Logical Fallacies

  1. Ad hominem: Latin for "against the man". Personally attacking your opponents instead of their arguments. It is an argument that appeals to emotion rather than reason, feeling rather than intellect. 


  1. Appeal to authority: The claim that because somebody famous supports an idea, the idea must be right. This fallacy is often used in advertising.


  1.  Appeal to the bandwagon: The claim, as evidence for an idea, that many people believe it, or used to believe it, or do it. 


  1.  Appeal to emotion (Overly Sentimental Appeals): An attempt to replace a logical argument with an appeal to the audience’s emotions. Common emotional appeals are an appeal to sympathy, an appeal to revenge, an appeal to patriotism – basically any emotion can be used as an appeal.


  1. Circular Reasoning: argument that assumes the very thing it is trying to prove is true. Instead of offering evidence, it simply repeats the conclusion, rendering the argument logically incoherent.


  1. Cliche thinking: Using as evidence a well-known saying, as if it is proven, or as if it has no exceptions. “I say: ‘America: love it or leave it.’ Anyone who disagrees with anything our country does must hate America. So maybe they should just move somewhere else.”


  1. False cause: Assuming that because two things happened, the first one caused the second one. (Sequence is not causation.) “Before women were able to vote, there were no nuclear weapons. Therefore women’s suffrage must have led to nuclear weapons.”


  1. False dilemma (also known as Either/Or): presents only two options or sides to an issue when there are actually more complexities.











  1. Faulty analogy: Claiming that two situations are highly similar, when they aren't. “We have pure food and drug laws regulating what we put in our bodies; why can't we have laws to keep musicians from giving us filth for the mind?”


  1. Hasty generalization: A generalization based on too little or unrepresentative data. “My uncle didn’t go to college, and he makes a lot of money. So, people who don’t go to college do just as well as those who do.” 


  1. Non Sequitur: A conclusion that does not follow from its premises; an invalid argument. “Hinduism is one of the world’s largest religious groups. It is also one of the world’s oldest religions. Hinduism helps millions of people lead happier, more productive lives. Therefore the principles of Hinduism must be true.” 


  1. Red Herring:  occurs when someone introduces an irrelevant point or topic to divert attention from the original issue.


  1. Slippery slope: The assumption that once started, a situation will continue to its most extreme possible outcome. “If you drink a glass of wine, then you’ll soon be drinking all the time, and then you’ll become a homeless alcoholic.”


  1. Stacking the Deck:  When writers give only the evidence that supports their premise, while disregarding or withholding contrary evidence, they are stacking the deck. A meat-packing manufacturer may advertise that its all-beef hot dogs "now contain 10 percent less fat." Although that may sound like good news, what we are not being told is that the hot dogs still contain 30 percent fat.


  1. Straw Man:  occurs when someone distorts or exaggerates another person’s argument, and then attacks the distorted version of the argument instead of refuting the original point. By using a straw man, someone can give the appearance of refuting an argument when they have not actually engaged with the original ideas.