Fallacies
1. Appeal to Force or the threat of force
2. Appeals to Emotion
2.a
Appeal to Pity
2.b
Appeal to Fear
2.c
Appeal to guilt or shame
2.d
Appeal to flattery
3. Ad Hominem
Fallacies
3.a
Abusive ad Hominem (Mudslinging, Name-calling)
3.b
Circumstantial ad Hominem (Vested Interest)
3.c
Guilt by Association
3.d Tu Quoque
3.e Poisoning the Well
4. Shifting the Burden of Proof
5. Self-Evident Truth
6. Appeal to Ignorance
7. Loaded Presupposition
8. Begging
the Question (circular argument)
9. Appeal to popularity, common
belief or common practice
9.a Appeal to popularity
9.b Appeal to tradition
9.b.1 Appeal to common belief
9.b.2 Appeal to common practice
9.c Appeal to group membership or patriotism (Mob
appeal)
9.d Appeal to novelty or change
9.e Appeal to dislike of unusual or uncommon
habits, beliefs, etc…
9.f Appeal to racial, religious, or social
prejudice
10. Faulty appeal to authority
11. Hasty Generalization
12. False Cause
13. Slippery Slope
14. False Dichotomy or False
Dilemma (Bifurcation)
15. Equivocation
16. Faulty Analogy
17. Straw Person
18. Red Herring
19. Genetic Fallacy
Examples of Fallacies[1]
1. Appeal to Force or the
threat of force
¨ You don’t want to be a social outcast, do
you? Then you’d better join us tomorrow. (explicit threat)
¨ Dear Editor, I hope you will agree that
this little escapade by my son has no real news value. I know you’ll agree that my firm buys
thousands of dollars worth of advertising space in your paper every year.
(veiled or implied threat)
2. Appeals to Emotion
2.a
Appeal to Pity
¨ The defendant has already suffered enough
so you should not find him guilty.
¨ Please officer, don’t give me a
ticket. I’m a single mother on welfare.
2.b
Appeal to Fear
¨ If you don’t convict this defendant of
murder and you do not find him guilty, he will be released and you may become
his next victim.
2.c
Appeal to guilt or shame
¨ You should make an exception and give me an
extension, otherwise I will fail the course, lose my scholarship, and be
expelled from university.
2.d
Appeal to flattery
¨ You should make an exception and give me an
extension because you are the most compassionate professor on campus; you
really see your students as individuals.
3. Ad Hominem
Fallacies
3.a
Abusive ad Hominem (Mudslinging, Name-calling)
¨ The Mayor is a sexist pig so we shouldn’t
listen to his plans to reorganize the City Council.
¨ We shouldn’t accept Professor Richard’s
claims that most men seriously abuse women.
She’s one of the man-hating radical feminists who want to castrate all
men. She couldn’t have anything unbiased
to say about this.
3.b
Circumstantial ad Hominem (Vested Interest)
¨ We should ignore the views of the Mayor on
legalizing drugs, he has admitted to having been a casual drug user in his
youth.
¨ Sure he opposes rent control; he owns two
apartment buildings, doesn’t he?
3.c Guilt by Association
¨ If you agree with the theories about global
warming you must be a radical environmentalist.
¨ Given the violence of the student riots
against the Bush at the
3.d Tu Quoque
¨ Look who’s telling me to stop smoking! You smoke more than I do.
¨ If you think communal living is such a
great idea, why aren’t you living in a commune?
¨ How can she tell me to exercise more when I
know that all she does is sit behind a desk?
3.e Poisoning the Well
¨ Anyone who doubts the president’s approach
to the war on terror is only helping the terrorists
4. Shifting the Burden of
Proof
¨ You will have to show me why I shouldn’t
believe in astrology before I will consider giving it up.
¨ I don’t believe that man ever went to the
moon. What evidence have you got to show
that he did?
5. Self-Evident Truth
¨ This man has lied his way out of far
tougher situations that this. Obviously
we shouldn’t listen to him.
¨ This woman denies being a member of the
opposition. But everyone knows
that members of the opposition have been brainwashed to deny under any
circumstances that they belong to the opposition.
6. Appeal to Ignorance
¨ There is no proof that the dean leaked the
news to the papers, so I’m sure she couldn’t have done such a thing.
¨ There must be extraterrestrial life. No one has proven there isn’t.
7. Loaded Presupposition
¨ Why is it that children of divorce are less
emotionally stable than children raised in unbroken homes?
¨ The scandalous Goods and Services Tax
introduced by the Liberals needs to be rejected if the country is to regain its
economic health.
8. Begging the Question
(circular argument)
¨ The belief in God is universal because
everyone believes in God.
¨ Miracles are impossible because they cannot
happen.
9. Appeal to popularity, common belief
or common practice
9.a Appeal to popularity
¨ John Grisham’s book is on the bestseller
list so it must be good.
¨ MacDonalds burgers are popular so they must be good
for you.
9.b Appeal to tradition
¨ Spanking your children is necessary because
it says so in the Bible.
9.b.1 Appeal to common belief
¨ Everyone knows that polygamy is
unacceptable.
¨ No one agrees that polygamy is acceptable;
therefore, it must be wrong
9.b.2 Appeal to common practice
¨ The institution of marriage is as old as
human history and thus must be considered sacred.
¨ Everyone uses formal logic in teaching
critical thinking so it must be the best way for students to learn critical
thinking.
9.c Appeal to group membership or patriotism (Mob
appeal)
¨ All individuals loyal to their country will
agree with the security measures put in place since Sept. 11th.
