Fallacy Where Something That Happens Means That It Will Happen Again

Logical Fallacies Handlist:

Fallacies are statements that might sound reasonable or superficially true simply are actually flawed or dishonest. When readers detect them, these logical fallacies backfire by making the audience call up the writer is (a) unintelligent or (b) deceptive. It is of import to avoid them in your own arguments, and it is besides important to exist able to spot them in others' arguments so a false line of reasoning won't fool you. Think of this as intellectual kung-fu: the vital art of self-defense in a debate. For extra impact, learn both the Latin terms and the English language equivalents. You can click here to download a PDF version of this material.

In general, one useful way to organize fallacies is by category. We have below fallacies of relevance, component fallacies, fallacies of ambiguity, and fallacies of omission. We volition discuss each type in turn. The last point to discuss is Occam's Razor.

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FALLACIES OF RELEVANCE : These fallacies entreatment to evidence or examples that are non relevant to the statement at hand.

Appeal to Forcefulness (Argumentum Ad Baculum or the "Might-Makes-Right" Fallacy): This argument uses strength, the threat of force, or some other unpleasant backlash to brand the audition accept a decision. Information technology commonly appears as a final resort when evidence or rational arguments fail to convince a reader. If the contend is nearly whether or non two+2=4, an opponent'southward argument that he will nail your nose in if you don't agree with his claim doesn't alter the truth of an issue. Logically, this consideration has cypher to do with the points under consideration. The fallacy is not limited to threats of violence, however. The fallacy includes threats of any unpleasant backlash--financial, professional, and so on. Instance: "Superintendent, you should cut the school budget by $sixteen,000. I need not remind y'all that past school boards accept fired superintendents who cannot keep downward costs." While intimidation may force the superintendent to conform, it does not convince him that the choice to cut the budget was the near beneficial for the school or community. Lobbyists use this method when they remind legislators that they represent so many thousand votes in the legislators' constituencies and threaten to throw the politician out of function if he doesn't vote the way they want. Teachers apply this method if they country that students should hold the same political or philosophical position as the teachers or risk declining the grade. Note that information technology is isn't a logical fallacy, however, to affirm that students must fulfill certain requirements in the course or chance declining the class!

Genetic Fallacy: The genetic fallacy is the claim that an idea, production, or person must be untrustworthy because of its racial, geographic, or indigenous origin. "That car tin't possibly be whatever practiced! It was fabricated in Nihon!" Or, "Why should I listen to her argument? She comes from California, and we all know those people are flakes." Or, "Ha! I'm not reading that book. It was published in Tennessee, and nosotros know all Tennessee folk are hillbillies and rednecks!" This type of fallacy is closely related to the fallacy of argumentum ad hominem or personal assail, appearing immediately below.

Personal Attack (Argumentum Ad Hominem, literally, "statement toward the human." Also called "Poisoning the Well"): Attacking or praising the people who brand an argument, rather than discussing the argument itself. This practice is fallacious because the personal character of an individual is logically irrelevant to the truth or falseness of the argument itself. The statement "2+2=four" is true regardless if it is stated by criminals, congressmen, or pastors. In that location are 2 subcategories:

(1) Abusive: To argue that proposals, assertions, or arguments must be false or dangerous because they originate with atheists, Christians, Muslims, communists, capitalists, the John Birch Social club, Catholics, anti-Catholics, racists, anti-racists, feminists, misogynists (or any other grouping) is beguiling. This persuasion comes from irrational psychological transference rather than from an appeal to testify or logic concerning the result at paw. This is like to the genetic fallacy, and only an anti-intellectual would argue otherwise.

(ii) Circumstantial: To argue that an opponent should accept or reject an argument because of circumstances in his or her life. If 1's antagonist is a clergyman, suggesting that he should have a particular argument considering not to exercise so would be incompatible with the scriptures is such a fallacy. To argue that, because the reader is a Republican or Democrat, she must vote for a specific measure out is likewise a coexisting fallacy. The opponent'southward special circumstances take no control over the truth or untruth of a specific contention. The speaker or writer must observe boosted evidence beyond that to make a strong case. This is too like to the genetic fallacy in some ways. If you are a college student who wants to learn rational thought, you only must avert circumstantial fallacies.

