Logic and Logical Fallacies

Logic and logical fallacies are important in critical thinking. There are many books that describe formal and informal logic, that provide lists of logical fallacies, how to spot them and how to construct logical arguments. Typically they make claims like:
  • Win every argument
  • Persuade people
  • Don’t be  “duped”, fooled or mislead

Most of these books disappoint on their claims and are much less useful than the reader expects. This is because of the direction they approach the subject. For many years it was believed that reason and deductive logic were the only source knowledge. Reflecting this these books start with the world of formal logic (deductive logic.) From this point logicians defined all other forms of reasoning as informal logic (inductive logic.) They started with the abstract world of formal logic and then move towards the physical world by extending logic to include informal logic. This approach gives a distorted view and reduces its usefulness.

The pages that follow in this section of the website are different. They approach the subject in the opposite direction. Starting with the physical world and defining logic in terms of its relationship to the physical world and how it can be used in the physical world. This gives a more effective and  straightforward way of winning arguments, persuading people and avoiding being duped.

The next page groups logical fallacies into general types based on their relationship to the physical world and describes how you can spot what type of logical argument is being used.

The following sections list over 100 logical fallacies used in arguments, their type and how to address or treat the fallacy.

Subpages (1): Types of Logical Fallacy