I reserve the right to arm bears

MASTER LIST OF LOGICAL FALLACIES

The following is a list of all the fallacies that are discussed in this course. Some are

covered in the textbook and others will be introduced by the instructor

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1. Ad hominem or ATTACKING THE PERSON. Attacking the arguer rather than

his/her argument. Example: John's objections to capital punishment carry no weight

since he is a convicted felon. Note: Saying something negative about someone is not

automatically ad hominem. If a person (politician for example) is the issue, then it is

not a fallacy to criticize him/her.

2. Ad ignorantium or APPEAL TO IGNORANCE. Arguing on the basis of what is

not known and cannot be proven. (Sometimes called the “burden of proof” fallacy). If

you can't prove that something is true then it must be false (and vice versa). Example:

You can't prove there isn't a Loch Ness Monster, so there must be one.

3. Ad verecundiam or APPEAL TO AUTHORITY. This fallacy tries to convince the

listener by appealing to the reputation of a famous or respected person. Often times it

is an authority in one field who is speaking out of his or her field of expertise.

Example: Sports stars selling cars or hamburgers. Or, the actor on a TV commercial

that says, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV."

4. AFFIRMING THE CONSEQUENT. An invalid form of the conditional argument.

In this case, the second premise affirms the consequent of the first premise and the

conclusion affirms the antecedent. Example: If he wants to get that job, then he must

know Spanish. He knows Spanish, so the job is his.

5. AMPHIBOLY. A fallacy of syntactical ambiguity where the position of words in a

sentence or the juxtaposition of two sentences conveys a mistaken idea. Or

syntactical ambiguity deliberately misusing implications This fallacy is like

equivocation except that the ambiguity does not result from a shift in meaning of a

single word or phrase, but is created by word placement.. Example: Jim said he saw

Jenny walk her dog through the window. Ow! She should be reported for animal

labuse. Example: Nine out of ten dentists recommend chewing sugarless gum. (nine

out of ten implying 90 percent of dentists)

6. APPEAL TO EMOTION. In this fallacy, the arguer uses emotional appeals rather

than logical reasons to persuade the listener. The fallacy can appeal to various

emotions including pride, pity, fear, hate, vanity, or sympathy. Generally, the issue is

oversimplified to the advantage of the arguer Example; In 1972, there was a widely-printed advertisement printed by the Foulke Fur Co., which was in reaction to the

frequent protests against the killing of Alaskan seals for the making of fancy furs.

According to the advertisement, clubbing the seals was one of the great conservation

stories of our history, a mere exercise in wildlife management, because "biologists

believe a healthier colony is a controlled colony."

. FALSE ANALOGY. An unsound form of inductive argument in which an argument 7.

relies heavily on a weak analogy to prove its point. Example: This must be a great

car, for, like the finest watches in the world, it was made in Switzerland

8. BEGGING THE QUESTION or CIRCULAR REASONING. An argument in

which the conclusion is implied or already assumed in the premises. Also said to be a

circular argument. Example: Of course the Bible is the word of God. Why? Because

God says so in the Bible.

SLIPPERY SLOPE or BLACK AND WHITE. A line of reasoning that argues 9.

against taking a step because it assumes that if you take the first step, you will

inevitably follow through to the last. This fallacy uses the valid form of hypothetical

syllogism, but uses guesswork for the premises. Example: We can't allow students

any voice in decision making on campus; if we do, it won't be long before they are in

total control

10. COMMON BELIEF or APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE. This fallacy is committed

when we assert a statement to be true on the evidence that many other people

allegedly believe it. Being widely believed is not proof or evidence of the truth.

Example: Of course Nixon was guilty in Watergate. Everybody knows that

11. PAST BELIEF or APPEAL TO TRADITION. A form of the COMMON BELIEF

fallacy. The same error in reasoning is committed except the claim is for belief or

support in the past. Example: We all know women should obey their husbands. After

all, marriage vows contained those words for centuries.

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12. CONTRARY TO FACT HYPOTHESIS. This fallacy is committed when we state

with an unreasonable degree of certainty the results of an event that might have

occurred but did not. Example: If President Bush had not gone into the Persian Gulf

with military force when he did, Saddam Hussein would control the world's oil from

Saudi Arabia today

13. DENYING THE ANTECEDENT. An invalid form of the conditional argument. In

this one, the second premise denies the antecedent of the first premise, and the

conclusion denies the consequent. Often mistaken for modus tollens. Example: If she

qualifies for a promotion, she must speak English. She doesn’t qualify for the

promotion, so she must not know how to speak English

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14. DIVISION. This fallacy is committed when we conclude that any part of a particular

whole must have a characteristic because the whole has that characteristic. What is

true of the whole is true of the part. Example: I am sure that Karen plays the piano

well, since her family is so musical

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15. COMPOSITION. This fallacy is committed when we conclude that a whole must

have a characteristic because some part of it has that characteristic. What is true of

the part is true of the whole. Example: The Dawson clan must be rolling in money,

since Fred Dawson makes a lot from his practice

.. FAR-FETCHED HYPOTHESIS. A fallacy of inductive reasoning that is 16.

committed when we accept a particular hypothesis when a more acceptable

hypothesis, or one more strongly based in fact, is available Example; The African- American church was set afire after the civil rights meeting last night; therefore, it

must have been done by the leader and the minister to cast suspicion on the local

segregationists

17. FALSE DILEMMA (often called the either/or fallacy or false dichotomy). This

fallacy assumes that we must choose one of two alternatives instead of allowing for

other possibilities; a false form of disjunctive syllogism. Example: “America, love it

or leave it.” (The implication is, since you don’t love it the only option is to leave it).

