Informal Fallacies PDF

Logic and Critical Thinking: Spotting errors in reasoning Fallacies are errors in reasoning or argumentation. As we pound on the importance of critical thinking and logic, you will be exposed to different examples of fallacies in logic. Below are some of them. You may also check the reading “Logica...

Logic and Critical Thinking: Spotting errors in reasoning Fallacies are errors in reasoning or argumentation. As we pound on the importance of critical thinking and logic, you will be exposed to different examples of fallacies in logic. Below are some of them. You may also check the reading “Logical Fallacies” in the book Critical Thinking: A Student’s Introduction, found in the Blackboard folder “Readings (Required)”. Also, you may want to watch the Youtube video titled “Love is a Fallacy” to further understand some of them. Here’s the Youtube link: https://youtu.be/eK_tb7ob8Kg Informal Fallacies Fallacies of Insufficient Evidence – premises fail to provide adequate evidence for the conclusion. Fallacies of Relevance – evidence is of the wrong kind in order to establish a conclusion. Fallacies of Ambiguity – intended meaning is not clear. 1. Fallacy of Hasty Generalization – the quantity of the evidence is not commensurate with the scope and the importance of the conclusion being drawn. (Sometimes associated with Converse Accident) 2. Fallacy of Contradictory Premises – argues on the basis of premises that make up a contradiction or a paradox 3. Argumentum ad Vericundiam (Appeal to Inappropriate Authority/Appeal to General Eminence/Appeal to a Famous Person) - plays on people’s respect of or familiarity with a famous person or authority even though the latter does not have anything to do with the case at hand. 4. Argumentum ad Baculum (Appeal to Force) - this fallacy forces agreement or concession by way of threats 5. Argumentum ad Misericordiam (Appeal to Pity) - this fallacy invokes one’s tendency to show pity or compassion 6. Argumentum ad Populum (Appeal to Popular Sentiment/Bandwagon Fallacy) -this fallacy proves the truth of a claim by invoking the opinion of the majority 7. Argumentum ad Hominem (Argument Against the Person) a. Abusive (Appeal to Personality/Poisoning the Well) – attack on the person’s personality. b. Circumstantial Argument Against the Person – the circumstances of the person’s life are such that he/she could be expected to hold exactly those views.Thus, it must be biased or false  c. Tu Quoque or “You-Too Argument” – attempt to defend oneself by making a counter-charge against the accuser invoking a relevant experience that may prove the accuser’s hypocrisy. 8. Argumentum ad Ignorantiam – a statement is true because it cannot be proven false and vice-versa. 9. Petitio Principii (Begging the Question) – when a given statement is offered as evidence that the very statement is true. 10. Complex Question – asking a question in such a way that if one answers the question as stated, one is at least assenting to (or dissenting from) at least one statement assumed by the question. 11. False Cause – when A is identified to cause B with insufficient grounds to justify the causal relationship. Post Hoc Fallacy – from post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore, before this); consists in arguing that A is the cause of B solely because A occurred before B 12. Straw-Man Fallacy – a) one misrepresents the position that one wishes to oppose, and b) one attacks the misrepresented position as if it were the real position one wishes to oppose 13. Accident – one applies a general rule to exceptional cases. 14. Black or White Fallacy (Fallacy of False Dilemma) – one assumes that there are only two contrary alternatives available, ignoring the possibility of other alternatives between contraries. 15. Fallacy of Improper Accent – false conclusion due to misplaced accent 16. Fallacy of Amphiboly (Syntactic Ambiguity) – meaning of word is indeterminate because of the loose or awkward way by which its words are combined. 17. Fallacy of Composition – treating distributed characteristics as if it were collective. 18. Fallacy of Division – treating a collective attribute distributively. 19. Fallacy of Equivocation – given word or phrase may have more than one meaning. 20. Hypothesis Contrary to Fact (from the reading Love is a Fallacy) - this offers a poorly supported claim about what might have happened in the past or what may happen in the future. 22. Appeal to Desire - this is an example of an appeal to irrelevant emotions. The premise provided aims to convince the audience by invoking hopes or desires (e.g., desires to look beautiful, boost one’s appeal) 23. Vicious Abstraction (Reification Fallacy) - this fallacy consists in misleading people by using vague or abstract terms 24. False Analogy - the fallacy involves making analogies or comparisons between objects that are not entirely alike. 25. Slippery Slope - a position that claims that one negative occurrence will lead to a series of other negative events. 26. Appeal to Tradition (Argumentum ad Antiquitatem) - this fallacy occurs when what is considered to be traditional and customary is taken to be true and applicable even at present. 27. Non Sequitur - This literally means “does not follow.” The conclusion does not necessarily follow from the premises. Note that all types of fallacies are “non sequiturs.” This means that “non sequitur” is a more general term for any fallacious argument.