Master List of Logical Fallacies Flashcards
The A Priori Argument
A corrupt argument from logos, starting with a pre-set belief or conclusion and finding a justification for it. Often used by ideologues or fundamentalists to defend dogmas or doctrines. Example: Explaining away DNA evidence to deny evolution. Opposite: Taboo.
Ableism
A corrupt ethos argument asserting that those less capable or fortunate deserve less and can be victimized. It justifies unethical behavior with phrases like “Life is rough, and you gotta be tough.” Related to argumentum ad baculum.
Actions Have Consequences
The fallacy of mislabeling punishments as “consequences” to imply inevitability. Example: Saying expulsion is a “consequence” of misbehavior rather than a punishment. Opposite: Moral Licensing.
The Ad Hominem Argument
Attacking someone’s character instead of addressing their argument. Example: “He’s so evil you can’t trust what he says.” Variations include guilt by association or token endorsement. Opposite: Star Power fallacy.
The Affective Fallacy
The belief that emotions are self-validating and immune to criticism. Example: “I feel it, so it must be true.” Opposite: Chosen Emotion Fallacy. Related: Angelism.
Alphabet Soup
Overusing jargon or acronyms to confuse or impress. Example: “Our ASD and GT students benefit from K-12 interventions.” Common in pharmaceutical ads. Related: Name Calling.
Alternative Truth
Denying facts or truth entirely, often to manipulate or confuse. Example: Presenting “alternate facts” to control a narrative. Related: Gaslighting and The Big Lie Technique.
The Appeal to Closure
Insisting on a resolution for “closure” even when a point remains unsettled. Example: Justifying the death penalty for closure. Opposite: Paralysis of Analysis.
The Appeal to Heaven
Claiming divine or higher authority to justify actions. Example: “God ordered us to take this land.” Opposite: Job’s Comforter fallacy. Related: Moral Superiority.
The Appeal to Nature
Assuming “natural” things are inherently good. Example: Promoting poison ivy tea because it’s organic. Opposite: The Argument from Natural Law.
The Appeal to Pity
Using sympathy to argue a point regardless of its merits. Example: Supporting underdogs uncritically, as with the Arab Spring movement. Opposite: The Appeal to Rigor.
The Appeal to Tradition
Arguing something is correct because it has “always” been that way. Example: “Women have always been paid less, so it’s tradition.” Opposite: The Appeal to Novelty.
Appeasement
Giving in to demands to avoid conflict, encouraging manipulative behavior. Example: “The customer is always right.” Related: Bribery.
The Argument from Consequences
Dismissing a claim because the outcome would be undesirable. Example: “Climate change can’t be real, or it would ruin the economy.”
The Argument from Ignorance
Assuming something is true or false because it hasn’t been proven otherwise. Example: “We can’t prove evolution, so Genesis must be true.” Related: A Priori Argument.
The Argument from Incredulity
Rejecting something as false because it seems unbelievable. Example: “That’s crazy—it can’t be true!” Related: Hoyle’s Fallacy.
The Argument from Inertia
Continuing a flawed course of action to avoid admitting past mistakes. Example: “We can’t withdraw now; it would mean admitting we were wrong.” Related: Throwing Good Money After Bad.
The Argument from Motives
Rejecting an argument based on the speaker’s motives. Example: “Bin Laden wanted us out of Afghanistan, so we must stay.” Opposite: Justifying actions because of pure motives.
Argumentum ad Baculum
Using threats or force to “prove” a point. Example: “Agree, or I’ll knock you out.” Related: Censorship and intimidation tactics.
Argumentum ad Mysteriam
Using mystery or ritual to persuade instead of logic. Example: “Chanting ancient texts in Latin gives them more authority.” Related: The Long Ago and Far Away fallacy.
Argumentum ex Silentio
The fallacy that silence or lack of evidence on a topic proves a claim. Example: “Science can’t prove God exists, so He doesn’t” or “Science can’t disprove God, so He must exist.” Often misused in legal settings where silence is portrayed as guilt.
Availability Bias
Giving undue importance to information that is immediately available, often ignoring broader or contradictory evidence. Example: “We know this doesn’t work because it failed here,” ignoring successful instances elsewhere. Often paired with hyperbole, such as proclaiming a minor issue as “the worst in history.”
The Bandwagon Fallacy
Arguing something is true because “everyone” or “the majority” believes it. Example: “75% of people think Bob is a liar, so he must be.” This can escalate to coercion: “Get with the program, or get crushed.” Includes digital phenomena like Information Cascades, where people echo popular opinions online without questioning them.
The Big Brain/Little Brain
Blindly following a leader who claims they assume all moral/legal responsibility for followers’ actions. Example: “Don’t think with your brain, trust me instead.” Often tied to authoritarianism and justifications for harmful actions. Opposite: Plausible Deniability.
The Big “But” Fallacy
Declaring a principle and negating it with a “but.” Example: “Everyone deserves a fair trial, but this case is different, so no trial is needed.” Often used for special pleading, exempting cases from usual ethical or legal standards.
The Big Lie Technique
Repeating a bold or false statement until it’s widely accepted. Example: “There are WMDs in Iraq,” despite no evidence. The bigger and more repetitive the lie, the more believable it becomes to some audiences. Related: Propaganda, Alternative Truths.
