Fallacy Vocab (AP Lang)

Appealing to pity

Making the audience feel sorry or guilty in order to convince them to do something or take your point of view.

Appealing to prejudice

Getting the audience riled up against (or for) a group/person instead of focusing on the issue. This is the fallacy that uses our likes and dislikes to manipulate us.

Appealing to tradition

Saying you have to do things this way, because you've always done it this way

False Analogy

When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them.

Attacking the character of opponents (Ad hominem)

ignoring or distracting from content through personal attacks, better to give thoughtful responses to arguments than to base arguments on personal attacks

Attributing false causes (post hoc, ergo propter hoc)

Assuming (or implying) that something is the result of something that happened just before.

Guilt by Association

calls someone's character into question by examining the character of that person's associates

Begging the question

Often called circular reasoning, ____ occurs when the believability of the evidence depends on the believability of the claim.

Equivocating

misleading or hedging with ambiguous word choices

Ignoring the question

ignores the real issue by the use of distracting information that has no bearing on the case

Jumping to conclusions

drawing a conclusion that isn't supported by the facts at hand

Straw Man

A fallacy that occurs when a speaker chooses a deliberately poor or oversimplified example in order to ridicule and refute an idea.

False Dilemma (Either/Or Fallacy)

A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in fact more options are available.

Non sequitur

A statement that does not follow logically from evidence

Slippery Slope

a fallacy which assumes that taking a first step will lead to subsequent steps that cannot be prevented

Bandwagon

A fallacy which assumes that because something is popular, it is therefore good, correct, or desirable.

Sweeping Generalization (Dicto Simpliciter)

assuming that something true in general is true in every possible case

Inductive reasoning

reasoning from detailed facts to general principles

Deductive reasoning

reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.)

Syllogistic reasoning

determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true