Argumentum ad Populum (Literally "Argument to the People"): Using an entreatment to popular assent, frequently past arousing the feelings and enthusiasm of the multitude rather than building an argument. It is a favorite device with the propagandist, the demagogue, and the advertiser. An instance of this blazon of argument is Shakespeare'due south version of Mark Antony'due south funeral oration for Julius Caesar. In that location are iii basic approaches:

(1) Bandwagon Arroyo: "Everybody is doing it." This argumentum ad populum asserts that, since the majority of people believes an argument or chooses a item grade of action, the argument must be true, or the course of action must be followed, or the conclusion must be the all-time pick. For instance, "85% of consumers purchase IBM computers rather than Macintosh; all those people can't exist wrong. IBM must brand the best computers." Popular credence of whatsoever argument does not show information technology to be valid, nor does popular utilise of any product necessarily evidence it is the all-time one. Later all, 85% of people may in one case have thought planet earth was flat, but that majority'due south conventionalities didn't mean the earth really was flat when they believed it! Keep this in mind, and remember that everybody should avert this type of logical fallacy.

(2) Patriotic Approach: "Draping oneself in the flag." This argument asserts that a certain stance is true or correct because it is somehow patriotic, and that those who disagree are unpatriotic. It overlaps with pathos and argumentum advert hominem to a certain extent. The best manner to spot it is to await for emotionally charged terms similar Americanism, rugged individualism, motherhood, patriotism, godless communism, etc. A true American would never apply this approach. And a truly gratis man will do his American correct to drink beer, since beer belongs in this corking country of ours.This approach is unworthy of a practiced denizen.

(three) Snob Approach: This type of argumentum ad populum doesn't assert "everybody is doing it," only rather that "all the all-time people are doing it." For instance, "Any true intellectual would recognize the necessity for studying logical fallacies." The implication is that anyone who fails to recognize the truth of the author'south exclamation is not an intellectual, and thus the reader had best recognize that necessity.

In all three of these examples, the rhetorician does not supply prove that an argument is truthful; he merely makes assertions about people who agree or disagree with the statement. For Christian students in religious schools like Carson-Newman, we might add together a quaternary category, "Covering Oneself in the Cross." This argument asserts that a sure political or denominational stance is true or correct because it is somehow "Christian," and that anyone who disagrees is behaving in an "un-Christian" or "godless" manner. (It is similar to the patriotic approach except it substitutes a gloss of piety instead of patriotism.) Examples include the various "Christian Voting Guides" that appear near ballot time, many of them published by not-Church building related organizations with hidden financial/political agendas, or the stereotypical crooked used-motorcar salesman who keeps a pair of bibles on his dashboard in order to win the trust of those he would fleece. Keep in mind Moliere'southward question in Tartuffe: "Is non a face quite unlike than a mask?" Is not the appearance of Christianity quite different than actual Christianity? Christians should beware of such manipulation since they are especially vulnerable to information technology.

Appeal to Tradition (Argumentum Ad Traditionem; aka Argumentum Advertizing Antiquitatem): This line of thought asserts that a premise must be true because people accept always believed it or done it. For example, "We know the earth is flat considering generations have thought that for centuries!" Alternatively, the appeal to tradition might conclude that the premise has always worked in the by and will thus always work in the time to come: "Jefferson Metropolis has kept its urban growth purlieus at six miles for the past thirty years. That has been good enough for xxx years, and so why should we alter it now? If it ain't broke, don't ready it." Such an argument is appealing in that it seems to be common sense, just it ignores important questions. Might an alternative policy work fifty-fifty ameliorate than the old one? Are at that place drawbacks to that long-standing policy? Are circumstances changing from the mode they were thirty years ago? Has new evidence emerged that might throw that long-continuing policy into doubt?

