Phil 101 Fallacies

Hasty Generalization (Converse Accident)

A hasty generalization is a fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. It's also called an insufficient sample, a converse accident, a faulty generalization, a biased generalization, jumping to a conclusion, secundum quid, and a neglect of qualifications.

red herring

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion

strawman

A straw man is a common form of argument and is an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument, while actually refuting an argument that was not presented by that opponent. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man."

accident (sweeping generalization)

A sweeping generalization is applying a general rule to a specific instance (without proper evidence), and a hasty generalization is applying a specific rule to a general situation (without proper evidence). For example: You get what you pay for.

appeal to fear (argumentum ad metum, argument from adverse consequences, scare tactic

An appeal to fear is a fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for an idea by attempting to increase fear towards an alternative.

appeal to spite (argumentum ad odium, appeal to personal indignation, appeal to hatred)

An appeal to spite is a fallacy in which someone attempts to win favor for an argument by exploiting existing feelings of bitterness, spite, or schadenfreude in the opposing party.

Weak Analogy

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.

Poisoning the Well

Poisoning the well (or attempting to poison the well) is a type of informal logical fallacy where irrelevant adverse information about a target is preemptively presented to an audience, with the intention of discrediting or ridiculing something that the target person is about to say.

post hoc ergo propter hoc

Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a logical fallacy that states "Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X." It is often shortened simply to post hoc fallacy.

reversing cause and effect

Take Act One and do Reverse Cause and Effect for that act, stating the Object of the act, the Final Effect that demonstrates the Object on screen with real actors, the Immediate Cause of that effect, the cause of that and the cause of that, etc., back to the beginning of the act.

Oversimplified Cause (Fallacy of a Single Cause, Causal Oversimplification, Causal Reductionism)

The fallacy of the single cause, also known as complex cause, causal oversimplification, causal reductionism, and reduction fallacy, is a fallacy of questionable cause that occurs when it is assumed that there is a single, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may have been caused by a number of only jointly sufficient causes.

genetic fallacy

The genetic fallacy (also known as the fallacy of origins or fallacy of virtue) is a fallacy of irrelevance that is based solely on someone's or something's history, origin, or source rather than its current meaning or context.

non causa, pro causa

The questionable cause—also known as causal fallacy, false cause, or non causa pro causa —is a category of informal fallacies in which a cause is incorrectly identified. An example that clearly states what false cause is can be given by, Every time I go to sleep, the sun goes down.

Hypothesis Contrary to Fact

This fallacy consists of offering a poorly supported claim about what might have happened in the past or future if circumstances or conditions were other than they actually were or are

appeal to ignorance (Argumentum ad Ignorantium)

When the premises of an argument state that nothing has been proved one way or the other, and then the conclusion makes a definite assertion about that thing

Other "ad populem (appeal to snobbery, appeal to pride, etc.)

an appeal to snobbery appeals to a smaller group that is supposed to be supieror in some way an appeal to pride appeals to a sense of pride

tu quoque

argument addresses the opponents own hippocracy rather than the opponents argument

false dichotomy (Bifurcation, False Dilemma, Black-and-White Fallacy, Either/Or Fallacy)

committed when a disjunctive premise presents two unlikely alternatives as if they were the only ones available, and the arguer then eliminates the undesirable alternative, leaving the desirable ones as the conclusion

composition

committed when the conclusion of an argument depends on the erroneous transference of an attribute from the parts of something onto the whole

division

committed when the conclusion of an argument depends on the erroneous transference of an attribute from whole onto its parts.

begging the question (Petitio Principii, Circular Reasoning, Vicious Circle)

committed whenever the arguer creates the illusion that inadequate premises provide adequate support for the conclusion by leaving out a possibly false (shaky) key premise, by restating a possibly false premise as the conclusion, or by reasoning in a circle.

ad hominem abusive

in an ad hominem abusive, the second person responds to the first person's argument by verbally abusing the first person.

amphiboly

occurs when the arguer misinterprets an ambiguous statement and then draws a conclusion based on this faulty interpretation.

Unqualified Authority (Argumentum ad Verecundiam, Ipse dixit)

occurs when the cited authority or witness lacks credibility.

equivocation

occurs when the conclusion of an argument depends on the fact that a word or phrase is used, either explicitly or implicitly in two different sense in the argument.

slippery slope (The Thin End of the Wedge, The Camel's Nose, The Fallacy of the Beard, The Domino Fallacy)

occurs when the conclusion of an argument rests on an alleged chain reaction and there is not sufficient reason to think that the chain reaction will actually take place.

missing the point (Ignoratio Elenchi, "ignorance of the refutation", Drawing an Irrelevant Conclusion)

occurs when the premises of an argument support one particular conclusion, but then a different conclusion, often vaguely related to the correct conclusion, is drawn.

appeal to pity(argumentum ad misericordiam, appeal to sympathy)

the appeal to pity fallacy occurs when an arguer attempt to support a conclusion by merely evoking pity from the reader or listener.

bandwagon (argumentum ad populum)

the bandwagon argument has this general structure: Everybody believe such-and-such or does such-and-such; therefore, you should believe or do such-and-such.

appeal to force (argumentum ad baculum, argument to the cudgel, appeal to the stick)

the fallacy of appeal to force occurs whenever an arguer poses a conclusion to another person and tells that person either implicitly or explicitly that some harm will come to him or her if he or she does not accept the conclusion

ad hominem circumstantial

the respondent attempts to discredit the opponents argument by alluding to certain circumstances that affect the opponent. like reasons the audience shouldn't trust their argument