Logical Fallacy Project
An example of the project.
Post Hoc
• Event A happened immediately prior to event B.
Therefore, A caused B.
• Post Hoc also manifests itself as a bias towards
jumping to conclusions based upon
coincidences.
"Logical Fallacy: Post Hoc." Logical Fallacies:
The Fallacy Files. Fallacy Files. Web. n.d.
13 Apr. 2011.
"Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc." Cunningham &
Cunningham, Inc. CategoryLogic, 27 Feb.
2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.
Post hoc
“She sends her spirit on me in church; she
makes me laugh at prayer.” Abigail
Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible." Elements of Literature. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 2007. 1233. Print.
This is post hoc or
faulty causality
because there is no
evidence that Tituba
sending her spirit and
Abigail laughing in
church are cause and
effect. Abigail may
laugh in church due to
her immaturity.
A Loyal Reader Writes:
You ridicule those “screaming car
dealer” commercials. But they
work, don’t they? Isn’t that why car dealers insist
on airing them?
No, they don’t work. Those screaming
ads increase the public’s awareness of the car
dealer not because they scream but because
they’re aired so frequently. One of the great
powers of radio advertising, remember?
Frequency.
They could simply repeat “Ed’s Toyota is a wonderful to place to buy
a new car,” and if that message aired as often as the Screaming Spot, it
would deliver at least the same result.
It is possible to create a commercial that is far more effective than
either of those models, of course. But when your local Screaming Car Dealer
says, “We scream because it works,” the truth is simply, “It works because
we make full use of radio’s Reach and Frequency.”
O'Day, Dan. Dan O'Day Talks About Radio. N.p., 4 Aug. 2011. Web. 30 Aug.
2011.
Bandwagon/Ad populam
• When someone agrees with a
statement/policy just because the general
population does; Bandwagon.
About.com. Ed. Richard Nordquist. The New
York Times Company, n.d.
Google. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.
Bandwagon
Abigail: I want to open myself! I want to go back to Jesus…I
saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn
with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!
Betty: I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody
Howe with the Devil!
Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible." Elements of Literature. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
2007. 1235. Print.
This is a bandwagon fallacy
because Abigail began naming
witches after Tituba was forced to
name some and saw the
attention and approval she
received for doing so. Once
Abigail begins, Betty follows her
in crying out more names.
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