Entreatment to Improper Potency (Argumentum Advertisement Verecundium, literally "argument from that which is improper"): An appeal to an improper dominance, such as a famous person or a source that may not exist reliable or who might not know annihilation about the topic. This fallacy attempts to capitalize upon feelings of respect or familiarity with a famous individual. It is not fallacious to refer to an admitted authority if the private'due south expertise is within a strict field of cognition. On the other mitt, to cite Einstein to settle an argument about pedagogy or economics is fallacious. To cite Darwin, an authorization on biology, on religious matters is fallacious. To cite Key Spellman on legal issues is fallacious. The worst offenders usually involve movie stars and psychic hotlines. A subcategory is the Appeal to Biased Authority. In this sort of entreatment, the dominance is one who actually is knowledgeable on the affair, simply one who may have professional or personal motivations that render his professional judgment doubtable: for case, "To determine whether fraternities are benign to this campus, nosotros interviewed all the frat presidents." Or over again, "To find out whether or not sludge-mining really is endangering the Tuskogee salamander's convenance grounds, nosotros interviewed the owners of the sludge-mines, who alleged there is no problem." Indeed, it is of import to get "both viewpoints" on an statement, just basing a substantial part of your argument on a source that has personal, professional, or financial interests at stake may lead to biased arguments. As Upton Sinclair once stated, "It's difficult to go a human being to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding information technology." Sinclair is pointing out that even a knowledgeable authority might not exist entirely rational on a topic when he has economic incentives that bias his thinking.

Entreatment to Emotion (Argumentum Advert Misericordiam , literally, "statement from pity"): An emotional appeal concerning what should be a logical issue during a debate. While desolation more often than not works to reinforce a reader'south sense of duty or outrage at some abuse, if a writer tries to apply emotion merely for the sake of getting the reader to have what should be a logical conclusion, the argument is a fallacy. For example, in the 1880s, prosecutors in a Virginia court presented overwhelming proof that a boy was guilty of murdering his parents with an ax. The defence presented a "not-guilty" plea for on the grounds that the boy was now an orphan, with no 1 to look after his interests if the courtroom was not lenient. This appeal to emotion evidently seems misplaced, and the statement is irrelevant to the question of whether or not he did the crime.

Argument from Adverse Consequences: Asserting that an argument must exist faux because the implications of it existence true would create negative results. For instance, "The medical tests show that Grandma has advanced cancer. Nevertheless, that can't be truthful considering then she would die! I reject to believe it!"  The argument is illogical considering truth and falsity are not contingent based upon how much we like or dislike the consequences of that truth. Grandma, indeed, might accept cancer, in spite of how negative that fact may exist or how cruelly it may affect us.

Argument from Personal Incredulity: Asserting that opponent's argument must be false because you lot personally don't understand it or can't follow its technicalities. For instance, 1 person might assert, "I don't empathise that engineer'due south argument well-nigh how airplanes tin can fly. Therefore, I cannot believe that airplanes are able to fly." Au contraire, that speaker's ain mental limitations do not limit the concrete world—and so airplanes may very well be able to wing in spite of a person'southward disability to understand how they piece of work. One person's comprehension is not relevant to the truth of a matter.

COMPONENT FALLACIES : Component fallacies are errors in inductive and deductive reasoning or in syllogistic terms that fail to overlap.

Begging the Question (also chosen Petitio Principii, this term is sometimes used interchangeably with Circular Reasoning): If writers presume as evidence for their argument the very conclusion they are attempting to prove, they engage in the fallacy of begging the question. The most common grade of this fallacy is when the first claim is initially loaded with the very conclusion ane has yet to bear witness. For instance, suppose a particular student grouping states, "Useless courses like English language 101 should be dropped from the college's curriculum." The members of the student group then immediately move on in the argument, illustrating that spending money on a useless course is something nobody wants. Yep, we all agree that spending money on useless courses is a bad affair. However, those students never did evidence that English 101 was itself a useless course--they merely "begged the question" and moved on to the next "safe" part of the argument, skipping over the part that's the real controversy, the heart of the matter, the most of import component. Begging the question is often subconscious in the form of a complex question (run into below).

Circular Reasoning is closely related to begging the question. Often the writers using this fallacy word take one idea and phrase it in ii statements. The assertions differ sufficiently to obscure the fact that that the same proposition occurs as both a premise and a conclusion. The speaker or writer then tries to "prove" his or her exclamation by merely repeating it in different words. Richard Whately wrote in Elements of Logic (London 1826): "To allow every man unbounded freedom of speech must ever be on the whole, advantageous to the country; for it is highly conducive to the interest of the community that each individual should enjoy a liberty perfectly unlimited of expressing his sentiments." Obviously the premise is not logically irrelevant to the determination, for if the premise is truthful the conclusion must also exist true. Information technology is, yet, logically irrelevant in proving the decision. In the instance, the author is repeating the aforementioned point in different words, and then attempting to "bear witness" the start exclamation with the second i. A more complex simply equally fallacious type of circular reasoning is to create a round concatenation of reasoning like this i: "God exists." "How do you know that God exists?" "The Bible says then." "Why should I believe the Bible?" "Considering it's the inspired discussion of God." If we depict this out as a chart, information technology looks similar this:

The then-chosen "final proof" relies on unproven evidence set along initially equally the subject of contend. Basically, the argument goes in an endless circumvolve, with each stride of the argument relying on a previous one, which in turn relies on the first argument yet to be proven. Surely God deserves a more intelligible argument than the circular reasoning proposed in this example!

