Week One Flashcards
Appeal to authority
Appeals to an authority who is not an expert in
the field.
Snob appeal
Appeals to people’s desire for status and
exclusivity.
Appeal to fear
Threatens the audience indirectly.
Appeal to pity
Uses sympathy to gain favor.
Begging the question
Offers no support other than repeating the
conclusion in different words.
Loaded question
Asks a question that contains an assumption that must be proven
Question begging epithet
Using an emotive and loaded word to assert a
claim that must be proven.
Double standard
Judges and labels the same act differently
depending on the person or group that does it.
Equivocation
Shifts the meaning of a term within a single
argument.
Fallacious argument
Something about the argument might be
persuasive but it lacks logical support.
False analogy
Compares two or more things that are not in
essence similar and suggests because they share
some qualities, they should share others.
False cause
Clairs a causal relaticnship where only
chronology exists.
False dilemma
Presents only two choices when others exist.
Hasty generalization
Generalizes from too small a sample or
unrepresentative of the target population.
Personal attack
Attacks the person representing the argument*
rather than the argument itself.
Tu quoque (personal attack)
Discredits an argument because the behavior of the person doesn’t match the position supported.
Poisoning the well
Makes an assertion that will intimidate the audience and discourage future discussion
Red herring
Shift the discussion to a completely different topic
Slippery slope
Claims that an action should be avoided because
it will lead to a series of extremely undesirable
consequences.
Straw man
Creates a distorted version of the opposition‘s arguments to make it easy to destroy (light on fire) 
