Fallacies

Question 1

• “Treats failure to prove a claim as constituting denial of that claim”
• “Taking a lack of evidence for a claim as evidence undermining that claim”

Answer 1

Lack of evidence for a position is taken to prove that position is false

Question 2

• “Fails to exclude an alternative explanation for the observed effect”
• “Overlooks the possibility that the same thing may causally contribute both to education and to good health”

Answer 2

Failure to consider an alternate cause for the effect, or an alternate cause for both the cause and the effect

Question 3

-“Treating the failure to establish that a certain claim is false as equivalent to a demonstration that the claim is true”

Answer 3

Lack of evidence against a position is taken to prove that position is true

Question 4

• “Mistakes the observation that one thing happens after another for proof that the second thing is the result of the first”
• “Mistakes a temporal relationship for a causal relationship”

Answer 4

Assuming a causal relationship on the basis of the sequence of events

Question 5

-“Confuses a sufficient condition with a required condition”

Answer 5

Confuses a sufficient condition for a necessary condition

Question 6

• “It treats something that is necessary for bringing out a state of affairs as something that is sufficient to bring about a state of affairs”
• “From the assertion that something is necessary to a moral order, the argument concludes that that thing is sufficient for an element of the moral order to be realized”

Answer 6

Confuses a necessary condition for a sufficient condition

Question 7

• “Confusing the coincidence of two events with a causal relation between the two”
• “Assumes a causal relationship where only a correlation has been indicated”

Answer 7

Assuming a causal relationship when only a correlation exists

Question 8

• “The author cites irrelevant data”
• “draws a conclusion that is broader in scope than is warranted by the evidence advanced”
• “It uses irrelevant facts to justify a claim about the quality of the disputer product”
• “It fails to give any reason for the judgment it reaches”
• “It introduces information unrelated to its conclusion as evidence in support of that conclusion”

Answer 8

General lack of relevant evidence for the conclusion

Question 9

-“Taking the nonexistence of something as evidence that a necessary precondition for that thing also did not exist”

Answer 9

Mistaken negation

Question 10

• “it assumes what it seeks to establish”
• “argues circularly by assuming the conclusion is true in stating the premises”
• “presupposes the truth of what it sets out to prove”
• “the argument assumes what it is attempting to demonstrate”
• “it takes for granted the very claim that it sets out to establish”
• “it offers, in place of support for its conclusion, a mere restatement of that conclusion”

Answer 10

Circular reasoning

Question 11

-“the argument confuses the percentage of the budget spent on a program with the overall amount spent on that program”

Answer 11

Numbers and percentage errors

Question 12

-“mistakes being sufficient to justify punishment for being required to justify it”

Answer 12

Mistaken reversal

Question 13

• “treats a claim about what is currently the case as if it were a claim about what has been the case for an extended period”
• “uncritically draws an inference from what has been true in the past to what will be true in the future”

Answer 13

Time shift errors

Question 14

• “assuming that because something is true of each of the parts of a whole it is true of the whole itself”
• “improperly infers that each and every scientist has a certain characteristic from the premise that most scientists have that characteristic”
• “takes the view of one lawyer to represent the views of all lawyers”

Answer 14

Errors of composition

Question 15

-“presumes, without providing justification, that what is true of a whole must also be true of its constituent parts”

Answer 15

Errors of division

Question 16

• “refutes a distorted version of an opposing position”
• “misdescribing the student representatives position, thereby making it easier to challenge”
• “portrays opponents’ views as more extreme than they really are”
• “distorts the proposal advocated by opponents”

Answer 16

Straw man

Question 17

-“it confuses undermining an argument in support of a given conclusion with showing that the conclusion itself is false”

Answer 17

Some evidence against a position is taken to prove that position is false

Question 18

-“the author mistakes an effect for a cause”

Answer 18

Failure to consider that the events may be reversed

Question 19

• “the judgment of experts is applied to a matter in which their expertise is irrelevant”
• “the argument appropriately appeals to the authority of the mayor”
• “it relies on the judgment of experts in a matter to which their expertise is irrelevant”
• “accepts a claim on mere authority, without requiring sufficient justification”

Answer 19

Appeal to authority

Question 20

-“fails to consider that some students may be neither fascinated by nor completely indifferent to the subject being taught”

Answer 20

False dilemma

Question 21

• “it treats popular opinion as if it constituted conclusive evidence for a claim”
• “attempts to discredit legislation by appealing to public sentiment”
• “a claim is inferred to the false merely because a majority of people believe it to be false”
• “the argument instead of providing adequate reasons in support of its conclusion, makes an appeal to popular opinion”

Answer 21

Appeal to popular opinion/ appeal to numbers

Question 22

• “makes an attack on the character of opponents”
• “it is directed against the proponent of a claim rather than against the claim itself”
• “he directs his criticism against the person making the argument rather than directing it against the argument itself”
• “it draws conclusions about the merit of a position and about the content of that position from evidence about the position’s source”
• “assuming that a claim is false on the grounds that the person defending it is of questionable character”

Answer 22

Source argument

Question 23

• “depending on the ambiguous use of a key term”
• “it confuses two different meanings of the word ‘solve’”
• “relies on interpreting a key term in two different ways”
• “equivocates with respect to a central concept”
• “allows a key term to shift in meaning from one use to the next”
• “fails to define the term”

Answer 23

Uncertain use of a term or concept

Question 24

• “attempt to persuade by making an emotional appeal”
• “uses emotive language in labeling the proposals”
• “the argument appeals to emotion rather than reason”

Answer 24

Appeal to emotion

Question 25

• “uses evidence drawn from a small sample that may well be unrepresentative”
• “generalizes from an unrepresentative sample”
• “states a generalization based on a selection that is not representative of the group about which the generalization is supposed to hold true”

Answer 25

Survey errors

Question 26

• “bases a conclusion on claims that are inconsistent with each other”
• “the author makes incompatible assumptions”
• “introduce information that actually contradicts the conclusion”
• “offers in support of its conclusion pieces of evidence that are mutually contradicting”
• “some of the evidence presented in support of the conclusion is inconsistent with other evidence provided”
• “assumes something that it later denies, resulting in a contradiction”

Answer 26

Internal contradiction

Question 27

• “treats as similar two cases that are different in a critical respect”
• “treats two kinds of things that differ in important respects as if they do not differ”

Answer 27

False analogy

Question 28

• “supports a universal claim on the basis of a single example”
• “The argument generalizes from too small a sample of cases”
• “Too general a conclusion is made about investigating on the basis of a single experiment”
• “bases a general claim on a few exceptional instances”

Answer 28

Exceptional case/ overgeneralization