Fallacies

Question 1

Appeal to Force

Answer 1

A strategy in which the person offering the argument threatens to do physical or psychological harm to their audience if the audience does not accept the conclusion being proposed

Question 2

Appeal to Force Example

Answer 2

Melvin: Boss, why do I have to work weekends when nobody else in the company does?

Boss: Am I sensing insubordination? I can find another employee very quickly, thanks to Craigslist, you know.

Question 3

Appeal to Pity

Answer 3

A strategy in which the arguer invokes the audience’s pity either for him/herself or for some other person or group as the sole support for accepting a conclusion

Question 4

Appeal to Pity Example

Answer 4

I really deserve an “A” on this paper, professor. Not only did I study during my grandmother’s funeral, but I also passed up the heart transplant surgery, even though that was the first matching donor in 3 years.

Question 5

Appeal to the People

Answer 5

Direct - Using language that appeals to the emotions and identity of the crowd as a whole in order to get the crowd as a whole to accept one’s conclusion

Indirect - Using language that appeals to some specific individual(s) relationship to the crowd (desires for acceptance, identity, etc) to get that individual(s) to accept one’s conclusion

Question 6

Appeal to the People Examples

Answer 6

Since 88% of the people polled believed in UFOs, they must exist.

It’s silly for you to claim that Hitler would not have attacked the United States if they hadn’t entered World War II. Everyone knows that he planned to conquer the world.

Brand X vacuum cleaners are the leading brand in America. You should buy Brand X vacuum cleaners.

Question 7

Against the Person

Answer 7

Inferring that an argument is invalid based upon the character, social position or actions of the speaker, without reference to the speaker’s competence or objectivity. Always involves two arguers

Question 8

Against the Person (Abusive)

Answer 8

Attacking the person making the argument, rather than the argument itself, when the attack on the person is completely irrelevant to the argument the person is making.

Question 9

Against the Person (Circumstantial)

Answer 9

Suggesting that the person who is making the argument is biased or predisposed to take a particular stance, and therefore, the argument is necessarily invalid.

Question 10

Against the Person (Tu Quoque)

Answer 10

Claiming the argument is flawed by pointing out that the one making the argument is not acting consistently with the claims of the argument.

Question 11

Against the Person (Abusive) Example

Answer 11

My opponent suggests that lowering taxes will be a good idea – this is coming from a woman who eats a pint of Ben and Jerry’s each night!

Question 12

Against the Person (Circumstantial) Example

Answer 12

Salesman: This car gets better than average gas mileage and is one of the most reliable cars according to Consumer Reports.

Will: I doubt it—you obviously just want to sell me that car.

Question 13

Against the Person (Tu Quoque) Example

Answer 13

Helga: You should not be eating that… it has been scientifically proven that eating fat burgers are no good for your health.

Hugh: You eat fat burgers all the time so that can’t be true.

Question 14

Accident

Answer 14

Applying a general rule to a specific case where the general rule was not intended to apply to that case

Question 15

Accident Example

Answer 15

I believe one should never deliberately hurt another person, that’s why I can never be a surgeon.

Question 16

Straw Man

Answer 16

When arguing against a specific opponent or view, presenting an extreme version of the view under consideration, refuting the extreme version of the view, then concluding that one has refuted the opponent’s actual view

Question 17

Straw Man Example

Answer 17

Zebedee: What is your view on the Christian God?

Mike: I don’t believe in any gods, including the Christian one.

Zebedee: So you think that we are here by accident, and all this design in nature is pure chance, and the universe just created itself?

Mike: You got all that from me stating that I just don’t believe in any gods?

Question 18

Missing the Point

Answer 18

Stating from relatively secure premises, the arguer draws a conclusion that is related in some way but NOT supported by the premises logically

Question 19

Missing the Point Example

Answer 19

There has been an increase in burglary in the area. It must be because there are more people moving into the area.

Question 20

Red Herring

Answer 20

Diverting the attention of the reader or listener from the topic at hand to a completely different thought perhaps a distantly related one (throwing someone off the scent)

Question 21

Red Herring Example

Answer 21

Mike: It is morally wrong to cheat on your spouse, why on earth would you have done that?

Ken: But what is morality exactly?

Mike: It’s a code of conduct shared by cultures.

Ken: But who creates this code?…

Question 22

Appeal to Unqualified Authority

Answer 22

Appeal to the testimony or say so of an authority in a case where the individual in question is either not qualified as an authority on the topic being argued about or likely to be biased or has a clear interest in not telling the truth

Question 23

Appeal to Unqualified Authority Example

Answer 23

Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and perhaps the foremost expert in the field, says that evolution is true. Therefore, it’s true.

