Logical Fallacies Flashcards
Bandwagon Appeals ( ad populum)
Trying to get everyone on board. Writers who use this approach try to convince everyone that everyone else believes something, so the reader should also.
Non Sequitur arguments
Does not follow a logical sequence. The conclusion doesn’t logically follow the explanation. Can be found in the sentence leave and the level of the argument itself.
Oversimplification
Arguments supply neat and easy explanations for large and complicated phenomenon. These are popular.
Hasty Generalization
Basing in arguments on insufficient evidence. Writers may draw conclusions too quickly not considering the whole issue. They may look only at at small group representative of the whole or may only look at a small piece of the issue.
Either/or arguments
Reducing complex issues to black and white choices when the issue actually has a number of choices. Creating a problem that doesn’t really exist. False dilemma.
False Authority
Argument from doubtful or unidentified authority. Used especial in advertising. An authority in one field may know nothing of another field.
Begging the question
Aka circular logic. Happens when the writer presents an arguable point as a fact that supports the argument. Leads the argument to go in circles
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter hoc
(After this, therefore also this) arguments, post hoc for short, assume a faulty casual relationship. One event following in time with another does not mean the two are related. Also called false cause fallacy.
Flash or weak analogies
Lead to faulty conclusions. Often used to explain a relationship but sometimes these metaphors do not relate upon closer inspection.
Red Herring
Have little relevance to the argument at hand. Desperate arguments often try to change the ground of the argument by changing the subject. The new subject may relate to the original argument but does little to resolve it.
Ignoring the question
Is similar to a red herring but rather than answering the question that has been asked or addressing the issue at hand, the writer shifts focus, supplying an unrelated argument.
Slippery Slope
Suggest that one step will inevitably lead to more, eventually negative steps. Argues that the descent is inevitable and unalterable. Speculation rarer than eventuality.
Ad Hominem
(Attacking the character of an opponent-from the Latin “to the man”)
Arguments limit themselves not to the issues, but to the opposition itself. Writers who fall into this fallacy attempt to refute the claims of the opposition by bringing the opposition’s character into the question. “Mudslinging”