logical fallacies Flashcards
ad hominem (poisoning the well)
a vicious personal attack
tu quoque
responding to criticism with criticism
bandwagon appeal
“everyone likes it, so you should too.”
slippery slope
catastrophic thinking, “If you let Kyle stay out late, he’ll start drinking and using drugs, and before you know it, he’ll be homeless or in jail.”
anecdotal
using personal experience or an isolated incident to make an argument
hasty generalization
a few examples (not enough) are used to make a generalization
sweeping generalization
an argument based in an unqualified generalization, stereotyping *all teenagers are addicted to electronics
red herring
a distraction; an argument used to sidetrack everyone involved
either/or (black or white)
two alternative states are presented as the only possibility when, in fact, there are more.
appeal to false authority
for example, using a celebrity to sell car insurance
faulty causality
a bad relationship of cause and effect EX: A person who is honest will not steal, so my client, an honest person, clearly is not guilty of theft
scare tactic
“You better buy this health insurance now or you may not qualify when you are older, and you don’t want to become a burden to your family.”
straw man
misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack / twisting someone’s argument