Hasty Generalization (Dicto Simpliciter, also called "Jumping to Conclusions," "Converse Accident"): Mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are likewise few samples to evidence a point. Example: "Susan failed Biology 101. Herman failed Biology 101. Egbert failed Biology 101. I therefore conclude that most students who take Biology 101 volition fail it." In understanding and characterizing general situations, a logician cannot normally examine every unmarried case. Nonetheless, the examples used in inductive reasoning should be typical of the problem or situation at hand. Possibly Susan, Herman, and Egbert are exceptionally poor students. Possibly they were sick and missed besides many lectures that term to pass. If a logician wants to brand the case that most students will fail Biology 101, she should (a) become a very large sample--at least one larger than iii--or (b) if that isn't possible, she volition demand to get out of his way to bear witness to the reader that her three samples are somehow representative of the norm. If a logician considers only infrequent or dramatic cases and generalizes a rule that fits these alone, the author commits the fallacy of hasty generalization.

One common type of hasty generalization is the Fallacy of Accident. This error occurs when 1 applies a general rule to a particular case when adventitious circumstances render the general dominion inapplicable. For example, in Plato's Republic, Plato finds an exception to the full general dominion that one should return what i has borrowed: "Suppose that a friend when in his correct listen has deposited artillery with me and asks for them when he is not in his right mind. Ought I to give the weapons dorsum to him? No one would say that I ought or that I should be right in doing and so. . . ." What is true in full general may not exist true universally and without qualification. So call up, generalizations are bad. All of them. Every single last one. Except, of course, for those that are not.

Some other common example of this fallacy is the misleading statistic. Suppose an individual argues that women must be incompetent drivers, and he points out that last Tuesday at the Section of Motor Vehicles, 50% of the women who took the driving exam failed. That would seem to exist compelling bear witness from the style the statistic is set along. Nonetheless, if only two women took the test that 24-hour interval, the results would be far less articulate-cut. Incidentally, the cartoon Dilbert makes much of an incompetent managing director who cannot perceive misleading statistics. He does a statistical study of when employees call in sick and cannot come to work during the five-day piece of work week. He becomes furious to learn that forty% of office "sick-days" occur on Mondays (xx%) and Fridays (20%)--just in time to create a iii-24-hour interval weekend. Suspecting fraud, he decides to punish his workers. The irony, of course, is that these two days etch 40% of a five mean solar day work calendar week, so the numbers are completely boilerplate. Similar nonsense emerges when parents or teachers mutter that "50% of students perform at or beneath the national boilerplate on standardized tests in mathematics and verbal bent." Of course they do! The very nature of an average implies that!

False Crusade: This fallacy establishes a cause/effect relationship that does not exist. There are various Latin names for various analyses of the fallacy. The two most mutual include these types:

(ane) Non Causa Pro Causa (Literally, "Non the cause for a cause"): A general, catch-all category for mistaking a faux cause of an event for the real cause.

(two) Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (Literally: "After this, therefore because of this"): This type of false cause occurs when the author mistakenly assumes that, because the first issue preceded the 2nd issue, it must mean the first event caused the later one. Sometimes it does, simply sometimes it doesn't. Information technology is the honest writer's job to establish clearly that connection rather than merely affirm it exists. Example: "A black cat crossed my path at apex. An hour later, my mother had a heart-assail. Considering the first event occurred before, it must take caused the bad luck later." This is how superstitions begin.

