Critical Thinking: Logical Fallacies and Argumentation Errors

logical fallacies

potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses in an argument

red herring

when a speaker skips to a new and irrelevant topic in order to avoid the topic of discussion

ad hominem

type of red herring, arguing against the PERSON rather than addressing the issue

faulty analogy

charge two things that are not comparable; focus on irrelevant or inconsequential similarities between two things

straw man fallacy

occurs when a speaker chooses a deliberately poor or oversimplified example in order to ridicule and refute an opponents viewpoint

either/or fallacy

false dilemma, all or nothing false dichotomy, black/white fallacy, false binary

equivocation

a writer or speaker intentionally misleads the audience by using a word with a double or ambiguous meaning

the bandwagon family

argues that because, "everyone" the people or "the majority" (or someone in power who has widespread backing) supposedly thinks or does something, it must therefore be true and right

post hoc argument

classical fallacy of attributing an imaginary casualty to random coincidence

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that supports your beliefs. failing to look at the other side of the argument

survivorship bias

only viewing successful people or case studies and ignoring those who have failed, hero-worship, billionaire-worship, celebrity worship, for every hero there are those who have failed

argument from ignorance

A logical fallacy claiming something is true because it has not been proven false.

appeal to false authority

This fallacy occurs when someone who has no expertise to speak on an issue is cited as an authority.

hasty generalization fallacy

argument in which a speaker draws a conclusion based on too few or inadequate examples

hypothesis contrary to fact

Beginning with a premise that is not necessarily true and drawing conclusions from it