Fallacy Flashcards
Fallacy
A commonly used, psychologically convincing but unreliable, pattern of reasoning.
Fallacy of Appeal
An unreasonable appeal to an external factor, such as emotion or popularity.
Appeal to Authority
Relying upon the view of apparent (as opposed to genuine) authorities to settle the truth of a statement or argument.
Appeal to Popularity
Arguing that a claim must be true because lots of people believe it.
Appeals to Tradition
Like appeals to popularity, except the appeal is to how long something has been believed, rather than to the number of people who have believed it.
Appeal to Ignorance
The arguer asserts that a claim must be true because no one has proven it false, or that a claim must be false because no one has proven it to be true.
Appeal to Emotion
An arguer attempts to evoke feelings of pity or compassion, when such feelings are not logically relevant to the arguer’s conclusion.
Appeal to Consequences
An argument is considered good if good consequences will follow from the conclusion; similarly an argument is bad if undesirable consequences follow.
Formal Fallacy
An argument which is bad through its form rather than content.
Affirming the Consequent
If P then Q. But Q, therefore P.
Denying the Antecedent
If P then Q. But not P, therefore not Q.
Exclusive Fallacy
Either P or Q. But P, therefore not Q.
Negative Fallacy
Deducing a negative conclusion from only positive premises; or, drawing a positive conclusion from only negative premises.
Fallacy of Relevance
a premise or sub-argument that appears to offer support, but which is, in principle, irrelevant to the conclusion.
The Hypocrisy Fallacy
Rejecting an argument because the person advancing it fails to practice what he or she preaches.
The Red Herring Fallacy
An arguer tries to sidetrack their audience by raising an irrelevant issue and then claims that the original issue has effectively been settled by the irrelevant diversion.
The Strawman Fallacy
Someone distorts or caricatures an opponent’s arguments or views, and then attacks the weakened version rather than the real argument.
The Ad Hominem or ‘At the Person’ Fallacy
Rejecting someone’s argument by attacking the person rather than evaluating their argument on its merits.
The Fallacy of Equivocation
A key word is used in two or more senses in the same argument and the apparent success of the argument depends on the shift in meaning.
Fallacy of Unacceptable Premise
A premise, or sub-argument, which is weak but psychologically compelling - that is, it appears to provide support for the conclusion, but does not.
Begging the Question
Stating or assuming as a premise the very thing you are trying to conclude.
False Dilemma or False Dichotomy
Presenting two options and assuming that exactly one of them may be true, never both, and that there are no other possible options.
Decision Point Fallacy or the Sorites Paradox
Claiming that because we cannot identify a precise cut-off or decision point, we cannot distinguish between correct and incorrect uses of a term.
The Slippery Slope Fallacy
Arguers say that an innocent-looking first step should not be taken because once taken, it will impossible not to take the next, and the next, and so on, until you end up in a position you don’t want to be in.
Hasty Generalisations
Arguer draws a general conclusion from a sample that is biased or too small.
Faulty Analogies
An analogy depends upon a comparison between things that are not actually similar in relevant respects, or which also have important relevant differences.
The Fallacy Fallacy
The fallacy of inferring that merely because an argument contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
Taking into account the amount of time, effort, or money already spent on a task or goal when deciding whether to continue with it.
Gambler’s Fallacy
Taking past results of random events into account when predicting future events. In particular, assuming that recent events are less likely to reoccur.
Special Pleading
Claiming that the current case is an exception to a generally accepted rule, without providing relevant justification.
No True Scotsman
Exceptions and counter-examples are excluded from a claim by continually shifting the relevant criteria until only the desired class can satisfy them.
Hindsight Bias
An overestimation of the significance of key events that leads to an overconfidence that a past outcome was both certain and easy to predict.
Causal Fallacy
A fallacy based on the gap between correlation and causation.
The Correlation Fallacy
Two events seem to always occur together, one preceding the other. Therefore, the first event causes the second.
Single Cause Fallacy
Assuming there is a single cause for an event when it is actually caused by several different factors, none of which were sufficient.
Over-determination Fallacy
Assuming there is a single cause for an event when it is actually caused by several different factors, any of which would have been sufficient.
The Conjunction Fallacy
We regard more specific descriptions as more likely, even though every added detail increases the chance of being wrong.
The Whether Fallacy
Conflating the accuracy of correcting identifying a type of thing with the accuracy of correctly identifying whether an object is that type of thing.
The Predictive Fallacy
Reasoning backwards from predictions to patterns.
