Logical Fallacies Flashcards
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What is the Ad Hominem Fallacy
Using personal attacks instead of advancing good or sound reasoning.
- A fallacy of relevance where someone rejects or criticizes another person’s view on the basis of personal characteristics, background, physical appearance, or other features irrelevant to the argument at issue.*
- Latin: “Against the man”*
What is the Straw Man fallacy?
Misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.
What is the False Cause fallacy?
Presuming that a real or perceived relationship between things means that one is the cause of the other.
Correlation does not necessarily equal causation
What is The Fallacy fallacy?
When you presume that because a claim has been poorly argued, or a fallacy has been made, that the claim itself must be wrong.
What is the composition/division fallacy?
When you assume that one part of something has to be applied to all, or other, parts of it; or that the whole must apply to its parts.
What is the burden of proof fallacy?
When you say that the burden of proof lies not with the person making the claim, but with someone else to disprove.
What is the begging the question fallacy?
When you present a circular argument in which the conclusion was included in the premise.
What is the appeal to emotion fallacy?
Manipulation an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument.
What is the tu quoque fallacy?
Avoiding having to engage with criticism by turning it back on the accuser - answering criticism with criticism.
What is the personal incredulity fallacy?
Saying that because one finds something difficult to understand that it’s therefore not true.
What is the special pleading fallacy?
Moving the goalposts or making up exceptions when a claim is shown to be false.
What is the loaded question fallacy?
Asking a question that has a presumption built into it so that it can’t be answered without appearing guilty.
What is the ambiguity fallacy?
Using double meanings or ambiguities of language to mislead or misrepresent the truth.
What is the gambler’s fallacy?
Believing that ‘runs’ occur to statistically independent phenomena such as roulette wheel spins.
What is the bandwagon fallacy?
Appealing to popularity or the fact that many people do something as an attempted form of validation.
What is the appeal to authority fallacy?
Saying that because an authority thinks something, it must, therefore, be true.
What is the no true scotsman fallacy?
Making what could be called an appeal to purity as a way to dismiss relevant criticisms or flaws of an argument.
What is the genetic fallacy?
Judging something good or bad on the basis of where it comes from, or from whom it comes.
What is the black-or-white fallacy?
Where two alternative states are presented as the only possibilities, when in fact more possibilities exist.
What is the appeal to nature fallacy?
Make the argument that because something is ‘natural’ it is therefore valid, justified, inevitable, good or ideal.
What is the anecdotal fallacy?
Using personal experience or an isolated example instead of a valid argument, especially to dismiss statistics.
What is the texas sharpshooter fallacy?
Cherry-picking data clusters to suit an argument, or finding a pattern to fit a presumption.
What is the middle ground fallacy?
Saying that a compromise, or middle point, between two extremes is the truth.