Question 24

Appeal to Ignorance

Answer 24

Occurs when someone argues with respect to a given position that either lacks conclusive proof that the given position is true leads us to believe that the position is true and vice versa

Question 25

Appeal to Ignorance Example

Answer 25

No one has proven there isn’t…

It must be the case that… because you can’t prove you didn’t

Question 26

Hasty Generalization

Answer 26

Simply bad inductive reasoning. Generalizing about either an entire group of people/events or a specific individual/thing based upon a very small or unrepresentative sample size

Question 27

Hasty Generalization Example

Answer 27

My father smoked four packs of cigarettes a day since age fourteen and lived until age sixty-nine. Therefore, smoking really can’t be that bad for you.

Question 28

False Cause

Answer 28

An event or thing ‘X’ happened after an event/thing ‘Y’ happened, therefore ‘Y’ must be the cause of ‘X’, where there is little reason to think such a causal connection exists or the causal connection more likely works in the reverse direciton

Question 29

False Cause

Answer 29

“Napoleon became a great emperor because he was so short.”

Question 30

Slippery Slope

Answer 30

The assertion that accepting some proposition (usually the proposal to take some action or enact some policy) will lead to a chain reaction

Question 31

Slippery Slope Example

Answer 31

We cannot unlock our child from the closet because if we do, she will want to roam the house. If we let her roam the house, she will want to roam the neighborhood. If she roams the neighborhood, she will get picked up by a stranger in a van, who will sell her in a sex slavery ring in some other country. Therefore, we should keep her locked up in the closet.

Question 32

Weak Analogy

Answer 32

Arguing that since two things, a and b, are similar with respect to characteristics x, y, and z, and a has an additional characteristic c, b will have that characteristic as well, where it just isn’t likely that the analogy (between a and b) is a good one

Question 33

Weak Analogy Example

Answer 33

Not believing in the literal resurrection of Jesus because the Bible has errors and contradictions, is like denying that the Titanic sank because eye-witnesses did not agree if the ship broke in half before or after it sank.

Question 34

Begging the Question

Answer 34

An argument begs the question for a specific person if that person does not accept as true one or more of the premises of the argument

Signs:
Tacit premises

Question 35

Begging the Question Example

Answer 35

Paranormal activity is real because I have experienced what can only be described as paranormal activity.

Question 36

Complex Question

Answer 36

A strategy to force one’s interlocutor to commit to two propositions when she or he intends to commit only to one. This occurs when one person asks another to respond to a question that includes and additional presumption in such a way that the response applies to both the question asked and the tacit assumption contains. When trying to identify, we should be able to identify the two distinct questions being asked

Question 37

Complex Question Example

Answer 37

How many school shootings should we tolerate before we change the gun laws?

Question 38

False Dichotomy

Answer 38

Works by offering a false disjunctive statement (p v q) where one of the disjuncts is clearly undesirable with

Question 39

Suppressed Evidence

Answer 39

Occurs when the arguer offeres an argument for a conclusion, but is aware of or has readily available additional evidence that does not support (and usually contradicts0 the conclusion

Question 40

Suppressed Evidence Example

Answer 40

My political candidate gives 10% of his income to the needy, goes to church every Sunday, and volunteers one day a week at a homeless shelter. Therefore, he is honest and morally straight.

Question 41

Equivocation

Answer 41

Occurs when the apparent validity and soundness of an argument depends on the fact that a key ambiguous term is being used with two different meanings in the premises. When trying to identify, we should be able to identify the two different meanings of the ambiguous terms

Question 42

Equivocation Examples

Answer 42

The priest told me I should have faith.

I have faith that my son will do well in school this year.

Therefore, the priest should be happy with me.

Question 43

Amphiboly

Answer 43

Occurs when one person makes a statement where it is clear what she/he intended, but where the statement is technically ambiguous, and another person uses this ambiguity to from a conclusion from the speaker’s statement that was probably not intended by the speaker

Question 44

Amphiboly Example

Answer 44

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know

Question 45

Composition

Answer 45

Parts to whole: Inferring that because the parts of a thing have a certain feature the whole must have that feature as well

Question 46

Composition

Answer 46

Each brick in that building weighs less than a pound. Therefore, the building weighs less than a pound.

Question 47

Division

Answer 47

Whole to parts: Inferring that because a whole object/group has a certain characteristic, each individual part or member must have this characteristic as well

Question 48

Division Example

Answer 48

His house is about half the size of most houses in the neighborhood. Therefore, his doors must all be about 3 1/2 feet high.