Logical Fallacies

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Strawman

You misrepresented someone's argument to make it easier to attack.

(By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone's argument, it's much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate.)

False Cause

You presumed that a real or perceived relationship between things means that one is the cause of the other.

(Many people confuse correlation for causation. Sometimes correlation is coincidental, or it may be attributable to a common cause)

Appeal to Emotion

You attempted to manipulate an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument.

(Appeals to emotion include appeals to fear, envy, hatred, pity, pride, and more. It's important to note that sometimes a logically coherent argument may inspire emotion or have an emotional aspect, but the problem and fallacy occurs when emotion is used instead of a logical argument, or to obscure the fact that no compelling rational reason exists for one's position.)

The fallacy fallacy

You presumed that because a claim has been poorly argued, or a fallacy has been made, that the claim itself must be wrong.

(It is entirely possible to make a claim that is false yet argue with logical coherency for that claim, just as it is possible to make a claim that is true and justify it with various fallacies and poor arguments.)

Slippery Slope

You said that if we allow A to happen, then Z will eventually happen too, therefore A should not happen.

(The problem with this reasoning is that it avoids engaging with the issue at hand, and instead shifts attention to extreme hypotheticals.)

ad Hominem

You attacked your opponent's character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument.

Ad hominem attacks can take the form of overtly attacking somebody, or more subtly casting doubt on their character or personal attributes as a way to discredit their argument.

tu quoque

You avoided having to engage with criticism by turning it back on the accuser - you answered criticism with criticism.

It is commonly employed as an effective red herring because it takes the heat off someone having to defend their argument, and instead shifts the focus back on to the person making the criticism.

personal incredulity

Because you found something difficult to understand, or are unaware of how it works, you made out like it's probably not true.

Kirk drew a picture of a fish and a human and with effusive disdain asked Richard if he really thought we were stupid enough to believe that a fish somehow turned into a human through just, like, random things happening over time.

special pleading

You moved the goalposts or made up an exception when your claim was shown to be false.

Edward Johns claimed to be psychic, but when his 'abilities' were tested under proper scientific conditions, they magically disappeared. Edward explained this saying that one had to have faith in his abilities for them to work.

loaded question

You asked a question that had a presumption built into it so that it couldn't be answered without appearing guilty.

."Have you stopped mistreating your children?" – presupposes past child abuse, forcing a defensive or incriminating response.

Have you stopped beating your wife?" – a traditional example illustrating how any direct answer implies guilt

burden of proof

You said that the burden of proof lies not with the person making the claim, but with someone else to disprove.

Example: Bertrand declares that a teapot is, at this very moment, in orbit around the Sun between the Earth and Mars, and that because no one can prove him wrong, his claim is therefore a valid one.

“Ghosts exist because no one has proven they don’t exist.”

Absence of disproof is treated as proof

ambiguity

You used a double meaning or ambiguity of language to mislead or misrepresent the truth.

Example: When the judge asked the defendant why he hadn't paid his parking fines, he said that he shouldn't have to pay them because the sign said 'Fine for parking here' and so he naturally presumed that it would be fine to park there.

Gamblers fallacy

You said that 'runs' occur to statistically independent phenomena such as roulette wheel spins.

Example: Red had come up six times in a row on the roulette wheel, so Greg knew that it was close to certain that black would be next up. Suffering an economic form of natural selection with this thinking, he soon lost all of his savings.

Bandwagon fallacy

You appealed to popularity or the fact that many people do something as an attempted form of validation.

Brandon tells Mark, “Don’t do your homework, come to the movies tonight. Everyone is going to be there.” Here, Brandon is suggesting Mark skip homework solely because others are attending the movies.

appeal to authority

You said that because an authority thinks something, it must therefore be true.

1)Claiming that a family recipe or home remedy is better than modern medicine simply because a relative recommends it
2)Selectively citing a small minority of scientists who deny climate change as if they represent the consensus
3)Not able to defend his position that evolution 'isn't true' Bob says that he knows a scientist who also questions evolution (and presumably isn't a primate).

composition/division

You assumed that one part of something has to be applied to all, or other, parts of it; or that the whole must apply to its parts.

-University prestige: "This university is prestigious, so every professor must be prestigious." Individual professors may vary in reputation

-Team performance: "Every player on this team is an excellent individual performer, so the team must be excellent."no

no true scotsman

You made what could be called an appeal to purity as a way to dismiss relevant criticisms or flaws of your argument.

-Angus declares that Scotsmen do not put sugar on their porridge, to which Lachlan points out that he is a Scotsman and puts sugar on his porridge. Furious, like a true Scot, Angus yells that no true Scotsman sugars his porridge.

Genetic

You judged something as either good or bad on the basis of where it comes from, or from whom it came.

-Accused on the 6 o'clock news of corruption and taking bribes, the senator said that we should all be very wary of the things we hear in the media, because we all know how very unreliable the media can be.

Black-or-white

You presented two alternative states as the only possibilities, when in fact more possibilities exist.

-Whilst rallying support for his plan to fundamentally undermine citizens' rights, the Supreme Leader told the people they were either on his side, or they were on the side of the enemy.

begging the question

You presented a circular argument in which the conclusion was included in the premise.

-Food Example: “Pizza is the best food because it tastes amazing.”

• Asking why it tastes amazing leads to the response, “Because it’s the best food,” which simply restates the claim

• - The word of Zorbo the Great is flawless and perfect. We know this because it says so in The Great and Infallible Book of Zorbo's Best and Most Truest Things that are Definitely True and Should Not Ever Be Questioned.

Appeal to nature

You argued that because something is 'natural' it is therefore valid, justified, inevitable, good or ideal.

-The medicine man rolled into town on his bandwagon offering various natural remedies, such as very special plain water. He said that it was only natural that people should be wary of 'artificial' medicines such as antibiotics.

-"Organic foods are better for you because they are natural."

anecdotal

You used a personal experience or an isolated example instead of a sound argument or compelling evidence.

-It's often much easier for people to believe someone's testimony as opposed to understanding complex data and variation across a continuum.

-Jason said that that was all cool and everything, but his grandfather smoked, like, 30 cigarettes a day and lived until 97 - so don't believe everything you read about meta analyses of methodologically sound studies showing proven causal relationships.

Middle ground

You claimed that a compromise, or middle point, between two extremes must be the truth.

Example: Holly said that vaccinations caused autism in children, but her scientifically well-read friend Caleb said that this claim had been debunked and proven false. Their friend Alice offered a compromise that vaccinations must cause some autism, just not all autism.