Fallacies Flashcards
(27 cards)
Relevance- appeal to populace (ad populum)
- correct reasoning is replaced by devices calculated to elicit emotional and non-rational support for the conclusion
- bandwagon
Relevance- appeal to emotion (appeal to pity)
-correct reasoning is replaced by appeals to specific emotions, such as pity, pride, or envy
Relevance- the red herring
-correct reasoning is manipulated by the introduction of some event or character that deliberately misleads the audience and thus hinders inference
Relevance- the straw man
-correct reasoning is undermined by the deliberate misrepresentation of the opponent’s position
Relevance- argument against the person (ad hominem)
-correct reasoning about some issue is replaced by an attack upon the character or special circumstances of the opponent
Relevance- appeal to force (ad baculum)
-reasoning is replaced by threats in the effort to win support or assent
Relevance- missing the point (ignoration elenchi)
-correct reasoning is replaced by the mistaken refutation of a position that was not really at issue
Relevance- poisoning the well
- continued rational exchange is undermined by attacking the good faith or intellectual honesty of the opponent
- variety of ad hominem (abusive)
Defective Induction- argument from ignorance (ad ignorantiam)
-a proposition is held to be true just because it has NOT been proven false, or vice versa.
Fallacies of Defective Induction
-the premises are too weak or ineffective to support the conclusion
Fallacies of Relevance
-the premises are irrelevant to the conclusion
Defective Induction- appeal to inappropriate authority (verecundiam)
-the premises of an argument appeal to the judgment of some person or persons who have no legitimate claim to authority in the matter at hand
Defective Induction- false cause (non causa pro causa)
-one treats as the cause of a thing that which is not really the cause of that thing, often relying merely on the close temporal succession of two events
Defective Induction- slippery slope
-a change in a particular direction is asserted to lead inevitably to further changes (usually bad) in the same direction
Defective Induction- hasty generalization (converse accident)
-when a principle that is true to a particular case is applied carelessly or deliberately to all or most cases
Defective Induction- post hoc ergo propter hoc
- an event is presumed to have been caused by a closely preceding event
- after this, therefore, because of this
Presumption- Accident
-a generalization is applied to individual cases that it does not govern
Presumption- Complex Question (plurium interrogationum)
-one argues by asking a question in such away as to presuppose the truth of some assumption buried in that question
Presumption- Begging the Question (petitio principii)
-the conclusion of an argument is stated or assumed in one of the premises
Ambiguity- Equivocation
-the same word or phrase is used with two or more meanings, deliberately or accidentally, in formulating an argument
Ambiguity- Amphiboly (“two in a lump”)
-arising from the loose, awkward, or mistaken way in which words are combined, leading to alternative possible meanings of a statement
Ambiguity- Accent ( emphasis)
-a shift of meaning arises within an argument as a consequence of changes in the emphasis given to its words or parts
Ambiguity- Composition
-an inference is mistakenly drawn from the attributes of the parts of a whole to the attributes of the whole itself
Ambiguity- Division
-a mistaken inference is drawn from the attributes of a whole to the attributes of the parts of the whole
