FALLACIES—(also called: Rhetorical fallacies/ Logical Fallacies/Fallacies of Argument)
A fallacy is an argument based on faulty reasoning.
EMOTIONAL FALLACIES appeal unfairly to the audience’s emotions.
Red Herrings introduce evidence that is unrelated or misleading to support a conclusion. (Sometimes called smoke screen)
Examples: *The painting is worthless because I don’t recognize the artist.
* I know I forgot to deposit the check into the bank today, but nothing I do pleases you.
*I know your car isn’t working right. But, if you had gone to the store one day earlier you would not be having problems.
*People can keep debating the location of the tent city, but we need to decide now. Do you want homeless bums discouraging
customers from doing business with you?
You try:
Band Wagon/ ad populum is based on the belief that popularity (or patriotism or snobbishness) is the same as validity.
Examples: *The majority of people like soda. Therefore, soda is good.
*Paris Hilton carries a small dog in her purse, so you should buy a hairless Chihuahua and put it in your Louis Vuitton.
*Why be the only parent who doesn’t allow your kids to play video games?
You try:
Ad misericordiam/Sentimental appeals use emotion (often pity or fear) to distract the audience from the facts.
Examples: The thousands of baby seals killed in the oil spill have shown us that oil is not a reliable energy source.
Oh come on I’ve been sick. That is why I missed the deadline.
Our relief program has admittedly lost track of some donations, but just think of all the suffering children we have helped.
In a job interview a man is asked about his qualifications and he replies that his wife is ill, he is behind on the mortgage and
his car broke down.
You try:
Scare tactics (“might makes right”) claim that something bad will happen if you do not accept the argument.
Examples: *If you don’t support the party’s tax plan, you and your family will be reduced to poverty.
*Convert or die.
You try:
Slippery slope arguments assume one thing will lead to another (these arguments ignore cause and effect).
Examples: *If you get a B in high school, you won’t get into the college of your choice, and therefore will never have a
meaningful career.
*Not allowing students to pray before football games not only infringes on their right to free speech, but undermines the very
foundation of our government.
You try:
False dilemma or either/or choices/claims artificially limit complicated issues to only two possible courses of action.
Examples:*The patent office can either approve my generator design immediately or say goodbye forever to affordable
energy.
*Do you still beat your wife?
*You either did knock the glass over or you did not. Which is it?
Brutus: Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than Caesar were dead to live all free men?
You try:
False need arguments create an unnecessary desire for things.
Example: *You need an expensive car or people won’t think you’re cool.
You try:
ETHICAL FALLACIES advance the writer’s own authority or character without proof.
Ad vericundium/False authority uses a biased, suspicious or non-credible source, (often using yourself as an authority).
Note: it is not fallacious if the individual is an expert in a given field, but using Einstein to settle a point about politics would
be fallacious.
Examples: *Trust me; my best friend wouldn’t do that.
*My teacher said it, so it must be true.
*Payton Manning uses Oil of Olay, so it must be a great product.
You try:
Ad Hominem attacks the individual instead of the argument (often stereotyping).
Example: *Why should we think a candidate who recently divorced will keep her campaign promises?
*You are so stupid your argument couldn’t possibly be true.
*I figured you didn’t know anything about football because you are a girl, so I ignored your comment.
You try:
Poisoning the Well (a form of Ad hominem) is presenting negative information about an opponent before he/ she speaks in
order to discredit the argument.
Example: *Two men are having a debate. The first says, “My opponent is a notorious liar; you can’t believe a word he is
going to say.”
*Frank is pompous, arrogant, and thinks he knows everything. So let’s hear what Frank has to say about the subject.
*Don’t listen to him because he is a loser.
You try:
Dogmatism shuts down the discussion by claiming that the writer’s beliefs are the only acceptable ones.
Example: * I’m sorry, but I think penguins are sea creatures and that is that.
You try:
Guilt by Association calls someone’s character into question by examining the character of that person’s associates.
Example: *Jenny’s friend Sue does drugs; therefore Jenny is a delinquent.
