Informal Fallacies

Question 1

Amphiboly (two meanings)

Answer 1

Two meanings, faulty grammar i.e. one morning I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got there I have no idea.

Question 2

Accent (rise above, give emphasis)

Answer 2

Words or sentences taken out of context and given visual or verbal emphasis that they were not meant to have. i.e. FREE CAR HIRE….when you book with us.

Question 3

Equivocation

Answer 3

a key term or word in an arguement that changes meaning during the course of an arguement

Question 4

Composition (parts of a group)

Answer 4

a group are inferred from charcteristics of its individual parts or members. Assumption is made that what is true of each individual member is also true for whole group.

Question 5

Division

Answer 5

Opposite of Compositon i.e. Cambridge Uni is a great Uni and since Sharon went to Cambridge the she must be great also.

Question 6

Begging the question

Answer 6

Any form of arguement in which the conclusion appears as sone of the premises.

Question 7

Bifurcation

Answer 7

Bi (two) arguement with only two alternatives wher in reality othes may exist. (black & white fallacy) “you either love them or you hate them’

Question 8

False Analogy

Answer 8

where highlighting the similarity of two things can go wrong - A nuclear power plant is safer than eating, because 500 people choke to death on food every year.

Question 9

False Cause

Answer 9

After this, because of this. ‘Every severe recession has followed a labour party goverment; therefore the labour party is the cause of the recessions.

Question 10

Sweeping Generalisation

Answer 10

Occurs with the error of assuming that what is true under certain conditons is true under all conditions.

Question 11

Hasty Generalisation

Answer 11

Occurs when a generatisation is drawn on the basis of too small a sample or an uncommon case.

Question 12

Slippery Slope

Answer 12

Objecting to something on the grounds of the unwarranted assumption that it will ultimately lead to a bad consequence, that in turn will lead to another bad consequence and so on.

Question 13

Straw Man

Answer 13

The fallacy occurs when an oponents views are misrepresented and weakened in order to make them easier to criticise.

Question 14

Ad hominem

Answer 14

Involves attacking an opponent rather than the opponents agruement.

Question 15

Tu Quoque

Answer 15

“Look who’s talking” ‘whot are you to say I should stop doing overtime? You put in more hours than Ido.

Question 16

Appear to Authority

Answer 16

Fallacy occurs when the authoirty being cited has no special knowledge about the topic being argued.

Question 17

Appeal to the Masses

Answer 17

Attempt to persuade by appealing to opoular opinion and Mass sentiment. ‘All of my friends are going so I should be allowed to go too.’

Question 18

Appeal to Pity

Answer 18

An irrelevant appeal is made to encourage us to respond with pity.

Question 19

Appear to ignorance

Answer 19

When someone argues that because we do not know that a certain sttement is true then it must be false. “If you can’t prove me wrong, then I must be right.”