Rhetorical Fallacies

Emotional Fallacies

not objective, appeals to the audience's passions

Against the Person (Ad Hominem)

-An emotional fallacy

-questions a person's character and motive instead of the actual argument

Argument By Force

-explicit or implicit threat of violence

Argument to shame

-argument attacking personal modesty or collective shame (in contrast to some moral ideal)

Argument to the Wallet

-establishes money as most important basis

-not always a fallacy, depend on topic and degree of emotionalization around money

Invalid standards of proof

-misleading or false proofs

Argument by Authority

-glorified "Because I said so" (false ethos)

-could be legitimate if explained

Argument by Definition

-use unexplained proof (generalizations)

• arbitrary definition

Argument by Popularity

-mistakes majority opinion for informed opinion

Hypothetical Argument

• uses imagined evidence to prove an actual case, cannot be proved or verified

-only valid when realistic and applicable

implied argument

rests on principles that are never explicitly stated, and whose validity thus cannot be examined

-common sayings, beliefs, prejudices

Proof by Absence

-assumes lack of evidence as proof

Sequence and Consequence

-errors in logical order

If...then

-oversimplifies complicated ideas

-only use if completely factual

Non Sequittur-"It does not follow"

-surprises reader w/conclusion that does not follow premise

Post hoc - "After this...therefore bc of this"

-error in consequence

-false correlations and assumed causation ***

Slippery Slope

-longer version of "If...Then"

-cause and effect (think dominoes)

Diversionary Tactics

-confuses and prevents analysis

Begging the Question

-asserting in advance what has not been proved

Circular Reasoning

• cause and effect error (presents one as the other)

Irrelevancy

-confuses and distracts

Red Herring

-diverts attention

Semantic Slithers

-clever/misleading shifts in meanings of words

Equivocation

-repeating the same word with a shift in meaning

Loaded Terminology

-adjectives that illicit strong emotional response

Glittering Generalizations

-type of loaded terminology but with slogans/rallying points to display morality

Misconstruing the Argument

-interpreting meaning incorrectly

Attributing Intent

-rephrasing a statement into what you think the speaker/writer meant

Decontextualizing

• when a writer only quotes a part of a sentence

either..or

-limits ones choices, binary

False Analogy

-assumes that one similarity means complete similarity

Generalization

• overstatement, assumes universal truth

Oversimplification

-simplified, loses subtleties and details

Overstatement

-exaggerates the claims of an argument

-designed to add grandeur

Statistics

-stats aren't facts

-to be valid, must be explained and contextualized

Statistics require careful interpretation.

Straw Man

-restates opposing argument as shaky, weak