18. EQUIVOCATION. This fallacy is a product of semantic ambiguity. The arguer uses

the ambiguous nature of a word or phrase to shift the meaning in such a way as to

make the reason offered appear more convincing. Example: We realize that workers

are idle during the period of lay-offs. But the government should never subsidize

idleness, which has often been condemned as a vice. Therefore, payments to laid off

workers are wrong

19. AMBIGUITY. This fallacy occurs when a term is used in legitimate but different

senses by two or more persons involved in argumentation. Example: In the same

discussion both speakers claim they “build bridges,” one is a construction worker

then other is a dentist.

20. HASTY GENERALIZATION. A generalization accepted on the support of a

sample that is too small or biased to warrant it. Example: All men are rats! Just look

at the louse that I married.

21. POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC. (“After this, therefore caused by this

A form of the false cause fallacy in which it is inferred that because one event

followed another it is necessarily caused by that event. Example: Mary joined our

class and the next week we all did poorly on the quiz. It must be her fault.

INCONSISTENCY. A discourse is inconsistent or self-contradicting if it contains 22.

explicitly or implicitly, two assertions that are logically incompatible with each other.

Inconsistency can also occur between words and actions. Example: A woman who

represents herself as a feminist, yet doesn’t believe women should run for Congress.

23. NON SEQUITUR or IRRELEVANT ARGUMENT. (“It does not follow.”) In this

fallacy the premises have no direct relationship to the conclusion. This fallacy

appears in political speeches and advertising with great frequency. Example: A

waterfall in the background and a beautiful girl in the foreground have nothing to do

with an automobile's performance.

24. QUESTIONABLE CAUSE. (In Latin: non causa pro causa, “not the cause of

that”). This form of the false cause fallacy occurs when the cause for an occurrence is

identified on insufficient evidence. Example: I can't find the checkbook; I am sure

that my husband hid it.

25. RED HERRING. This fallacy introduces an irrelevant issue into a discussion as a

diversionary tactic. It takes people off the issue at hand; it is beside the point.

Example: Many people say that engineers need more practice in writing, but I would

like to remind them how difficult it is to master all the math and drawing skills that an

engineer requires.

26. SLANTING. A form of misrepresentation in which a true statement is made, but

made in such a way as to suggest that something is not true or to give a false

description through the manipulation of connotation. Example: I can't believe how

much money is being poured into the space program (suggesting that 'poured' means

heedless and unnecessary spending)

27. STRAW MAN. This fallacy occurs when we misrepresent an opponent's position to

make it easier to attack, usually by distorting his or her views to ridiculous extremes.

This can also take the form of attacking only the weak premises in an opposing

argument while ignoring the strong ones. Example: Those who favor gun-control

legislation just want to take all guns away from responsible citizens and put them into

the hands of the criminals.

28. TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT. This fallacy is committed when we try to

justify an apparently wrong action by charges of a similar wrong. The underlying

assumption is that if they do it, then we can do it too and are somehow justified.

Example: Supporters of apartheid are often guilty of this error in reasoning. They

point to U.S. practices of slavery to justify their system.

29. FORCING A DICHOTOMY. This fallacy places the listener in the position of

having to Choose between an oversimplified either-or choice, phrased in such a way

that it forces them to favor the arguer’s preferred option. Example: You can chose

from these three laundry detergents, but X-Brand is the leading stain and odor

remover. It gets your clothes extra clean compared to the other brands.

30. APPEAL TO HUMOR. This fallacy either fails to make a serious point of reduces

another’s claim to its absurd level. Example: I reserve the right to arm bears.

31. SIMPLE EVASION. This fallacy changes the subject for no apparent reason, or by

passes a critical issue to divert the attention from the issues central to the argument.

Example: “Do I have my homework done? So what do you think of all this rain we

are having?”

32. SHIFTING GROUND. This fallacy occurs when an arguer abandons his/her original

position on a particular argument and adopts a new one. Example: Former Vice

President Al Gore was Pro-Life until he accepted the Democratic Vice-Presidential

Nomination. He now maintains he is Pro-Choice.

33. SEIZING ON A TRIVIAL POINT. This fallacy occurs when a person locates

another’s weak or indefensible argument and magnifies it out of all proportion to

discredit a person’s entire position on the proposition. Example: “She claim Regan

won the 1981 presidential election when in fact it was 1980. How can we trust her

whole argument if she can’t get the simplest of dates correct?”

34. EMOTIONALLY LOADED LANGUAGE. This fallacy arises when we uses

terms that show more about our feeling on the issues than about the rational basis

from which those feelings derive or when we use emotion as the sole means to alter

the belief or behavior of others. Example: An advertisement uses the terms,

American, patriot, united, freedom, to evoke an emotional response towards its

product instead explaining the reasoning for using/purchasing the product.

35. TECHNICAL JARGON. This fallacy becomes a problem when the audience is

overwhelmed with too many new terms or when it is used to impress the audience or

replace sound reasoning. Example: Telling your friend that they just committed a

fallacy when they have no idea what the term “fallacy” means.