Logical Fallacy Quiz-Public Speaking

non sequitur

A statement that does not logically follow from evidence. ex: "because they live in the richest country in the world, they must be extremely wealthy"

begging the question

Often called circular reasoning, presenting an argument in a way that it cannot help but be true, even though no evidence is presented. ex: "War kills"

appeal to tradition

an argument that bases its acceptance on historical tradition or how something has traditionally been done. ex: "A marriage should be between a man and a woman because that is how it has always been"

red herring

an argument that introduces an irrelevant or unrelated topic into discussion to divert attention from the issue at hand. ex: "The previous speaker suggests that Medicare is in shambles. I disagree and recommend that we study why the young don't respect their elders"

post hoc ergo propter hoc

an argument that suggests that a casual relationship exists between two states or events due to the order in which the events occurred, rather than taking other factors into consideration. ex: "The child was vaccinated in June and became ill the following week, clearly as a result of the vaccine"

Bandwagoning

an argument that uses (unsubstantiated) general opinion as its (false) basis for asserting the truth of something. ex: "Nike is superior to other brands because everyone wears Nikes"

hasty generalization

an argument that uses an isolated instance to make an unwarranted general conclusion. ex: "My neighbor who works for Xmart is untrustworthy; therefore, Xmart is not a trustworthy company"

slippery slope

an argument which assumes that taking a first step will lead to subsequent steps that cannot be prevented. ex: "legalizing marijuana for medical use will lead to widespread recreational use of heroin"

faulty analogy

an illogical, misleading comparison between two things. ex: "Banning guns for law-abiding citizens because criminals use them to kill people is like banning cars because some people use them to drive drunk and kill people"

What is a logical fallacy?

either false or erroneous statement or an invalid or deceptive line of reasoning

either/or fallacy

oversimplifying an issue as offering only two choices. ex: "you're either with us or against us"

ad hominem argument

targets a person instead of the issue at hand in an attempt to incite an audience's dislike for that person. ex: "I'm better than candidate X, because unlike X, I work for a living"