The near mutual examples are arguments that viewing a item movie or show, or listening to a detail type of music "caused" the listener to perform an antisocial human action--to snort coke, shoot classmates, or take up a life of law-breaking. These may be potential suspects for the cause, but the mere fact that an individual did these acts and subsequently behaved in a sure way does non yet conclusively dominion out other causes. Peradventure the listener had an abusive home-life or school-life, suffered from a chemical imbalance leading to depression and paranoia, or made a bad choice in his companions. Other potential causes must be examined earlier asserting that only one event or circumstance alone earlier in time caused a effect or behavior afterward. For more information, see correlation and causation.

Irrelevant Decision ( Ignorantio Elenchi ): This fallacy occurs when a rhetorician adapts an argument purporting to found a particular conclusion and directs information technology to prove a different conclusion. For instance, when a particular proposal for housing legislation is under consideration, a legislator may argue that decent housing for all people is desirable. Everyone, presumably, will hold. Withal, the question at hand concerns a detail measure out. The question really isn't, "Is information technology good to have decent housing?" The question really is, "Will this particular measure really provide information technology or is there a meliorate alternative?" This type of fallacy is a common ane in student papers when students utilise a shared supposition--such as the fact that decent housing is a desirable thing to accept--and and so spend the bulk of their essays focused on that fact rather than the real question at upshot. It'south similar to begging the question, above.

One of the most common forms of Ignorantio Elenchi is the "Red Herring." A ruby herring is a deliberate effort to change the subject or divert the argument from the real question at issue to some side-point; for example, "Senator Jones should not exist held accountable for cheating on his income tax. After all, at that place are other senators who have done far worse things." Another example: "I should not pay a fine for reckless driving. There are many other people on the street who are dangerous criminals and rapists, and the police force should be chasing them, not harassing a decent taxation-paying citizen similar me." Certainly, worse criminals practice exist, but that it is another issue! The questions at hand are (1) did the speaker drive recklessly, and (2) should he pay a fine for it?

Another like example of the cherry herring is the fallacy known as Tu Quoque (Latin for "And you too!"), which asserts that the communication or statement must be false simply because the person presenting the advice doesn't consistently follow information technology herself. For instance, "Susan the yoga teacher claims that a depression-fatty nutrition and exercise are good for y'all--but I saw her last week pigging out on oreos, so her argument must be a load of hogwash." Or, "Reverend Jeremias claims that theft is wrong, but how tin can theft exist wrong if Jeremias himself admits he stole objects when he was a child?" Or "Thomas Jefferson fabricated many arguments about equality and liberty for all Americans, but he himself kept slaves, so we tin dismiss any thoughts he had on those topics."

Straw Homo Argument : A subtype of the red herring, this fallacy includes any lame attempt to "prove" an argument by overstating, exaggerating, or over-simplifying the arguments of the opposing side. Such an approach is building a straw human being argument. The name comes from the idea of a boxer or fighter who meticulously fashions a fake opponent out of harbinger, like a scarecrow, then easily knocks information technology over in the ring before his admiring audience. His "victory" is a hollow mockery, of form, because the harbinger-stuffed opponent is incapable of fighting back. When a writer makes a drawing-like caricature of the opposing statement, ignoring the real or subtle points of contention, and then proceeds to knock downwards each "false" signal i-by-ane, he has created a harbinger homo statement.

For instance, one speaker might be engaged in a fence concerning welfare. The opponent argues, "Tennessee should increment funding to unemployed unmarried mothers during the first year after childbirth because they need sufficient money to provide medical care for their newborn children." The second speaker retorts, "My opponent believes that some parasites who don't piece of work should go a free ride from the tax coin of hard-working honest citizens. I'll show yous why he's incorrect . . ." In this example, the second speaker is engaging in a harbinger man strategy, distorting the opposition'due south statement most medical care for newborn children into an oversimplified grade and so he can more than hands announced to "win." Nevertheless, the second speaker is only defeating a dummy-argument rather than honestly engaging in the real nuances of the debate.

Non Sequitur (literally, "It does not follow"): A non sequitur is any statement that does non follow from the previous statements. Usually what happened is that the writer leaped from A to B so jumped to D, leaving out footstep C of an argument she thought through in her head, but did not put downward on paper. The phrase is applicable in general to any type of logical fallacy, but logicians use the term particularly in reference to syllogistic errors such as the undistributed heart term, non causa pro causa , and ignorantio elenchi . A common example would be an argument forth these lines: "Giving up our nuclear arsenal in the 1980's weakened the U.s.' armed services. Giving up nuclear weaponry likewise weakened Communist china in the 1990s. For this reason, it is incorrect to try to outlaw pistols and rifles in the United States today." There'southward plain a stride or ii missing here.

