Chapter 3 Fallacies Flashcards
What is a fallacy?
A fallacy is a type of bad argument that has proven to be regulary persuasive, that somehow creates an illusion that serves to make it seem good.
What is an Ad Hominem (Against the person)?
A fallacy when one person responds by directing his or her attention, not to the argument itself, but to the person who made it.
What is an abusive ad hominem?
When a respondent uses abusive language against their argumentative opponent.
What is a circumstantial ad hominem?
When a respondent accuses their argumentative opponent of having a personal stake in the outcome of the dispute whch entails that the latter’s agrument should not be taken seriously.
What is a tu quoque (hypocritical) ad hominem?
Respondent attempts to make their argumentative opponent appear to be hypocritical or arguing in bad faith; engaging in behavior which confilicts with his or her stated conclusion.
What is an Ad Baculum (appeal to Force)?
Occurs when an arguer poses a conclusion to a disputant and tells that person either implicitly or explicitly, that some harm will come to him or her if he or she does not accept the conclusion?
What is an Ad Misericordiam (Appeal to Pity)?
Occerus when an arguer attempts to support a conclusion by merely evoking pity from the reader or listener.
What is an Ad Populum?(Bandwagon)
Occurs when an arguer uses peoples desire to be loved and accepted, to get listeners to accept a conclusion; involves an appeal to the fact that members of a desirable group accept a claim, so you should aswell.
What is an accident (Detstroying the Exception)?
Occurs when a general rule is applied is applied to a specific case it was not intended to cover.
What is a Hasty Generalization?
The converse of the Accident Fallacy. It occurs when a too small or unrepresentative sample of a population is used to justify a generalization about all or most members of that population.
What is a fallacy of composition?
It occurs when the conclusion of an argument depends on the erroneous transference of an attribute from the parts of something onto the whole.
What is the fallacy of Division?
The converse of the fallacy of composition; occurs when the conclusion of an argument depends on the erroneous transference of an attribute from a whole onto its parts.
What is the Straw Person fallacy?
Occurs when an agruer distorts an opponent’s argument for the purpose of more easily attacking it. Attacks/Misrepresents the opponents position.
What is an Irrelevant conclusion (missing the point)?
Occurs when the premises of an argument support one conclusion but a different, often vaguely related conclusion is drawn.
What is a Red Herring?
Occurs when the arguer diverts the attention of the listener by changing the subject to a different but subtly related one.
What is an Ad Ignorantium (Appeal to ignorance)?
Occurs when the premises of an argument establish that a thesis of some kind has not been proven and based on that, the contrary must be correct.
What is a Slippery Slope?
Occurs when the conclusion of an argument rests upon an alleged chain reaction when there is not sufficient reason to think the chain reaction will occur.
What is a Loaded Question (Complex Question)?
Occurs when a question is posed which contains a controversial presupposition. Whatever answer is given, the question implicitly afirms the proposition that the listener did not accept.
What is a False Dilemma (False Dichotomy)?
Occurs when a either/or premise is deployed which presents two unlikely alternatives as if they were the only ones available. Then provides grounds which eliminate one of the options keeping his preferred option.
What is an Equivocation (Semantic Ambiguity)?
Occurs when the conclusion of an argument depends on the fact that a word or phrase is used in two different senses in the argument.
What is the fallacy of Syntactic Ambiguity (Amphiboly)?
Occurs when the conclusion is ambiguous between two or more grammatial structures.
