Fallacies Flashcards
Fallacy
A mistake in reasoning
(Fallacious argument - makes a bad argument appear good)
Denying the Antecedent
If then statement (Negative - Preceding)
1) If there was a conspiracy, then there was a cover-up
2) It is not the case that there was a conspiracy
3) Thus, there was no cover-up
Affirming the Consequent
If then statement (Positive - Latter)
1) If there was a conspiracy, then there was a cover-up
2) There was a coverup
3) Thus, there was a conspiracy
Composition Fallacy
Since each part of the whole has a feature, the whole must have that same feature.
1) Each song is one minute in duration
2) Therefore, the entire album is one minute in duration
The Division Fallacy
Since the whole has a specific feature, each part must also embody that feature.
1) The 2004 Detroit Pistons had the best basketball team in the NBA
2) Therefore, the Detroit Pistons had the best players in the NPA at each position
Begging the Question
A question with implicit, often subtle false assumptions that corner the opponent in a manner that any answer they give will be used against them.
Ex: Proffesor Vitt, have you stopped stealing student writing for your published articles yet?
False Dichotomy
Limiting an argument to two options when others are available/a disjunction that does not exhaust all of the possible options.
1) Raising taxes on the wealthy will either hurt the economy or it will help it
2) But it won’t help the economy
3) Therefore, it will hurt the economy
Equivocation
A word is used equivocally—that is, in two different senses.
1) What is light cannot be dark
2) A feather is light
3) Therefore, a feather cannot be dark
Slippery Slope Fallacy
A relatively small first step will undeniably lead to a chain reaction resulting in a detrimental significant effect.
This is often extreme with no evidence or suppport provided.
1) A person with only 1 cent is poor.
2) A difference of 1 cent is not a significant difference.
3) A person with 1,000,000,000,000 pennies is rich.
4) Thus, there is not a significant difference between being poor and rich because the difference is only a series of differences of insignificant differences.
Ad Hominem
An attack on the person rather than the argument.
This prevents critical thinking because attention is drawn to the person rather than the debated question.
Example: Of course Wash is going to argue that God exists, Wash is a pastor!
Strawman
An attack on a misrepresentaion of the opponent’s argument.
Often includes distortions and exagerations.
Example:
Person A - We should make some regulations on plastic bags since they are so bad for the environment.
Person B - You want to ban all plastic bags? Then we would be cutting down more trees for paper bags! That’s even worse for the environment.
Naturalistic Fallacy
Justifying a practice or conclusion, on the basis that it is “natural”.
Example: Arsenic is natural, it comes from nature. It’s good for you.
Tu Quoque (kwo-kwe)
Avoiding answering a criticism by bringing up a criticism of your opponent rather than answer the criticism.
cough cough KAMALA HARRIS
Appeal to Authority - Proxy of Truth
Taking what an individual says as proof for a claim.
Genetic Fallacy
That the origin of something (e.g., a theory, idea, policy, etc.) is a reason for rejecting (or accepting) it.
Example: Of course that gun control bill is trash, it is written by the NRA!
Appeal to Consequences
The consequences alone determine the merits of the idea.
Example: You shouldn’t believe in climate change because it would require drastic changes that would hurt the economy.
The Fallacy Fallacy
Arguer concludes that an opponent’s position has no merit because they have made an error in reasoning that their conclusion must be false.
Example
Person A - You are an idiot, global warming is a real phenomenon.
Person B - You just committed a fallacy, the Ad Hominem Fallacy of personal attack. So, you are wrong that global warming is real and I am right that the earth is not warming.
Incongruity (Individualistic) Fallacy
Adopting a definition of a term that is overly broad or narrow.
Fallacy of Relative Privation (Appeal to Worse Problems)
The claim that a particular issue/cause/claim is not valid because there are “worse” problems.
Example: When pro-choicers start bringing up adoption and foster care.
False Cause
A real or perceived relationship between things means that one is the cause of the other.
Aka Correlation ≠ Causation
Example: The Gas Prices are too high, it’s the President’s fault!
Legalistic Fallacy
If we have abolished racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic (segregationist, jim crow, etc.) laws, then there is no such bigotry in our society. That is because it is outlawed and people conform to these laws.
1) If we have abolished racist (segregationist, jim crow, etc.) laws, then there is racism.
2) We have abolished racist laws.
3) Thus, there is no racism.
Tokenistic Fallacy
The presence of people of color (or any marginalized group) in influential positions is evidence of the complete eradication of racial obstacles and/or social barriers.
Ahistorical Fallacy
The claim that historical events (racial crimes or historical ) are so remote in time and space that they have no present effect or relevance.
Hard Version: So what if there was slavery? It was so long ago, it does not matter, none of the people who were alive then are alive now. At some point you have to “move on” and take personal responsibility!
Soft Version: ONLY some events in the recent past are relevant.
Fixed Falllacy (Equivocation)
Racism/Sexism/Heteronormativism/Genderism is the same over time. So although some overt acts of racism in the past were bad. These things have not happened for a while.
1) Racial violence has stayed low compared to historical rates of lynching.
2) Thus, there is very little racism.
Argument Ad Populum
Appeal to the crowd praising followers as good, wise, knowledgable. Difficult to challenge what is commonly believed. It has 3 general uses:
1) Appeal to authority–something is true because a subset of people think that it is
2) Widespread support - crowd size
3) Heighten emotional responses of the crowd (socio-psychological factors) (feelings of safety within the group, as well as greed, fear, and shame.) i) This prevents critical thinking by the authority of the crowd. Vox populi, vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God)–using this fallaciously actually erodes the wisdom of the people, while appearing to champion it. Look for shared understandings or adherence to social constructions, including plausibility structures shared by members of the group.
Paralipsis
To leave to the side… not saying just saying. Mentioning something while denying mentioning it. Denying while affirming.
Paralipsis
To leave to the side… not saying just saying. Mentioning something while denying mentioning it. Denying while affirming.
Argument Ad Baculum
Appeal to the stick–shift attention away, put pressure on opponents to make it difficult to question or make arguments against them, involves ambiguity, between a threat and a warning. Can include physical restriction.
Reifaction
Used to reduce people to things, to deprive them of their value. This tactic tends to deny autonomy, and agency to people and make them interchangeable with objects.
Appeal to Tradition
Justifying a practice, position or claim on the basis that it has been done previously. Also sometimes appears as “Appeal to ancient wisdom”.
Dysphemsim
Getting someone to accept or reject a position or claim by using language that has negative or derogatory associations or connotations. In practice, this is usually tied to the cognitive heuristic of “framing,” “the Associative Bias”, and/or anchoring effect.