The "Glace Slope" Fallacy (also called "The Camel'due south Olfactory organ Fallacy") is a non sequitur in which the speaker argues that, once the outset step is undertaken, a second or third stride will inevitably follow, much like the way one step on a slippery incline will cause a person to fall and slide all the way to the bottom. Information technology is as well called "the Camel'due south Olfactory organ Fallacy" because of the image of a sheik who let his camel stick its nose into his tent on a common cold night. The thought is that the sheik is afraid to let the camel stick its nose into the tent because one time the beast sticks in its nose, information technology volition inevitably stick in its head, and then its neck, and eventually its whole body. However, this sort of thinking does not allow for any possibility of stopping the process. Information technology simply assumes that, once the nose is in, the balance must follow--that the sheik can't cease the progression once it has begun--and thus the argument is a logical fallacy. For instance, if 1 were to fence, "If we allow the government to infringe upon our right to privacy on the Net, information technology will so feel gratis to infringe upon our privacy on the telephone. After that, FBI agents will be reading our mail. And so they will be placing cameras in our houses. We must not allow any governmental agency interfere with our Internet communications, or privacy will completely vanish in the U.s.." Such thinking is fallacious; no logical proof has been provided yet that infringement in one area volition necessarily pb to infringement in some other, no more than than a person buying a single tin of Coca-Cola in a grocery store would point the person will inevitably proceed to buy every item available in the shop, helpless to end herself. So remember to avoid the glace gradient fallacy; in one case you utilize one, you may find yourself using more and more logical fallacies.

Either/Or Fallacy (besides chosen "the Black-and-White Fallacy," "Excluded Middle," "False Dilemma," or "False Dichotomy"): This fallacy occurs when a writer builds an argument upon the assumption that there are only two choices or possible outcomes when actually there are several. Outcomes are seldom so simple. This fallacy most frequently appears in connectedness to sweeping generalizations: "Either we must ban 10 or the American way of life will collapse." "We go to war with Canada, or else Canada will eventually grow in population and overwhelm the United States." "Either you drinkable Burpsy Cola, or you will have no friends and no social life." Either y'all must avoid either/or fallacies, or everyone will think you are foolish.

Faulty Analogy: Relying only on comparisons to prove a point rather than arguing deductively and inductively. For example, "educational activity is like cake; a pocket-sized amount tastes sweetness, but eat also much and your teeth volition rot out. Likewise, more than than 2 years of instruction is bad for a pupil." The analogy is simply adequate to the degree a reader thinks that education is like to cake. As y'all can meet, faulty analogies are like flimsy wood, and just equally no carpenter would build a firm out of flimsy forest, no writer should ever construct an statement out of flimsy cloth.

Undistributed Middle Term: A specific blazon of fault in deductive reasoning in which the small-scale premise and the major premise of a syllogism might or might non overlap. Consider these two examples: (one) "All reptiles are cold-blooded. All snakes are reptiles. All snakes are cold-blooded." In the first example, the middle term "snakes" fits in the categories of both "reptile" and "things-that-are-cold-blooded." (2) "All snails are cold-blooded. All snakes are common cold-blooded. All snails are snakes." In the 2d example, the middle term of "snakes" does non fit into the categories of both "things-that-are-common cold-blooded" and "snails." Sometimes, equivocation (run into below) leads to an undistributed middle term.

Contradictory Premises (likewise known as a logical paradox): Establishing a premise in such a way that it contradicts another, earlier premise. For case, "If God can exercise anything, he can make a stone so heavy that he can't lift information technology." The first premise establishes a deity that has the irresistible capacity to move other objects. The second premise establishes an immovable object impervious to any movement. If the first object capable of moving anything exists, past definition, the immovable object cannot exist, and vice-versa.

Closely related is the fallacy of Special Pleading, in which the writer creates a universal principle, and so insists that principle does not for some reason apply to the issue at hand. For example, "Everything must have a source or creator. Therefore God must exist and he must take created the world. What? Who created God? Well, God is eternal and unchanging--He has no source or creator." In such an exclamation, either God must have His own source or creator, or else the universal principle of everything having a source or creator must be ready aside—the person making the argument can't have information technology both ways.