*Hitler liked dogs. Therefore dogs are bad.
*Your friend is a thief, therefore I cannot trust you.
You try:
Straw person (a subtype of red herring) fallacy is restating a complex idea into a simpler version of it.
Examples: *The government doesn’t take care of the poor because it doesn’t have tax specifically to support the poor.
*We know that evolution is false because we did not evolve from monkeys.
*Allowing criminals to serve probation instead of jail time is nothing less than an attempt to set murderers and rapists free
on our streets.
*Person A: We need to regulate access to handguns. Person B: My opponent believes that we should ignore the rights
guaranteed to us as citizens of the US by the Constitution. Unlike my opponent, I am a firm believer in the Constitution and a
proponent of freedom.
You try:
Moral Equivalence compares minor problems with much more serious crimes (or vice versa).
Example: *These mandatory seat belt laws are fascist.
You try:
LOGICAL FALLACIES are based on faulty logic.
Hasty generalizations/misleading statistics draw conclusions from scanty evidence or an isolated or exceptional case.
Example: *You don’t speak French, Joe doesn’t speak French; therefore no one at OHS can speak French.
*I wouldn’t eat at that restaurant—the only time I ate there my food was undercooked.
You try.
Faulty Causality/Post Hoc blames someone for something they have no control over. It confuses chronology with causation
Example: *Let’s not take Bill to the picnic. Every time we take him it rains!
*When the rooster crows, the sun rises. Therefore, the rooster causes the sun to rise.
*When the fuel light goes on in my car, I soon run out of gas. Therefore, the fuel light causes my car to run out of gas.
You try:
Non Sequitur is a conclusion that has no apparent connection to the premises or reasons.
Examples: *You don’t love me or you would buy me that bike.
*If these protestors really loved their country, they wouldn’t question the government.
*We know why it rained today: because I washed my car.
You try:
Equivocation is a half truth, or statement that is partially true, but purposely hides the whole truth.
Examples: *A feather is light. Light cannot be dark, therefore all feathers cannot be dark.
*Evolution states that one species can change into another. We see that cars have evolved into different styles. Therefore,
since evolution is a fact in cars, it is true in species.
*An accused murderer’s response when asked if he had communicated with the victim, to whom he had sent an e-mail
message: “No, I didn’t speak with her.”
You try:
Double Standard is applying a standard to another that is different from a standard applied to oneself.
Examples: *You can’t possibly understand childbirth because you are a man.
*Those rules don’t apply to me because I am older than you are.
You try:
Begging the Question assumes the thing to be true that you are trying to prove. It is circular reasoning supporting a premise
with a premise.
Example: *You can’t give me a C, I am an A student.
*Since I am a good writer, I certainly don’t need to revise my essay.
*I am a good worker because Frank says so. How can we trust Frank? Simple: I will vouch for him.
*His lies are evident from the untruthful nature of his statement.
You try:
A Faulty Analogy is a misleading comparison of two different things or two unrelated situations. It overlooks important
dissimilarities in order to focus on shaky similarities.
Example: *Letting prisoners out on early release is like absolving them from their crimes.
*Students should be allowed to look at their text books during tests because other professional use things to guide them.
*People are like dogs they both work better with clear discipline.
You try:
Dicto simpliciter/over simplification is an argument based on an unqualified generalization.
Example: *Poverty causes crime.
*Exercise is good. Therefore everybody should exercise.
You try:
Stacked evidence represents only one side of the issue
Example: *Cats are superior to dogs because they are cleaner, cuter, and more independent.
You try:
Contradictory premises: if the premises of an argument contradict each other there can be no argument
Example: *If God can do anything, can He make a rock so heavy that He won’t be able to lift it?
You try:
Hypothesis contrary to fact starts with a hypothesis that is untrue and draws a supportable conclusion from it.
Example: *If Madame Curie had not left a photographic plate in a drawer with a chunk of pitchblende, the world today
would not know about radium.
You try:
Adapted from documents from The Undergraduate Writing Center at the University of Texas, Carm.org, and Sarah Violette