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Logical Fallacies. Continuing our foray into the world of Argument. Courtesy of: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacies.html. What is Fallacy?. Fallacies are defects that weaken arguments.

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Logical Fallacies




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Logical fallacies l.jpg

Logical Fallacies

Continuing our foray into the world of Argument


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What is Fallacy?

  • Fallacies are defects that weaken arguments.

  • First, fallacious arguments are very, very common and can be quite persuasive, at least to the causal reader or listener. You can find dozens of examples of fallacious reasoning in newspapers, advertisements, and other sources.

  • Second, it is sometimes hard to evaluate whether an argument is fallacious.

  • An argument might be very weak, somewhat weak, somewhat strong, or very strong. An argument that has several stages or parts might have some strong sections and some weak ones.

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Hasty Generalization



  • Example: "My roommate said her philosophy class was hard, and the one I'm in is hard, too. All philosophy classes must be hard!"

    • Two people's experiences are, in this case, not enough on which to base a conclusion.

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Missing the Point

  • Definition: The premises of an argument do support a particular conclusion--but not the conclusion that the arguer actually draws.

  • Example: "The seriousness of a punishment should match the seriousness of the crime. Right now, the punishment for drunk driving may simply be a fine. But drunk driving is a very serious crime that can kill innocent people. So the death penalty should be the punishment for drunk driving."

    • The argument actually supports several conclusions-- "The punishment for drunk driving should be very serious," in particular--but it doesn't support the claim that the death penalty, specifically, is warranted.

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Post hoc (false cause)


  • Definition: Assuming that because B comes after A, A caused B.

    • Of course, sometimes one event really does cause another one that comes later--for example, if I register for a class, and my name later appears on the roll, it's true that the first event caused the one that came later. But sometimes two events that seem related in time aren't really related as cause and event. That is, correlation isn't the same thing as causation.

  • Examples: "President Jones raised taxes, and then the rate of violent crime went up. Jones is responsible for the rise in crime.“

    • The increase in taxes might or might not be one factor in the rising crime rates, but the argument hasn't shown us that one caused the other.

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Slippery Slope

Also known as “the Camel’s Nose

  • Definition: The arguer claims that a sort of chain reaction, usually ending in some dire consequence, will take place, but there's really not enough evidence for that assumption.

    • The arguer asserts that if we take even one step onto the "slippery slope," we will end up sliding all the way to the bottom; he or she assumes we can't stop halfway down the hill.

  • Example: "Animal experimentation reduces our respect for life. If we don't respect life, we are likely to be more and more tolerant of violent acts like war and murder. Soon our society will become a battlefield in which everyone constantly fears for their lives. It will be the end of civilization. To prevent this terrible consequence, we should make animal experimentation illegal right now."

    • Since animal experimentation has been legal for some time and civilization has not yet ended, it seems particularly clear that this chain of events won't necessarily take place.

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Weak Analogy

  • Definition: Many arguments rely on an analogy between two or more objects, ideas, or situations. If the two things that are being compared aren't really alike in the relevant respects, the analogy is a weak one, and the argument that relies on it commits the fallacy of weak analogy.

  • Example: "Guns are like hammers--they're both tools with metal parts that could be used to kill someone. And yet it would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of hammers--so restrictions on purchasing guns are equally ridiculous."

    • While guns and hammers do share certain features, these features (having metal parts, being tools, and being potentially useful for violence) are not the ones at stake in deciding whether to restrict guns. Rather, we restrict guns because they can easily be used to kill large numbers of people at a distance. This is a feature hammers do not share--it'd be hard to kill a crowd with a hammer. Thus, the analogy is weak, and so is the argument based on it.

  • If you think about it, you can make an analogy of some kind between almost any two things in the world: "My paper is like a mud puddle because they both get bigger when it rains (I work more when I'm stuck inside) and they're both kind of murky." So the mere fact that you draw an analogy between two things doesn't prove much, by itself.

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Appeal to Authority

  • Definition: Often we add strength to our arguments by referring to respected sources or authorities and explaining their positions on the issues we're discussing.

    • If, however, we try to get readers to agree with us simply by impressing them with a famous name or by appealing to a supposed authority who really isn't much of an expert, we commit the fallacy of appeal to authority.

  • Example: "We should abolish the death penalty. Many respected people, such as actor Guy Handsome, have publicly stated their opposition to it."

    • While Guy Handsome may be an authority on matters having to do with acting, there's no particular reason why anyone should be moved by his political opinions--he is probably no more of an authority on the death penalty than the person writing the paper.

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Appeal to Pity

  • Definition: The appeal to pity takes place when an arguer tries to get people to accept a conclusion by making them feel sorry for someone.

  • Example: "I know the exam is graded based on performance, but you should give me an A. My cat has been sick, my car broke down, and I've had a cold, so it was really hard for me to study!"

    • The conclusion here is "You should give me an A." But the criteria for getting an A have to do with learning and applying the material from the course; the principle the arguer wants us to accept (people who have a hard week deserve A's) is clearly unacceptable.

  • Example: "It's wrong to tax corporations--think of all the money they give to charity, and of the costs they already pay to run their businesses!"

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Appeal to Ignorance

  • Definition: In the appeal to ignorance, the arguer basically says, "Look, there's no conclusive evidence on the issue at hand. Therefore, you should accept my conclusion on this issue."

  • Example: "People have been trying for centuries to prove that God exists. But no one has yet been able to prove it. Therefore, God does not exist."

    Here's an opposing argument that commits the same fallacy:

  • "People have been trying for years to prove that God does not exist. But no one has yet been able to prove it. Therefore, God exists."

