fallacies

  • False Cause: presumes that a perceived relationship between things means it caused it

    • Correlation doesn’t mean causation→ also called post hoc ergo propter hoc

    • Could be alternative explanations, confounding variables, reverse causality, etc.

    • EX: black cats are present near car accidents, they must cause accidents

  • Ad Hominem: attacking opponents' character or personal traits to undermine their argument

    • We think behavior is indicative of underlying traits, but not necessarily true

    • Focus on argument at hand (veil of ignorance), strive to be civil

    • EX: all he does is watch tv, what would he know about hardwork?

  • Loaded Question: asking a question with an assumption in it→ can’t be answered w/o looking guilty or losing credibility

    • Try to call it out for what it is

    • EX: 1000’s of students have been shot in schools. Do you think america has a gun control issue?

  • Bandwagon Fallacy: following majority or celebrity opinions as a form of validation, “they must be right”

    • Try to stick to facts of issue→ popular opinion doesn’t dictate what’s right

    • EX: my favorite celebrity thinks the death penalty is good, so I do too

  • Begging the Question: conclusion included in the question→ circular argument

    • Also known as “petitio principii”- assuming initial point

    • EX: affirmative action is unfair, you can’t fix the injustice by committing another

  • Appeal to Authority: using opinion or position of authority to justify stance w/o an actual argument (authority might not even be an expert)

    • EX: a celebrity parent doesn’t want to vaccinate their kid

  • Appeal to Nature: argument is that it’s “natural”, but something being natural isn’t always good or bad

    • EX: natural supplements are good, but some can be poisonous 

  • Composition/Division: assumption that what’s true for a component of X, is also true for all of X→ isn’t necessarily true bc can’t always presume consistency

    • EX: company successful bc upper management of a company are all successful individuals

  • Strawman: misrepresentation of one’s argument to attack it easier

    • Can quote ppl’s words out of context, oversimplifying

    • EX: abortion is murder… not necessarily depending on the starting premise

  • Slippery Slope: assuming that if A happens Z will consequently follow, but that’s not necessarily true

    • EX: if you let a mouse have a cookie… he’ll end up taking over your house

  • Special Pleading: moving around limitations to create exceptions for a claim is shown to be false, similar to double standards 

    • EX: i know i changed the policy so no one can be late, but i got caught in crazy traffic

  • Nirvana Fallacy: arguing against or dismissing a solution because it won’t fully solve the problem

    • EX: Ben Shapiro says school lunches won’t solve child hunger

  • Black or White: strictly picking on 2 polarized possibilities, when there’s a gray area

    • Also known as false dichotomy 

    • EX: if you support palestine, you’re anti-semetic

  • Anecdotal: using a personal experience to refute studies and statistics measuring large groups of people instead of just 1

    • EX: my mom saying a girl at LAX went missing so I should avoid it because I might get kidnapped too. Stats show it rarely happens

  • Appeal to Emotion: manipulating someone’s emotional response w/o actual argument

    • EX: used during elections like Hilary Clinton, but there wasn’t anything on that scale for her to be creating urgency and fear

  • Tu Quoque: avoiding engaging criticism by turning on someone else and showing they follow the double standard too→ avoid actually addressing the criticism

    • EX: my brother telling me i shouldn’t eat wingstop because it’s unhealthy. I respond by saying he eats it all the time too, why should I listen?

    • latin for “you also”

  • Burden of Proof: the person making the claim puts it on the listener to disprove what they’re saying instead of just proving it themselves

    • EX: “innocent until proven guilty” → burden of proof on prosecution

  • No True Scotsman: dismissing counterexamples and defending yourself by redefining certain terms

    • EX: brown people are always late; i know a brown person that’s always early; you’re not a real brown person if you’re not late

  • Texas Sharpshooter: cherry-picking data to fit you’re line of reasoning→ manipulating data to make it fit what you want when it could mean something else

    • EX: a politician can have so many failed policies and 1 successful, but someone can endorse the politician and only boast about 1 policy. Makes the politician seem successful when it’s not the whole story

  • Fallacy Fallacy: assuming that because a claim has been argued poorly or used a fallacy means that it’s actually wrong

    • EX: dont trust vaccines because the companies just want money; you respond by saying they’re using a ad hominem so they must be wrong 

  • Personal incredulity: saying a claim isn’t true just bc you can’t understand it

  • Ambiguity: intrinsically misleading a claim by being vague or having double meanings

  • Genetic: saying something is good/bad depending on where or who it comes from

    • EX: a politician automatically believing what a scientist says bc an accredited individual said it, but the scientist can be wrong if you don’t look into it

  • Middle ground: saying that a compromise of 2 extremities must be the truth, but not necessarily→ if x and z are known to be untrue, then y would be untrue too

EX: NYT interviewing both Harris and Trump voters for an instagram piece