Blind Loyalty
Believing an argument is correct because it comes from an authority figure or group. Example: “I was just following orders” or “My boss says it’s right, so it must be.” Common in justifications for unethical actions.
Blood is Thicker than Water
Favoring someone’s argument or actions because of personal relationships, ignoring objectivity. Example: “My brother says you’re lying, so you’re fired!” Opposite of Ad Hominem fallacies.
Brainwashing
Coercing or manipulating someone into belief through abuse, pleasure, or addiction. Example: “They’re brainwashing you with propaganda—don’t listen!” Real brainwashing uses fear, love-bombing, or addiction to control behavior. Often exaggerated in media.
Bribery
Persuading someone with gifts or material incentives. Example: “Vote for me and I’ll make sure you get promoted.” Over time, this tactic requires increasing rewards to remain effective.
Calling “Cards”
Dismissing valid objections by labeling them as a rhetorical “card.” Example: “Don’t play the Race Card” or “That’s just the Woman Card.” Prevents meaningful discussion by shutting down debate.
Circular Reasoning
Using the conclusion as evidence for itself. Example: “You need experience to get a job, but you need a job to get experience.” Another form is rephrasing the claim without evidence. Example: “Witches are a threat because witchcraft is dangerous.”
The Complex Question
Demanding a direct answer to a loaded question or proposition. Example: “Did you think you could plagiarize and not face consequences?” or forcing someone to accept/reject a mixed argument with both valid and invalid parts.
Confirmation Bias
Seeking out only evidence that supports one’s pre-existing beliefs. Example: Following media that aligns with one’s views, leading to a distorted perception of consensus. Also explains why people notice evidence that confirms predictions while ignoring contradictions.
Cost Bias
Valuing something more because it was expensive or hard to obtain. Example: “This car is better than a limo because I worked hard to buy it.” Also applies to judging quality based on price, brand, or label.
Default Bias
Favoring the current situation because it exists, rejecting change as too difficult or risky. Example: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” or “This is the best possible world.” Opposite: Nihilism, rejecting everything in favor of chaos or constant change.
Defensiveness
Defending a past decision irrationally, even after evidence shows it was wrong. Example: “Sure, he turned out to be corrupt, but at the time, voting for him was the right choice.” Related: Confirmation Bias, where individuals cling to information that supports their decision.
Deliberate Ignorance
Refusing to engage with evidence or arguments that challenge one’s beliefs. Example: “I don’t want to hear it!” Enables denial and perpetuation of harmful ideologies. Related: Trust Your Gut, Confirmation Bias.
Diminished Responsibility
Excusing harmful actions by claiming impaired judgment or panic. Example: “I shouldn’t be punished for the crash—I was drunk and didn’t know what I was doing.” Fails to address the real-world consequences of the behavior.
Disciplinary Blinders
Ignoring evidence or arguments from outside one’s field of expertise. Example: “That’s not how we do things in this field, so it’s irrelevant.” Often seen in academia or professions with rigid boundaries.
Dog-Whistle Politics
A fallacy where a brief phrase or slogan is used to elicit a strong emotional reaction, often divisive, by appealing to unconscious or unspoken prejudices. This results in confusion or fury when challenged.
Draw Your Own Conclusion
The fallacy where an argument presents facts without conclusions, allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions without providing logical support. Often manipulative.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
A cognitive bias where individuals with limited knowledge overestimate their own expertise.
“E” for Effort
A fallacy where something is accepted as true or valuable simply because effort or sacrifice has been invested into it.
Either/Or Reasoning
The fallacy that presents only two extreme options, ignoring the possibility of middle ground or additional alternatives.
Equivocation
The fallacy of using a word with multiple meanings or using a term in an ambiguous way to mislead the audience.
Eschatological Fallacy
The fallacy of arguing that since the world is coming to an end, immediate or drastic actions are justified.
Esoteric Knowledge
The fallacy that certain knowledge or wisdom is reserved for an elite group and is not accessible or understandable to others.
Essentializing
A fallacy that assumes a person or thing is immutable and will always be defined by its current characteristics, without regard to change or context.
Etymological Fallacy
The fallacy of drawing false conclusions based on the historical or linguistic origin of a word, often disregarding its modern meaning.
Excluded Middle
The fallacy that assumes if something is good in small doses, more of it must be better, or if something is bad, none of it is acceptable.
The “F-Bomb”
The fallacy of using profanity or obscenity to emotionally charge an argument, rather than strengthening the argument with reason.
The False Analogy
The fallacy of making a comparison between two things that are not truly comparable in the context of the argument.
Finish the Job
The fallacy that dismisses any questioning or re-evaluation of an action simply because it is seen as part of a job that needs to be completed, often disregarding the quality or morality of the task.
The Free Speech Fallacy
The fallacy of defending a statement by asserting that it is protected by free speech, even if it is harmful, without addressing the validity of the statement itself.
The Fundamental Attribution Error
The fallacy where people attribute others’ actions to their character flaws, while attributing their own similar actions to external circumstances.
Gaslighting
A manipulative fallacy where a person is made to doubt their own reality, memory, or perception of events by distorting or denying facts.
Guilt by Association
A fallacy where someone’s argument or position is dismissed due to their association with a group or person deemed undesirable, rather than addressing the argument itself.
