Logical Fallacies

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Logical Fallacies
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What is a Fallacy?

• A Fallacy is an argument that is flawed by its
  very nature or structure
• Fallacies are not absolute depending on context,
  some fallacies can be appropriate to certain
  situations

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Fallacies of Emotional Argument

• Use of excessive or inappropriate emotionalism
• n Scare Tactics exaggerating dangers or
  reducing complicated issues to threats
• n Either/Or Choices require people to choose 1
  of 2 options oversimplify
• n Slippery Slope threatens successively
  amplified consequences for small actions

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Fallacies of Emotional Argument (II)

• n Sentimental Appeals using excessive emotions
  to distract from the facts often entail a guilt
  trip
• n Bandwagon Appeals suggest that the reader
  should be persuaded because everyone else is

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Fallacies of Ethical Argument

• Abusing character arguments
• Dogmatism implying that a particular view is
  the only one acceptable within a particular
  community
• Appeals to False Authority offering an
  authority as sufficient warrant for believing a
  claim (X is true because I / George Washington
  say(s) it is

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Fallacies of Ethos (II)

• n Moral Equivalence serious wrongdoings dont
  differ from peccadilloes or minor offenses are
  the same as major crimes
• n Ad Hominem (to the man) assaulting a
  debater's character, rather then the logic of
  his/her argument

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Fallacies of Logical Argument

• Claims are invalid, insufficient or disconnected
• n Hasty Generalization an inference drawn from
  insufficient evidence
• n Faulty Causality (post hoc ergo propter hoc
  after this, therefore because of this) assuming
  that because one event follows another, the first
  caused the second

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Fallacies of Logos (II)

• n Begging the Question assuming as true the
  very claim that is being disputed
• n Equivocation a half-truth, usually involving
  a trick of language (Macbeth could not be killed
  by man of woman born)
• n Non sequitur the logic of the argument is not
  connected  I stole the lipstick because the sky
  was blue.

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Fallacies of Logos III

• n Faulty Analogy comparisons that are
  inappropriate or inaccurate