English Fallacies

Appeal to Nature

• Arguing that because something is “natural” it is therefore valid, justified, inevitable, good, or ideal

• The idea that natural = good can bias our thinking

• Murder could be seen as natural but that doesn’t mean it’s good or justified

EX: The medicine man rolled into town on his bandwagon offering various natural remedies, such as a very special plain water. He said that it was only natural that people should be wary of “artificial” medicines such as antibiotics.

Appeal to Authority

• Saying that because an authority figure thinks something, it must therefore be true

• NOT to dismiss the claims of experts

• When someone cites an authority who is no where near an expert in the topic being discussed

• Citing a single authority, and ignoring peer agreements

EX: Not able to defend his position that evolution “isn’t true,” Bob says that he knows a scientist who also questions evolution (and presumably isn’t a primate).

Bandwagon

• The appeal to popularity or the fact that many people do something as an attempted form of validation

• Popularity of an idea has absolutely no bearing on its validity

  • If this were true, Earth would have made itself flat since that’s what everyone thought

EX: Marie notices that many of her friends have started eating a low-carb diet and drinking protein shakes. Marie decides that this must be the healthy way to eat, so she joins them.

Anecdotal

• Using a personal experience or an isolated example instead of a sound argument or compelling evidence

• Easier for people to believe someone’s story rather than understanding complex data

• Scientific reasoning is always more accurate than personal experiences

  • It is easier for people to believe what is easier to understand and more tangible than an abstract and complicated statistic

EX: Jason said that that was all cool and everything, but his grandfather smoked, like, 30 cigarettes a day and lived until 97 — so don’t believe everything you read.

Ad-Hominem

• Attacking the opponent’s character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument

• Can either be more overtly attacking someone or more subtly casting doubt on their character to discredit their argument

EX: After Sally presents an eloquent and compelling case for a more equitable taxation system, Sam asks the audience whether we should believe anything from a woman who isn’t married, was once arrested, and smells a bit weird.

Tu Quoque

• Avoiding having to engage with criticism by turning it back on the accuser

  • Answering criticism with criticism

• Literally translates to “you too”

• Can be an effective red herring

  • Takes the heat off someone having to defend their argument and shifts the focus back onto the person making the criticism

EX: Nicole identified that Hannah had committed a logical fallacy, but instead of addressing the substance of her claim, Hannah accused Nicole of committing a fallacy earlier on in the conversation.

Genetic

• Judging something based on the basis of where it comes from, or from whom it came

• Avoids argument by shifting the focus to someone’s or something’s origins

EX: Accused on the 6 o’clock news of corruption and taking bribes, the senator said that we should all be very wary of the things we hear in the media, because we all know how very unreliable the media can be.

Slippery Slope

• Saying that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen

• Ignoring all other possibilities

• Doesn’t address the issue at hand and shifts the focus to extreme hypotheticals. 

EX: Colin asserts that if we allow same-sex couples to marry, then the next thing we know we’ll be allowing people to marry their parents, cars, and even animals. 

False Cause

• Presuming that a real or perceived relationship between things means that one is the cause of the other

• Correlation: things happening together or in sequence

• Causation: one thing causes another to happen

EX: Pointing to a fancy chart, Roger shows how temperatures have been rising over the past few centuries, whilst at the same time the numbers of pirates have been decreasing; thus pirates cool the world and global warming is a hoax.

Texas Sharpshooter

• Cherry-picking data to suit an argument, or finding a pattern to fit a presumption

• Variation of “False Causes”

• Picking info they want without directly proving or correlating it

• Shooting randomly at barns and drawing bullseye targets around the bullet holes

  • Appearance is not the same as reality

EX: The makers of Sugarette Candy Drinks point to research showing that of the five countries where Sugarette drinks sell the most units, three of them are in the top ten healthiest countries on Earth, therefore Sugarette drinks are healthy.

Gambler’s Fallacy

• Saying that “runs” occur in statistically independent phenomena such as roulette spins

• Things are always 50/50 —> previous events don’t change what’s to come

• Everything is independent from the last action

  • Always a 50/50 chance; something isn’t more or less likely to occur based on what happened before

EX: Red had come up six times in a row on the roulette wheel, so Greg knew that it was close to certain that black would be up next. Suffering an economic form of natural selection with this thinking, he soon lost all of his savings.

Black-or-White

• Presented two alternative states as the only possibilities, when in fact more possibilities exist

• There are more possibilities than the either/or choice being presented

  • There’s a gray area that the speaker tries to hide or get rid of by making it black or white

• Black-or-White doesn’t allow for different variables, conditions, and contexts in which there are more possibilities

EX: Whilst rallying support for his plan to fundamentally undermine citizens’ rights, the Supreme Leader told the people they were either on his side, or they were on the side of the enemy.