Fallacies Flashcards
Argumentum ad baculum
Appealing to force in order to silence or threaten the opponent
Ad hominem: direct attack/abusive
Directly insulting the opponent with an irrelevant comment regarding a personal quality or character (this is presented as if it is an evidence against the position)
Ad hominem: indirect attack/circumstantial
Bringing irrelevant facts to distract form the truth
Ad hominem: indirect attack/ poisoning the well
Before the debate starts, based on personal irrelevant qualities. The person is not there or not been able to make their case.
Ad hominem: to quoque
Answering an attack with another attack in order to distract from the question. «But you’re the one that…»
Ad misericodium
Appeal to emotions of pity rather than rationality
Straw man
Oversimplifying the argument or pushing to the extreme the opponents thesis. Whenever the statement gives a totally unrelated proof
Ex: god must exist: so many people find happiness in religion
Ad verecundiam: abuse of authority
Believing a statement by someone just because of their authority
Plurium interrogationum
A question is asked that assumes something that hasn’t yet been proven.
The question already implicitly assumes an affirmative or negative answer to questions on which the validity of the first question depends
Shifting the burden of proof
Rather than justifying ones thesis, forcing the other person to disprove the thesis or justify their own.
«Give me a reason why we shouldn’t»
Petitio principii: circular reasoning
The conclusion is used as the argument.
False anology
Weak anology between a and b in order to claim that a since A has property P,then B has also property p
Hasty generalization
Conclusion is made based on a sample which is too small to represent the whole population
Ex: a book I read was bad, thus all books are bad
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Just because A followed B does not mean A was caused by B
Succession does not imply causation
Cum hoc ergo propter hoc
Just because two things are correlated does not mean they cause each other. Correlation does not imply causation
Slippery slope
Arguing that there exists a casual chain of events. Mostly catastrophizing and no link
Denying the antecedent
If A then B
Not A so not B
Ex: if i have the flu then I will have a sore throat. I don’t have the flu, therefore I will not have a sore throat
Not a sound argument because even though A did not happen, B still can
Affirming the consequent
If A then B
If B then A happened
Ex: if i have the flu then I’ll have a sore throat. I have a sore throat therefore I have the flu
Fallacy of composition
Assuming that if individual parts have a certain property, then the whole thing has that property
Ex: ingredients are delicious therefore the cake is going to be delicious
Fallacy of division
If the whole has a property it doesn’t mean that it’s subparts had these properties
Argumentum ad ignorantiam
Absence of evidence does not constitute evidence for its contrary
Ex: no one knows it’s true therefore it is false
The Gambler’s fallacy
Probalistic error. Using the history of a certain event to predict a next event
False dilemma/bifurcation fallacy
Assuming that there are only two possible options.
Ex: be my friend or be my enemy
