Fallacies Flashcards
A specific kind of appeal to emotion in which someone tries to win support for an argument or idea by exploiting his or her opponent’s feelings of pity or guilt
Argumentum ad misericordiam (Appeal to pity)
Whatever has not been proved false must be true, and vice versa
Argumentum ad ignorantian (Appeal to ignorance)
This is a logical chain of reasoning of a term or word several times, but giving the particular word a different meaning each time. Example:
Human beings have hands; the clock has hands. He is drinking from the pitcher of water; he is a baseball pitcher.
Equivocation
This fallacy attempts to link the validity of a premise to a character or belief of the person advocating the premise.
Argumentum ad hominem (Against the person)
An argument where force, coercion, or the threat of force, is given as a justification for a conclusion.
Argumentum ad baculum (Appeal to force)
An argument that appeals or exploits people’s vanities, desire for esteem, and anchoring on popularity.
Argumentum ad populum (Appeal to the people)/ bandwagon fallacy
Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one. This fallacy is also referred to as coincidental correlation, or correlation not causation.
False Cause (post hoc)
The fallacy is commonly based on a broad conclusion upon the statistics of a survey of a small group that fails to sufficiently represent the whole population.
Hasty generalization
it is a fallacy where an argument does not follow as the arguer concludes from the premises.
Argumentum non sequitur
Are flawed, deceptive, or false arguments that can be proven wrong with reasoning.
Logical fallacies
Is the misuse of an authority’s opinion to support an argument. While an authority’s opinion can represent evidence and data, it becomes a fallacy if their expertise or authority is overstated, illegitimate, or irrelevant to the topic.
Appeal to authority
Occur when a person’s argument repeats what they already assumed before without arriving at a new conclusion.
Circular argument
argument assumes that a certain course of action will necessarily lead to a chain of future events. The ________ _____ fallacy takes a benign premise or starting point and suggests that it will lead to unlikely or ridiculous outcomes with no supporting evidence.
Slippery slope
Attacks a different subject rather than the topic being discussed — often a more extreme version of the counter argument. The purpose of this misdirection is to make one’s position look stronger than it actually is.
Straw Man
