FALLACIES:
- Error in reasoning or false assumption that may sound persuasive but absolutely proves
nothing. These are usually encountered during debates, arguments or presentations to
mislead other presenter into thinking, behaving or acting in a certain way.
- One example is like in politics, where politicians use it to make the people fall for what
they are proposing to the public using these “fallacies”. Also, they are frequently used
by salespeople or what we know in common terms as “sales talk”.
- Being able to spot and call out fallacies may be used as a life tool that is why you should
be familiar with it.
- There are [10] common logical fallacies
1. The Ad Hominem:
- This is considered as the “most common offender” or “poisoning well” or the ‘personal
attack’ where the person attacks the individual. This can be directed towards their character,
morals, intelligence, reputation or credentials. This doesn’t really matter because it doesn’t
address the real argument being presented but relying on just prejudice or feelings to win.
2. The Appeal to Authority:
- A widely used fallacy that whatever the person states he/she claims it to be true without
giving any proof or logical reasoning to support his/her statement, like word “must” is used
but with insufficient proof.
3. The Straw Man:
- Occurs when the 2nd person takes the 1st person’s argument or point, distorts and
exaggerates it in an extreme way and then attacks the extreme distortion, as if that is really
the claim the first person is making.
-Example:
Person 1:
I think pollution from humans contributes to climate change.
Person 2:
So, you think humans are directly responsible for extreme weather, like hurricanes,
and have caused the droughts in the southwestern U.S.? If that’s the case, maybe we
just need to go to the southwest and perform a “rain dance.”
4. The Appeal to Ignorance:
- This occurs when the person argues that his or her conclusion must be true because
there is no evidence against it. This fallacy wrongly shifts the burden of proof away from the
one making the claim.
- Occurs when a person mistakenly believes something to be true that is not, because he
or she doesn’t know enough know about the subject.
-Example:
“We have no hard evidence that fairies exist, which must mean they are so incredibly
magical that they can make themselves invisible to humans.”
5. The False Dilemma:
- Also known as the “False Dichotomy”, the “Black and White Fallacy” or even the “Bi-
furcation Fallacy”.
- When only two choices are presented yet more exist, or a spectrum of possible choices
exist between two extremes.
- Usually characterized by “either this or that” language, but can also be characterized
by omissions of choices,
6. The Slippery Slope aka The Domino Theory:
- A course of action is being rejected because, with little or no evidence, one insists that
will lead into a chain resulting in an undesirable end.
- Involves an acceptance of a succession of events without direct evidence that the course
of events will happen,
- Example:
• If you don’t do your homework, you’ll fail the class.
• If you fail this class, you won’t graduate from school.
• If you don’t graduate, you won’t get into college.
• If you don’t attend a good college, you won’t get a good job.
• If you don’t get a good job, you’ll be poor and homeless.
• You don’t want to be poor and homeless, do you?
Realistically, as important as it is to be studious, you’re probably not destined for the streets
just because you missed or did poorly on a single assignment.
7. The Circular Argument”
- aka Circular Reasoning. The reasoner begins with what they are trying to end with.
- when an argument comes back to the beginning without having proving itself.
- Follows a valid pattern of argument: A proves B.
- Example:
• Everyone loves Rebecca, because she is so popular.
• You must obey the law, because it’s illegal to break the law.
• Harold’s new book is well written, because Harold is a wonderful writer.
• America is the best place to live, because it’s better than any other country.
• Violent video games cause teens to be violent, because violent teens play
violent video games.
All of these statements cause the listener to ask, “But how can you be so sure?”
They offer no valid evidence besides the assertion that A proves B.
8. The Alphabet Soup
- Overuse of acronyms, abbreviations, and occulted language to bamboozle
people into thinking that they know what they are talking about and therefore must
be right (and you are wrong and ignorant to boot).
- Primarily to prove an audience that he/she speaks “their language” and is “one
of them” and to shut out, confuse or impress outsiders.
- Example:
In programming CGI, a WYSIWYG interface doesn't handle PHP or CSS very well.
If you sign up for my personal consulting, I will show you how to program
effectively.
Explanation: Simply overusing acronyms is not the problem here; it's the
deliberate overuse for the purpose of making people think the speaker is very
knowledgeable in this area, or perhaps to use terms the audience is unaware
of, making the audience think they need the consulting service more than they
thought they did.
9. The Bandwagon
- Works on the basis that something is correct, good, true, right or whatever the
heck you want it to be just because majority of people think it is as well.
- Because “everyone else is doing it” or “everything else thinks it is”
10. The Red Herring
- an attempt to mislead or distract from the relevant topic, diverting the attention
from the real issue.
- often used in detective or suspense novels to mislead readers or characters to
induce them to make false conclusions
- Example:
When your mom gets your phone bill and you have gone over the limit, you begin
talking to her about how hard your math class is and how well you did on a test today.
