fallacies

  • Subjectivism: Using the fact that one believes or wants a proposition to be true as evidence of its truth.

  • Appeal to Majority: Using the fact that large numbers of people believe a proposition to be true as evidence of its truth.

  • Appeal to Emotion: Trying to get someone to accept a proposition based on an emotion one induces.

  • Appeal to Force: Trying to get someone to accept a proposition based on a threat.

  • Appeal to Authority: Using testimonial evidence for a proposition when the conditions for credibility are not satisfied or the use of such evidence is inappropriate.

  • Ad Hominem: Using a negative trait of a speaker as evidence that their statement is false or their argument is weak.

  • False Alternative: Excluding relevant possibilities without justification.

  • Post Hoc: Using the fact that one event preceded another as sufficient evidence to conclude that the first caused the second.

  • Hasty Generalization: Inferring a general proposition from an inadequate sample of particular cases.

  • Composition: Inferring that a whole has a property merely because its parts have that property.

  • Division: Inferring that a part has a property merely because the whole has that property.

  • Begging the Question (Circular Argument): Trying to support a proposition with an argument in which that proposition is a premise.

  • Equivocation: Using a word with two different meanings in the premises and the conclusion.

  • Appeal to Ignorance: Using the absence of proof for a proposition as evidence for the truth of the opposing proposition.

  • Diversion: Trying to support one proposition by arguing for another proposition.