Ch. 4: Fallacies

Question 1

Fallacy

Answer 1

A type of argument that seems to be correct, but contains a mistake in reasoning.

Question 2

Fallacy of relevance

Answer 2

A fallacy in which the premises are irrelevant to the conclusion.

Question 3

Appeal to the populace

Answer 3

An informal fallacy in which the support given for some conclusion is an appeal to popular belief. Also known as argument ad populum.

Question 4

Appeal to pity

Answer 4

A fallacy in which the argument relies on generosity, altruism, or mercy, rather than on reason. Also known as argument ad misericordiam.

Question 5

Red herring

Answer 5

A fallacy in which attention is deliberately deflected away from the issue under discussion.

Question 6

Straw man

Answer 6

A fallacy in which an opponent’s position is depicted as being more extreme or unreasonable than is justified by what was actually asserted.

Question 7

Argument against the person

Answer 7

A fallacy in which the argument relies upon an attack against the person taking a position. This fallacy is also known as “argument ad hominem.

Question 8

Poisoning the well

Answer 8

A variety of abusive ad hominem argument in which continued rational exchange is undermined by attacking the good faith or intellectual honesty of the opponent.

Question 9

Appeal to force

Answer 9

A fallacy in which the argument relies upon an open or veiled threat of force. Also known as “argument ad baculum.

Question 10

Missing the point

Answer 10

A fallacy in which the premises support a different conclusion from the one that is proposed. Also known as “irrelevant conclusion” and “ignoratio elenchi.

Question 11

Fallacy of defective induction

Answer 11

A fallacy in which the premises are too weak or ineffective to warrant the conclusion.

Question 12

Argument from ignorance

Answer 12

A fallacy in which a proposition is held to be true just because it has not been proven false, or false because it has not been proven true. Also known as “argument ad ignorantiam.

Question 13

Appeal to inappropriate authority

Answer 13

A fallacy in which a conclusion is accepted as true simply because an expert has said that it is true. This is a fallacy whether or not the expert’s area of expertise is relevant to the conclusion. Also known as “argument ad verecundiam.

Question 14

False cause

Answer 14

A fallacy in which something that is not really the cause of something else is treated as its cause. Also known as non causa pro causa.

Question 15

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

Answer 15

A fallacy in which an event is presumed to have been caused by a closely preceding event. Literally, “After this; therefore, because of this.

Question 16

Slippery slope

Answer 16

A fallacy in which change in a particular direction is asserted to lead inevitably to further changes (usually undesirable) in the same direction.

Question 17

Hasty generalization

Answer 17

A fallacy of defective induction in which one moves carelessly from a single case, or a very few cases, to a large-scale generalization about all or most cases. Also known as “converse accident.

Question 18

Fallacy of presumption

Answer 18

Any fallacy in which the conclusion depends on a tacit assumption that is dubious, unwarranted, or false.

Question 19

Fallacy of accident

Answer 19

A fallacy in which a generalization is mistakenly applied to a particular case to which the generalization does not apply.

Question 20

Complex question

Answer 20

An informal fallacy in which a question is asked in such a way as to presuppose the truth of some conclusion buried in that question.

Question 21

Begging the question

Answer 21

An informal fallacy in which the conclusion of an argument is stated or assumed in any one of the premises. Also known as “circular argument” and petitio principii.

Question 22

Fallacy of ambiguity

Answer 22

An informal fallacy caused by a shift or a confusion in the meanings of words or phrases within an argument. Also known as a “sophism.”

Question 23

Fallacy of equivocation

Answer 23

A fallacy in which two or more meanings of a word or phrase are used, accidentally or deliberately, in different parts of an argument.

Question 24

Fallacy of amphiboly

Answer 24

A fallacy in which a loose or awkward combination of words can be interpreted in more than one way; the argument contains a premise based upon one interpretation, while the conclusion relies on a different interpretation.

Question 25

Fallacy of Accent

Answer 25

A fallacy of ambiguity that occurs when an argument contains a premise that relies on one possible emphasis of certain words, but the conclusion relies on a different emphasis that gives those same words a different meaning.

Question 26

Fallacy of composition

Answer 26

A fallacy of ambiguity in which an argument erroneously assigns attributes to a whole (or to a collection) based on the fact that parts of that whole (or members of that collection) have those attributes.

Question 27

Fallacy of division

Answer 27

A fallacy of ambiguity in which an argument erroneously assigns attributes to parts of a whole (or to members of a collection) based on the fact that the whole (or the collection) has those attributes.