AP Lang Logical Fallacies

ad hominem

Definition: Attacking the person making an argument instead of addressing the argument itself

Example: “You can’t trust his opinion on climate change — he didn’t even finish college.”

ad populum

Definition: Arguing that something must be true or right simply because many people believe it or everyone is doing it

Example: “Everyone on social media is using this new diet, so it must be the best way to lose weight.”

appeal to tradition

Definition: Arguing that something is right, true, or better simply because it has always been done that way or is part of a long-standing tradition

Example: “We shouldn’t change the school dress code — students have worn uniforms here for 50 years.”

begging the question

Definition: When an argument’s reasoning already assumes what it’s trying to prove, so it doesn’t provide real support for its conclusion. Proving the claim in the claim itself

Example: “The new law is unfair because it’s unjust.”

deduction

Definition: A type of reasoning that starts with a general statement or rule and applies it to a specific case to reach a logical conclusion. If the premises are true, the conclusion must also be true

Example: All mammals are warm-blooded.

Whales are mammals.

Therefore, whales are warm-blooded.

equivocation

Definition: When a word or phrase is used with different meanings within the same argument, causing confusion or misleading reasoning

Example: “A feather is light. What is light cannot be dark. Therefore, a feather cannot be dark.”

false analogy

Definition: When someone compares two things that are not truly alike in the relevant way, leading to a weak or misleading conclusion

Example: “Employees are like nails. Just as nails must be hit on the head to work, employees must be pressured to be productive.”

false dilemma

Definition: When someone presents only two options as the only possible choices, even though other alternatives exist

Example: “You either support the new policy or you don’t care about the environment.”

hasty generalization

Definition: When someone makes a broad conclusion based on too little evidence or on a small or unrepresentative sample

Example: “My friend got food poisoning from that restaurant once — it must be a terrible place to eat.”

induction

Definition: A type of reasoning that uses specific observations or examples to make a general conclusion. The conclusion is probable, not guaranteed

Example: “Every swan I’ve seen is white, so all swans must be white.”

non-sequitur

Definition: When the conclusion does not logically follow from the premises or statements before it. The reasoning jumps in a way that doesn’t make sense

Example: “She drives a nice car, so she must be really smart.”

Occam’s razor

Definition: Principle of reasoning that suggests the simplest explanation, the one with the fewest assumptions, is usually the most likely to be correct

Example: “The lights went out because of a power outage, not because aliens cut the electricity.”

post hoc, ergo propter hoc

Definition: When someone assumes that one event caused another simply because it happened first

Example: “I wore my lucky socks and then we won the game — my socks must have caused the win!”

red herring

Definition: Distracting from the main issue by introducing something irrelevant to the argument. It leads attention away from the real point

Example: “Why worry about climate change when there are people unemployed right now?”

reductio ad absurdum

Definition:  A form of argument that shows a claim must be false because accepting it would lead to an absurd or illogical conclusion. It works by extending the opponent’s reasoning to an extreme

Example: “If we let students redo one test, soon they’ll expect to redo every assignment until they get an A.”

slippery slope

Definition: Arguing that a small first step will inevitably lead to a chain of related (and usually negative) events, without showing real evidence that this will happen

Example: “If we let students use calculators in class, next they’ll stop learning math altogether.”

straw man

Definition: When someone misrepresents or exaggerates another person’s argument to make it easier to attack or refute

Example: Person A: “We should have stricter rules for gun ownership.”

Person B: “So you want to take away everyone’s guns!”

syllogism

Definition: Form of deductive reasoning that uses two premises (a general statement and a specific statement) to reach a logical conclusion. If both premises are true, the conclusion must be true

Example: Major premise: All humans are mortal.

Minor premise: Socrates is a human.

Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal.