Ad Hominem
poisoning the well; damning the source; genetic fallacy (argument towards the man) (refuting an argument by indicting the source of the argument not the substance of the argument itself)
Non-Sequitur
latin for "it does not follow"; non-causa pro-causa; undistributed middle, a break in the chain or logic; argument that does not follow from the previous statement; two ends of the spectrum but nothing in the middle
Argumentum Ad Traditio
let sleeping dogs lie; to continue to do things as they have always been done; "if it ain't broke don't fix it
Argumentum Ad Populum
a bandwagon appeal; an appeal to popular opinion; argument to the people when one uses the appeal of popular ascent; commercials: fear of missing out
Petitio Principii
begging the question; a person who assumes as evidence for their argument the very conclusion they are attempting to prove; trying to use your argument as a conclusion when nothing has been proven; assuming that others will agree
Genuine but Insignificant Cause
the object or event identified as the cause, is a genuine cause but insignificant when compared to the other causes of that event; smoking is causing air pollution
Slippery Slope
"camel's-nose fallacy"; "snowball argument"; once one step is taken, another is bound to follow
Argumentum Ad Misericordiam
pity; argument to emotions, pull on heartstrings (dog commercials)
Dicto Simpliciter Ad Secundum
accident fallacy; faulty deductive reasoning; when a general rule is applied when circumstances suggest that an exception to the rule should apply
Dicto Secundum Quid Ad Dicto Simplicite (converse accident)
faulty inductive reasoning; an exception to a generalization is applied to cases where the generalization should apply; just because we allow it in this one situation doesn't mean we should allow it in all situations
Argumentum Ad Verecundiam
appeal to improper authority; when one is persuaded by a famous or popular person
False Analogy
relying on a made up comparison rather than relying on reasoning
Tu Quoque
appeal to hypocrisy; look who's talking; two wrongs don't make a right; pointing to a similar wrong made by another
Hasty Generalization
coming to a conclusion without having a proper amount of evidence; not enough of the sampling; whataboutism
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc
after this, therefore because of this; false cause where someone mistakenly assumes that because the first event preceded the second, the first caused the second; "black cat crossed the street earlier, I broke my leg"
Straw Man
attacking a weaker point of an argument and blowing that up; resting your whole argument on this
Ignorant Elenchi
most common form is red herring (smelly fish and criminals used these to throw detectives off their tracks), also called irrelevant conclusion
False Dilemma
"either or fallacy"; "black and white"; false dichotomy; "excluded middle"; "either do this or die"; when one mistakenly concludes that there are only two options (we kill him or he kills us)
Argumentum Ad Speculum
hypothesis contrary to fact; if x had occurred then y would be the result (we can never really know)