Fallacy Flashcards
Appeal to Ignorance
Ad Ignorantiam
Arguing that because a claim has not been demonstrated to be false, the claim is true.
Appeal to Inappropriate Authority
Ad Verecundiam
The authority cited is not an authority in the proper area.
Appeal to General Belief
Ad Populum
Asserting that a claim is correct just because people generally believe it is.
Appeal to Popular Attitudes and Emotions
Ad Populum
Popular attitudes and the emotions associated with them can be manipulated to incline people to accept claims that have not been demonstrated.
Gambler’s Fallacy
If something happens more frequently than normal during a given period, it will happen less frequently in the future (or vice versa).
False Cause
Post Hoc
Because one event occurred before another, the first was the cause of the second.
Hasty Generalization
Generalizing on the basis of an inadequate set of case.
False Dilemma
False Alternatives
Giving arguments that present alternatives as exhaustive and exclusive when they are not.
Loaded Question
Complex Question
Attempting to get an answer to a question that assumes the truth of an unproved assumption.
Begging the Question
Petitio Principii
Some reason offered for some conclusion is not really different from the conclusion itself.
Slippery Slope
When there is little or no significant difference between adjacent points on a continuum, then there is no important difference between even widely separated points on the continuum.
Fallacy of Equivocation
Using an ambiguous term in more than one sense, thus making an argument misleading.
Red Herring
Attempting to redirect the argument to another issue to which the person doing the redirecting can better respond.
Against the Person
Ad Hominem
Rejecting a claim or an argument by offering as grounds some personal characteristic of the person supporting it.
You Too
Tu Quoque
Claiming the argument is flawed by pointing out that the one making the argument is not acting consistently with the claims of the argument.
Pooh-Pooh
To dismiss an argument with ridicule as not worthy of serious consideration.
Straw Man
Misrepresenting an opponent’s claim or argument so that it is easier to criticize or so obviously implausible that no criticism is needed.
Loaded Words
Substituting facts and evidence with words that stir up emotion, with the attempt to manipulate others into accepting the truth of the argument.
Definitional Dodge
Redefining a crucial term in a claim to avoid acknowledging a counterexample that would falsity the claim.
Exception That Proves the Rule
In some contexts, the word is ambiguous, and this allows someone to defending a claim by dismissing apparent counterexamples as no challenge.