Classic Flaws

Question 1

bad conditional reasoning

Answer 1

mistakes something that is necessary to bring about a situations for something that in itself is enough to bring about the situation (ie reads conditional chain backwards without negating)

Question 2

bad casual reasoning

Answer 2

mistakes the cause of a particular phenonomen for the effect of that phenomon

Question 3

whole to part/part to whole

Answer 3

assuming that because something is true of each of the parts of a whole it is true of the whole itself (pie slice is triangular thus pie is triangular)

Question 4

overgeneralization

Answer 4

makes a sweeping generalization based on evidence drawn from a limited number of atypical cases

Question 5

survey problem

Answer 5

uses evidence drawn from small sample that may well be unrepresentative

Question 6

possibility does not equal certainty

Answer 6

confuses an absense of evidence for a hypothesis with the existence of evidence against the hypothesis

Question 7

false dichotomy

Answer 7

assume without warrant that a situation allows only two possibilities

Question 8

straw man

Answer 8

misdescribing the position, thereby making it easier to challenge

Question 9

ad homien

Answer 9

rejects a claim by attacking the proponent(person making the claim) of the claim rather than addressing the claim itself

Question 10

circular reasoning

Answer 10

presupposes what is sets out to prove

Question 11

equivocation

Answer 11

relies on two different uses of a term

Question 12

appeal fallacies

Answer 12

cites the evidence in direct support of a claim that lies outside their area of expertise

Question 13

irrelevant

Answer 13

uses irrelevant facts to justify a claim

Question 14

percentages does not equal numbers

Answer 14

takes no account of the relative frequency of… in the population as a whole