FALLACIES OF Ambiguity : These errors occur with cryptic words or phrases, the meanings of which shift and alter in the class of discussion. Such more or less subtle changes tin render arguments fallacious.

Equivocation: Using a word in a different way than the author used information technology in the original premise, or changing definitions halfway through a word. When we use the same word or phrase in different senses inside one line of argument, nosotros commit the fallacy of equivocation. Consider this instance: "Plato says the stop of a thing is its perfection; I say that expiry is the end of life; hence, death is the perfection of life." Here the word end means "goal" in Plato's usage, but it ways "final event" or "termination" in the author's 2d usage. Clearly, the speaker is twisting Plato'southward significant of the word to describe a very different conclusion. Compare with amphiboly , below.

Amphiboly (from the Greek word "indeterminate"): This fallacy is similar to equivocation. Here, the ambiguity results from grammatical structure. A statement may be true according to one interpretation of how each word functions in a sentence and faux according to another. When a premise works with an interpretation that is true, simply the determination uses the secondary "imitation" interpretation, we have the fallacy of amphiboly on our hands. In the control, "Save soap and waste paper," the amphibolous use of "waste" results in the problem of determining whether "waste" functions equally a verb or as an adjective.

Composition: This fallacy is a result of reasoning from the properties of the parts of the whole to the properties of the whole itself--it is an inductive error. Such an argument might concur that, considering every individual part of a large tractor is lightweight, the entire machine too must be lightweight. This fallacy is similar to Hasty Generalization (see higher up), merely it focuses on parts of a single whole rather than using too few examples to create a categorical generalization. Too compare it with Division (meet below).

Division: This fallacy is the reverse of composition. It is the misapplication of deductive reasoning. One fallacy of sectionalization argues falsely that what is truthful of the whole must be true of private parts. Such an argument notes that, "Microtech is a company with great influence in the California legislature. Egbert Smith works at Microtech. He must have great influence in the California legislature." This is not necessarily true. Egbert might work as a graveyard shift security guard or as the copy-machine repairman at Microtech--positions requiring piddling interaction with the California legislature. Another fallacy of division attributes the properties of the whole to the individual member of the whole: "Sunsurf is a company that sells environmentally safety products. Susan Jones is a worker at Sunsurf. She must exist an environmentally minded individual." (Perhaps she is motivated by money alone?)

Fallacy of Reification (Also chosen "Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness" by Alfred North Whitehead): The fallacy of treating a word or an idea equally equivalent to the bodily affair represented past that word or idea, or the fallacy of treating an abstraction or process as equivalent to a physical object or thing.  In the first case, we might imagine a reformer trying to eliminate illicit lust past banning all mention of extra-marital diplomacy or certain sexual acts in publications. The trouble is that eliminating the words for these deeds is not the same equally eliminating the deeds themselves. In the second instance, we might imagine a person or declaring "a war on poverty." In this case, the fallacy comes from the fact that "war" implies a physical struggle with another concrete entity which can surrender or be exterminated. "Poverty," however is an abstraction that cannot surrender or sign peace treaties, cannot exist shot or bombed, etc. Reification of the concept just muddles the issue of what policies to follow and leads to sloppy thinking about the best way to handle a problem. Information technology is closely related to and overlaps with faulty analogy and equivocation.

FALLACIES O F OMISSION : These errors occur because the logician leaves out necessary material in an argument or misdirects others from missing information.

Stacking the Deck: In this fallacy, the speaker "stacks the deck" in her favor past ignoring examples that disprove the point and listing just those examples that support her case. This fallacy is closely related to hasty generalization, but the term commonly implies deliberate deception rather than an accidental logical fault. Contrast it with the straw homo argument.

