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Log-on to the following website: http://www.freewebs.com/thinkingstraight/Fallacies.htm
Read through the fallacies and find three that you think are the most interesting for you.
Write down each fallacy and write a summary of the fallacy.
Search the NET for other explanations of the same fallacy. Read 2 or three and add to your
summary. DO NOT cut and paste for this section. I want you to compare sources and improve
upon your summary.
5. Think of one or two examples of the fallacy as it occurs in the real world. Describe. If you can
find physical evidence, eg an advertisement or commercial…. Also include those copies.
6. Bring it all to class on Tuesday.
Fallacies
A fallacy is essentially an error in reasoning. Sometimes, they are difficult to detect, because fallacious
thinking often appears to be reasonable, and, because fallacies are so oft repeated, one may be tempted to
believe them. This only makes spotting and dismantling erroneous thinking all the more difficult.
Here is a list of some of the more common informal fallacies which plague us today. I apologize in advance
if I happen to use an example that has come up in an argument I've personally been involved in.
Ad Hominem
Ad Hominem-circumstantial
Ambiguity
Anachronism
Anecdotal Evidence
Appeal to Authority
Appeal to Ignorance
Appeal to Tradition
Appeal to Unknowable Statistics
Appeals to the Extreme
Appeals to Popularity
Begging the Question
Bifurcation
Circular Reasoning
Composition
Division
Emotional Appeals
Equivocation
Source: http://www.freewebs.com/thinkingstraight/Fallacies.htm
False Attribution
False Dilemma
Faulty Comparison
Hasty Conclusion
Hasty Generalization
Ignored Intention
Invincible Ignorance
Irrelevant Reasons
Lack of Proportion
Poisoning the Well
Provincialism
Questionable Cause
Red Herring
Relative Privation
Slippery Slope
Suppressed Evidence
Tautology
Two Wrongs Make a Right