Logical Fallacies

Red Herring

Red Herring

Form of logical fallacy or reasoning error that occurs when a misleading argument or question is presented to distract from the main issue or argument at hand

Argument from Consequences

Speaking for or against the truth of a statement appealing to consequences it would have if true.

Ex) Well if we get rid of our cows, then we will have to walk everywhere, and that would be terrible for morale. Therefore cow emissions are not killing our planet.

Straw Man

 To intentionally caricature a person’s argument with the aim of attacking the caricature rather than the argument.

Ex) The energetic, muscular, and colorful toucan was completely misrepresented by one of the artists. Later on, he showed the audience his painting and criticized how dull and lifeless the toucan had looked

Appeal to Irrelevant Authority

An appeal to one’s sense of modesty or to appeal to the feeling that others are more knowledgeable

Ex) Peculiarly, Professor Chimp, the world’s most distinguished living Chemist,is often quoted about matters of fidelity.

Appeal to vague authority

An idea is attributed to a faceless collective

Ex) Professors in Germany showed such and such to be true

Appeal to Ancient Wisdom

 A belief assumed to be true because it originated some time ago.

Ex) Astrology was practiced in ancient China, one of the most technologically advanced civilizations of the day

Equivocation

 Exploits the ambiguity of language by changing the meaning of a word during the course of and argument

Ex) How can you be against faith when you take leaps of faith all the time: making investments, trusting friends, and even getting engaged?

False Dilemma

Also, False Dichotomy.  An argument that presents a limited set of 2 possible categories and assumes that everything in the scope of the discussion must be an element of that set

Ex) In the war on fanaticism, there are no sidelines; you are either with us or with the fanatics

Not a cause for a cause

assumes a cause for an event where there is no evidence that one exists.

ex)The recent earthquake was because we disobeyed the King.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Because one event preceded the other it is said to have been the cause

Ex) I can't say that,because in 1976, I did a drawing of a robot and then Star Wars came out, they must have copied the idea from me.

Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Because one event happened at the same time as the other it is said to have been the cause

Ex) The hacker took down the railway company's website, and when I checked the tram schedule, what do you know, they were all delayed

Appeal to Fear

 Plays on the fear of an audience by imagining a scary future that would be of their making if some proposition were accepted. This argument relies on rhetoric, threats, or lies

Ex) I ask all employees to vote for my chosen candidate in the upcoming election . If the other candidate wins, he will raise taxes and many of you will lose your jobs

Hasty Generalization

 Committed when one forms a conclusion that is either too small or too special.

Ex) asking ten people on the street what they think of the president's plan to reduce the deficit can in no way be said to gauge the sentiment of the entire nation.

Appeal to Ignorance

 Assumes a proposition to be true simply because there is no evidence proving it is false.

Ex)There is no compelling evidence that

re not visiting the Earth; therefore UFOs exist

Argument from personal Incredulity

A person’s inability to imagine something leads them to believe it to be false

Ex) It is impossible to imagine that we actually landed a man on the moon, therefore it never happened.

No True Scotsman

Comes up after someone has made a general claim about a group of things and then been presented with evidence challenging that claim

Ex) someone may posit that programmers are creatures with no social skills . If someone else comes along and repudiates that claim by saying, "But John is a programmer, and he is not socially awkward at all," this may provoke the response, "Yes, but John isn't a true programmer.”

Genetic Fallacy

 Committed when an argument is either devalued or defended solely because of its origins

Ex) Of course he supports the union workers on strike; he is, after all, from the same village

Guilt by Association

Used to discredit an argument for proposing an idea that is shared by some socially demonized individual or group

Ex) My opponent is calling for a healthcare system that would resemble that of socialist countries.Clearly that would be unacceptable.

Affirming the Consequent

 One of several valid formal arguments is known as modus ponens (the mode of affirming) and takes the following form: if Athen C, A; hence C.

Ex) People who go to college are successful. John is successful, hence he must have gone to college

Appeal to Hypocrisy (tu quoque)

Whataboutism

the technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counter accusation or raising a different issue.

Slippery Slope

 Attempts to discredit a proposition by arguing that its acceptance will undoubtedly lead to a sequence of events, one or more of which is undesirable

Ex) We shouldn't allow people uncontrolled access to the internet.The nex -thing you know they will be frequenting pornographic websites, and soon

enough, ur entire moral fabric will disintegrate and we will be reduced to animals.

Bandwagon

 Argument uses the fact that many people believe in something as evidence that must be true

Ex) All the cool kids use this hair gel; be one of them

Ad Hominem

one that attacks a person rather than the argument he or she is making, with the intention of diverting the discussion and discrediting their argument.

Ex) You're not a historian; why don't you stick to your own field

Circumstantial Ad Hominem

attacks a person for cynical reasons usually by making a judgment by their intentions

Ex) You don't really care about lowering crime in the city; you just want people to vote for you.

Circular Reasoning

One of four types of argument where one implicitly or explicitly assumes the conclusion in one or more of the premisses

Ex) You're utterly wrong because you're not making

any sense.

Fallacy of Composition

inferring that because the parts of a whole have a particular attribute, the whole must have that attribute also

Ex) if every sheep in a flock has a mother, it does not then follow that the flock has a mother.

Fallacy of Division

to infer that part of a whole must have some attribute because the whole to which it belongs happens to have that attribute

Ex) Our team is unbeatable. Any one of our players would be able to take on a player from the other team and outshine him.

False/Faulty Analogy

The assumption that 2 things share multiple similarities just because they have one thing in common.

Ex)