'No True Scotsman' Fallacy: Attempting to stack the deck specifically past defining terms in such a narrow or unrealistic style as to exclude or omit relevant examples from a sample. For instance, suppose speaker #i asserts, "The Scottish national character is dauntless and patriotic. No Scottish soldier has always fled the field of boxing in the face of the enemy." Speaker #two objects, "Ah, but what nearly Lucas MacDurgan? He fled from High german troops in World War I." Speaker #1 retorts, "Well, obviously he doesn't count as a true Scotsman because he did not live up to Scottish ideals, thus he forfeited his Scottish identity." By this fallacious reasoning, any individual who would serve every bit bear witness contradicting the first speaker's exclamation is conveniently and automatically dismissed from consideration. We usually come across this fallacy when a company asserts that it cannot be blamed for one of its especially unsafe or shoddy products because that particular one doesn't live upward to its normally high standards, and thus shouldn't "count" against its fine reputation. Too, defenders of Christianity as a positive historical influence in their zeal might argue the atrocities of the eight Crusades practice not "count" in an argument considering the Crusaders weren't living upwardly to Christian ideals, and thus aren't really Christians, etc. So, remember this fallacy. Philosophers and logicians never use it, and anyone who does employ it by definition is non actually a philosopher or logician.

Argument from the Negative: Arguing from the negative asserts that, since ane position is untenable, the opposite stance must exist true. This fallacy is oftentimes used interchangeably with Argumentum Ad Ignorantium (listed beneath) and the either/or fallacy (listed to a higher place). For instance, one might mistakenly debate that, since the Newtonian theory of mathematics is not one hundred percent accurate, Einstein's theory of relativity must be truthful. Perhaps not. Perhaps the theories of quantum mechanics are more authentic, and Einstein's theory is flawed. Perhaps they are all wrong. Disproving an opponent'southward statement does not necessarily mean your own statement must exist truthful automatically, no more than disproving your opponent's assertion that two+2=5 would automatically hateful your statement that 2+ii=7 must be the correct i. Keeping this mind, students should remember that arguments from the negative are bad, arguments from the positive must automatically be good.

Appeal to a Lack of Evidence (Argumentum Ad Ignorantium, literally "Argument from Ignorance"): Appealing to a lack of information to prove a point, or arguing that, since the opposition cannot disprove a claim, the opposite opinion must exist truthful. An case of such an argument is the assertion that ghosts must exist because no one has been able to evidence that they do non be. Logicians know this is a logical fallacy because no competing argument has yet revealed itself.

Hypothesis Contrary to Fact (Argumentum Ad Speculum): Trying to testify something in the real world past using imaginary examples alone, or asserting that, if hypothetically 10 had occurred, Y would accept been the result. For instance, suppose an private asserts that if Einstein had been aborted in utero, the world would never take learned virtually relativity, or that if Monet had been trained as a butcher rather than going to college, the impressionistic movement would accept never influenced mod art. Such hypotheses are misleading lines of argument because information technology is oft possible that some other private would have solved the relativistic equations or introduced an impressionistic art style. The speculation might make an interesting idea-experiment, merely it is simply useless when information technology comes to really proving anything most the real earth. A common instance is the idea that one "owes" her success to another individual who taught her. For instance, "You owe me part of your increased salary. If I hadn't taught yous how to recognize logical fallacies, you would be flipping hamburgers at McDonald's for minimum wages right now instead of taking in hundreds of thousands of dollars as a lawyer." Mayhap. But peradventure the audience would have learned about logical fallacies elsewhere, then the hypothetical situation described is meaningless.

Complex Question (Likewise called the "Loaded Question"): Phrasing a question or statement in such as way as to imply another unproven statement is truthful without evidence or discussion. This fallacy often overlaps with begging the question (above), since information technology also presupposes a definite answer to a previous, unstated question. For instance, if I were to ask you "Accept you stopped taking drugs yet?" my hidden supposition is that you have been taking drugs. Such a question cannot be answered with a elementary yes or no answer. It is not a simple question but consists of several questions rolled into one. In this case the unstated question is, "Have you taken drugs in the by?" followed by, "If you have taken drugs in the past, have you stopped taking them at present?" In cross-examination, a lawyer might inquire a flustered witness, "Where did you hide the evidence?" or "when did you stop chirapsia your wife?" The intelligent process when faced with such a question is to analyze its component parts. If one answers or discusses the prior, implicit question start, the explicit question may deliquesce.

Complex questions appear in written argument often. A student might write, "Why is private development of resources so much more efficient than whatsoever public control?" The rhetorical question leads directly into his next argument. However, an observant reader may disagree, recognizing the prior, implicit question remains unaddressed. That question is, of course, whether private evolution of resources really is more efficient in all cases, a point which the author is skipping entirely and only assuming to be true without discussion.

To main logic more fully, become familiar with the tool of Occam'south Razor.

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Source: https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/fallacies_list.html

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