-cox#digdeeperAnimator's website: https://wearetogether.ca----------------------------------------------Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann - they-them, Siamak H, Ryohky Araya, Mayank Kaul, Christophe Dessalles, Heather Slater, Sandra Tersluisen, Zhexi Shan, Bárbara Nazaré, Andrea Feliz, Victor E Karhel, Sydney Evans, Latora Slydell, Noel Situ, emily lam, Sid, Kent Logan, Thomas Mee, Maryann H McCrory, Mona Vakil, Victoria Dewey, Alex Lorang, Declan O'Donoghue, Blas Borde, John Hellmann, Poompak Meephian, Chuck Wofford, Daniel Erickson, frank goto, Jayson Hauschild, J D Wallace, Marq Short, Chen Jun Xiang, Adam Pagan, Behzad Farhanieh, Anders Sørheim and Wes Winn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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