    • In each case, the arguer tries to use the lack of evidence as support for a positive claim about the truth of a conclusion. There is one situation in which doing this is not fallacious: If qualified researchers have used well-thought-out methods to search for something for a long time, they haven't found it, and it's the kind of thing people ought to be able to find, then the fact that they haven't found it constitutes some evidence that it doesn't exist.

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Straw Man

  • Definition: One way of making our own arguments stronger is to anticipate and respond in advance to the arguments that an opponent might make. The arguer sets up a wimpy version of the opponent’s position and tries to score point by knocking it down.

  • Example: "Feminists want to ban all pornography and punish everyone who reads it! But such harsh measures are surely inappropriate, so the feminists are wrong: porn and its readers should be left in peace."

    • The feminist argument is made weak by being overstated--in fact, most feminists do not propose an outright "ban" on porn or any punishment for those who merely read it; often, they propose some restrictions on things like child porn, or propose to allow people who are hurt by porn to sue publishers and producers, not readers, for damages.

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Red Herring

  • Definition: Partway through an argument, the arguer goes off on a tangent, raising a side issue that distracts the audience from what's really at stake. Often, the arguer never returns to the original issue.

  • Example: "Grading this exam on a curve would be the most fair thing to do. After all, classes go more smoothly when the students and the professor are getting along well." Let's try our premise-conclusion outlining to see what's wrong with this argument:

    • Premise: Classes go more smoothly when the students and the professor are getting along well.

    • Conclusion: Grading this exam on a curve would be the most fair thing to do.

  • When we lay it out this way, it's pretty obvious that the arguer went off on a tangent--the fact that something helps people get along doesn't necessarily make it more fair; fairness and justice sometimes require us to do things that cause conflict. But the audience may feel like the issue of teachers and students agreeing is important and be distracted from the fact that the arguer has not given any evidence as to why a curve would be fair.

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False Dichotomy


  • Example: "Caldwell Hall is in bad shape. Either we tear it down and put up a new building, or we continue to risk students' safety. Obviously we shouldn't risk anyone's safety, so we must tear the building down."

    • The argument neglects to mention the possibility that we might repair the building or find some way to protect students from the risks in question--for example, if only a few rooms are in bad shape, perhaps we shouldn't hold classes in those rooms.

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Begging the Question

  • Definition: A complicated fallacy, an argument that begs the question asks the reader to simply accept the conclusion without providing real evidence

    • the argument either relies on a premise that says the same thing as the conclusion (which you might hear referred to as "being circular" or "circular reasoning"), or simply ignores an important (but questionable) assumption that the argument rests on.


  • Examples: "Active euthanasia is morally acceptable. It is a decent, ethical thing to help another human being escape suffering through death." Let's lay this out in premise-conclusion form:

    • Premise: It is a decent, ethical thing to help another human being escape suffering through death.

    • Conclusion: Active euthanasia is morally acceptable.

  • If we "translate" the premise, we'll see that the arguer has really just said the same thing twice: "decent, ethical" means pretty much the same thing as "morally acceptable," and "help another human being escape suffering through death" means "active euthanasia." So the premise basically says, "active euthanasia is morally acceptable," just like the conclusion does! The arguer hasn't yet given us any real reasons why euthanasia is acceptable; instead, she has left us asking "well, really, why do you think active euthanasia is acceptable?" Her argument "begs" (that is, evades) the real question (think of "beg off").

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  • Definition: Equivocation is sliding between two or more different meanings of a single word or phrase that is important to the argument.

  • Example: "Giving money to charity is the right thing to do. So charities have a right to our money."

    • The equivocation here is on the word "right": "right" can mean both something that is correct or good (as in "I got the right answers on the test") and something to which someone has a claim (as in "everyone has a right to life").

    • Sometimes an arguer will deliberately, sneakily equivocate, often on words like "freedom," "justice," "rights," and so forth; other times, the equivocation is a mistake or misunderstanding. Either way, it's important that you use the main terms of your argument consistently.

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Can you name this Fallacy?

1) It is ridiculous to have spent thousands of dollars to rescue those two whales trapped in the Arctic ice. Why look at all the people trapped in jobs they don’t like.


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Can you name this Fallacy?

2) Plagiarism is deceitful because it is dishonest.


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Can you name this Fallacy?

3) Water fluoridation affects the brain. Citywide, student’s test scores began to drop five months after fluoridation began.

POST HOC (false cause)

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Can you name this Fallacy?

4) I know three redheads who have terrible tempers, and since Annabel has red hair, I’ll bet she has a terrible temper too.


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Can you name this Fallacy?

5) Supreme Court Justice Byron White was an All-American football player while in college, so how can you say that athletes are dumb?


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Can you name this Fallacy?

6) Why should we put people on trial when we know they are guilty?


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Can you name this Fallacy?

7) You support capital punishment just because you want an “eye for an eye,” but I have several good reasons to believe that capital punishment is fundamentally wrong…


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Can you name this Fallacy?

8) The meteorologist predicted the wrong amount of rain for May. Obviously the meteorologist is unreliable.


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Can you name this Fallacy?

9) You know Jane Fonda’s exercise video’s must be worth the money. Look at the great shape she’s in.

POST HOC (false cause)

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Can you name this Fallacy?

10) We have to stop the tuition increase! The next thing you know, they'll be charging $40,000 a semester!


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Can you name this Fallacy?

11) The book Investing for Dummies really helped me understand my finances better. The book Chess for Dummies was written by the same author, was published by the same press, and costs about the same amount, so it would probably help me understand my finances as well.


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Can you name this Fallacy?



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Can you name this Fallacy?

13) I'm positive that my work will meet your requirements. I really need the job since my grandmother is sick.


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Can you name this Fallacy?

14) Crimes of theft and robbery have been increasing at an alarming rate lately. The conclusion is obvious, we must reinstate the death penalty immediately.


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Can you name this Fallacy?



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