Fallacy Flashcards
Appeal to the populace
When correct reasoning is
replaced by devices calculated to elicit emotional and nonrational support
for the conclusion urged.
Appeal to emotion
When correct reasoning is replaced by appeals to
specific emotions, such as pity, pride, or envy.
Red herring
When correct reasoning is manipulated by the introduc
tion of some event or character that deliberately misleads the audience and
thus hinders rational inference.
The straw man
When correct reasoning is undermined by the deliberate
misrepresentation of the opponent’s position.
Ad hominem
When correct reasoning about some
issue is replaced by an attack upon the character or special circumstances of
the opponent.
Ad baculum (appeal to force)
When reasoning is replaced by threats in
the effort to win support or assent.
Ignorantio elenchi (missing the point)
i): When correct reasoning is replaced by
the mistaken refutation of a position that was not really at issue.
What are fallacies of Defective Induction?
In fallacies of defective induction, the premises may be relevant to the conclu
sion, but they are far too weak to support the conclusion.
Ad ignorantiam (appeal to ignorance)
When it is argued that a proposition is
true on the ground that it has not been proved false, or when it is argued
that a proposition is false because it has not been proved true.
Ad verecumdiam (appeal to inappropriate authority)
When the premises of
an argument appeal to the judgment of some person or persons who have
no legitimate claim to authority in the matter at hand.
Non causa pro causa (false cause)
When one treats as the cause of a thing
that which is not really the cause of that thing, often relying (as in the sub
type post hoc ergo propter hoc) merely on the close temporal succession of
two events.
Hasty generalization (converse accident):
When one moves carelessly or too
quickly from one or a very few instances to a broad or universal claim.
Define Fallacies of Presumption
In fallacies of presumption, the mistake in argument arises from relying on some
proposition that is assumed to be true but is without warrant and is false or du
bious. Three major fallacies are as follows:
Fallacy of accident
When one mistakenly applies a generalization to an individual
case that it does not properly govern.
Complex question (plurium interrogationum):
When one argues by asking a
question in such a way as to presuppose the truth of some assumption
buried in that question.
Begging the question (petitio principii):
When one assumes in the premises of
an argument the truth of what one seeks to establish in the conclusion of that
same argument.
Define Fallacies of Ambiguity
In fallacies of ambiguity, the mistakes in argument arise as a result of the shift in
the meaning of words or phrases, from the meanings that they have in the prem
ises to different meanings that they have in the conclusion.
Equivocation
When the same word or phrase is used with two or more
meanings, deliberately or accidentally, in formulating an argument.
Amphiboly
When one of the statements in an argument has more than one
plausible meaning, because of the loose or awkward way in which the
words in that statement have been combined.
Accent
When a shift of meaning arises within an argument as a conse
quence of changes in the emphasis given to its words or parts.
Composition
This fallacy is committed (a) when one reasons mistakenly
from the attributes of a part to the attributes of the whole, or (b) when one
reasons mistakenly from the attributes of an individual member of some col
lection to the attributes of the totality of that collection.
Division
This fallacy is committed (a) when one reasons mistakenly from
the attributes of a whole to the attributes of one of its parts, or (b) when one
reasons mistakenly from the attributes of a totality of some collection of en
tities to the attributes of the individual entities within that collection.
