Conquer Logical Fallacies - 28 Nuggets of Knowledge to Nurture Your Reasoning Skills

What are the Four Laws of Logic?

Law of identity

Law of excluded middle

Law of non-contradiction

Law of sufficient reason

What is the Law of Identity?

everything that is, exists

What is the Law of Excluded Middle?

Everything either is or is not

Law of Non-Contradiction

Something Can be and not be at the same time

Law of Sufficient Reason

everything that is, has a sufficient reason why it is

What is an Argument?

a claim used to persuade or convince people regarding the truth about an issue

What do arguments aim to do?

Convince or persuade

What are the three parts of an argument?

Issue: the problem

Premise: evidence

Conclusion: use evidence for the issue

What is the first step of the Critical thinking exercise

Ask basic questions

What is the second step of the Critical thinking exercise

Question basic assumptions

What is the third step of the Critical thinking exercise

Be aware of your mental processes

What is the fourth step of the Critical thinking exercise

Try reversing things

What is the fifth step of the Critical thinking exercise

Evaluate the existing evidence

What is Deductive Reasoning?

a fundamental form of logical inference that begins with a general theory narrowed down by information and reasoning to reach a specific conclusion

What is inductive Reasoning?

proceeds in the reverse direction with specific observations and infers a general conclusion from them

What is the argumentative theory of reasoning?

A theory developed by French cognitive social scientists to explain how rationality becomes a weapon.

What are observations?

perceptions of the environment gathered by our five senses

What is Stereotyping?

generalizing characteristics to a group of people

What is Bair?

giving unfair attention to one side over another

What is discrimination?

acting on the bias

What does bias in attitude lead to?

Prejudice

What does Pre mean

before

What does judge mean?

Decide

What are the three steps to finding a common fallacies?

Identify the wrong premises (the bad proofs)

Identify the wrong alternative outcomes

Identify logical disconnects between the premises and conclusion

What is affirming the consequent?

If P, then Q. Q. Therefore, P

i. If you were careless in driving, then the car would be dented

ii. The car is dented.

iii. You are a careless driver.

What is Denying the Antecedent

If P, then Q. If not P, then not Q

i. If Mario is a professional golfer, then he is a good sportsman

ii. But Mario is not a professional golfer

iii. He is not a good sportsman

What does Disjunct mean?

a term that excludes another term

What is Affirming a disjunct?

A or B. A. Therefore, not B.

i. Celia would love either a puppy or a kitten

ii. Celia loved the puppy she got

iii. She would not love the kitten.

What does Conjunct mean?

a term joined to another as being in the same class

What is Denying a Conjunct

Form 1: Not both q and p. Not q. Therefore p.

Form 2: Not both q and p. Not p. Therefore q.

i. Anthony is not both Catholic and atheist.

ii. Anthony is not Catholic.

iii. Therefore he is an atheist.

AF 1: Not both q and p. Therefore, not p.

AF 2: Not both q and p. Therefore, not q.

i. Anthony is not both Catholic and atheist.

ii. Anthony is a Catholic.

iii. Therefore he is not an atheist.

What is The fallacy of the undistributed middle?

This fallacy is a syllogistic fallacy because it is the form of a categorical syllogism.

All A is B.

All B is C.

Therefore all A is C.

i. All insects are animals.

ii. All mammals are animals.

iii. Therefore all mammals are insects.

Hasty Generalization

A fallacy in which a faulty conclusion is reached because of inadequate evidence.

Appeal to (false) Authority

must be true if an expert says it is

Appeal to emotions

using emotions to manipulate

Appeal to ignorance

an argument that reasons with something are either true or false based on a lack of evidence

Black swan fallacy

ignoring evidence that runs counter to their beliefs

Begging the Question

- when a premise assumes the conclusion is true instead of proving it

Black-Or-White Fallacy

- forcing a choice between only two alternatives

Middle Ground

- this is choosing the compromise between two arguments just because it is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes

False Cause

- the logical connection between the premises in imaginary

Red Herring

- The arguer throws out an irrelevant issue to distract and confuse the listener

Slippery Slope

- one small step could lead to increasingly harmful situations

False Analogy

- draws a false comparison between two things

Sunk Cost Fallacy(Concorde fallacy)

- a person's behavior due to investing time, effort, or money in something

Appeal to the People

- listeners' desire to be associated with a large group of people or people of a particular type as the basis for persuasion

Straw Man

- gives the illusion of refuting the proposition being made when the argument is replaced with a different one and attacks that instead

Appeal to Force

- the arguer threatens to harm

Fallacy Fallacy

- relies on the justification that since the claim was argued poorly, the claim itself is wrong

What is confirmation bias?

tends to favor ideas that confirm our existing opinions and the information we already accept as truth

First Impression Bias

- information processing is limited because of the information people are initially exposed to

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

- people have an overly favorable opinion of their abilities

Fundamental Attribution Error (Fae)

- social error involving an overestimation of an actor's personality while at the same time underestimating the situational factors when trying to explain the cause

Decline Bias (Declinism)

- tends to view the past as overly positive and the present or future in an extremely negative light

Diagnostic Bias

- occurs when one's perception, prejudice, or subjective judgment affects one's diagnosis

What are the pieces of the Diagnostic Bias?

Anchoring

Availability

Confirmation

Framing

Premature closure