Ap Lang. (copy)

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)