¨ I’m a working man myself, and I know how
hard it is to make ends meet today.
¨ Because you are a college audience, I know
I can speak to you about difficult matters seriously.
¨ No one in this room wants to deny any child
a decent education. But let’s remember
that this is our school and it belongs to our children
9.d Appeal to novelty or change
¨ That’s old-fashioned and must be wrong.
¨ Thomas Aquinas’ views on marriage may have
been correct for his time, but they are dated and don’t fit the values of the
20th century.
9.e Appeal to dislike of unusual or uncommon
habits, beliefs, etc…
¨ The majority of society is disgusted by sado-masochism, therefore it must be wrong.
¨ Polygamy is rightfully disliked by most
people.
9.f Appeal to racial, religious, or social
prejudice
¨ We all know that homosexuals are…..
10. Faulty appeal to authority
¨ If you like people, be sure you brush with
Colgate. Walt Frazier wouldn’t think of
brushing with anything else.
¨ Linus Pauling, a
double Novel prize-winning chemist has argued that mega doses of vitamin C will
increase a person’s life span. Surely if
such a noted scientist claims this is true, it must be true.
¨ My art history professor says that the Mona Lisa is the most beautiful painting
in the Western world. I guess it must
be.
11. Hasty Generalization
¨ She is very fond of her nieces & will
thus make a wonderful kindergarten teacher.
¨ I had a bad time with my former
husband. From that I’ve learned that all
men are no good.
¨ The notorious serial sex killer Paul
Bernardo viewed pornography. So did Ted
Bundy, another notorious serial sex killer.
This shows that all serial sex killers view pornography.
12. False Cause
¨ No sooner did they start to fluoridate the
water but my friends began dying of heart disease. It just doesn’t pay to tamper with nature.
¨ The city never had this problem with
garbage disposal until she became mayor.
¨ The notorious serial sex killer Paul
Bernardo viewed pornography. So did Ted
Bundy, another notorious serial sex killer.
This shows that all men who view pornography become serial sex killers.
13. Slippery Slope
¨ I do not permit questions in my class. One student asks a question, then everyone
asks questions. And then there would be
no time for the lecture.
¨ Today it is abortion, but tomorrow it will
be the mentally ill, and then the infirm and the aged – or anyone else
considered undesirable.
14. False Dichotomy or False
Dilemma (Bifurcation)
¨ We must choose between safety &
freedom. And it is in the nature of good
Americans to take the risk of freedom.
¨ You are either with us or against us in the
war against terror. (George W. Bush)
15. Equivocation
¨ Everything that runs has feet. The river runs. The refrigerator runs. Therefore both the river and the refrigerator
have feet.
¨ It is certainly true that human beings are
of the animal kingdom, and it is natural for an animal to exhibit
characteristic patterns of behavior.
However, human society restricts people’s animalistic behavior, and so
human society is, to that extent, unnatural.
¨ Men and women are clearly not equal. They differ in various attributes. Men are stronger; women, more verbal. So how can one say that we ought to treat
them equally?
16. Faulty Analogy
¨ A nuclear-power plant is infinitely safer
than eating, because 300 people choke to death on food a year.
¨ No one objects to the practice of a physican looking up a difficult case in medical books. Why, then, shouldn’t students taking a
difficult examination be permitted to use their textbooks?
¨ Nature is a book open to everyone to
read. If we do not understand it, it is
simply because we have not read it carefully enough. And like a book, nature requires an author. Its author is God.
¨ The state is like a ship. Just as a ship needs a strong captain – one
who insists on unyielding obedience – to command it, the state requires a
strong leader whom all citizens must obey.
17. Straw Person
¨ The tree huggers go on and on about the
need to stop polluting and clean up the environment. This is clearly an impossible dream and
should be abandoned because there is no way we can return the planet to a
pristine state.
18. Red Herring
¨ (In response to Saturday Night Magazine’s
announcement that it is folding): As far as I’m concerned, Saturday Night could
have quit many years ago. I think
Reader’s Digest is an excellent magazine and the only one in Canada now or ever
that will give such a variety of material so well written & authoritative.
¨ My opponent has claimed that I have stolen
from the public purse and enriched myself.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have introduced and passed bills that have
benefited this community; I have opposed unscrupulous developers and those who
would destroy family values; I have opposed video parlour
games.
19. Genetic Fallacy
¨ She will never be a good mother look at how
she was raised.
¨ Astrology is patently false; after all, it
originated in the superstitious mumbo-jumbo of ancient Greek religion,
something none of us believe now.
¨ Astrology is true. It originated with the ancient Babylonians
and has existed for centuries.
How
fallacies should be explained on tests and assignments:
1) Identify the particular fallacy. (e.g.
Appeal to Ignorance)
2) Explain how the particular fallacy operates
within the question. In your explanation
a) make reference to the p’s & c’s; b) use any special tests for demonstrating the
fallacy.
Example #1:
“No breath of scandal has ever touched the
senator. Therefore he must be
incorruptibly honest.” Appeal to
Ignorance. The conclusion of this
passage -- that the senator must be incorruptibly honest -- is supported by an
irrelevant premise. In the Appeal to
Ignorance a lack of evidence – in this case, that no breath of scandal has ever
touched the senator – is used. However,
a lack of evidence is not evidence and thus can never provide the reasoned
support an argument requires.
Example #2
“No sooner did they start to fluoridate the water but
my friends began dying of heart disease.
It just doesn’t pay to tamper with nature.” False Cause.
The conclusion of this passage – that it just doesn’t pay to tamper with
nature – is supported flawed causal argument.
In a False Cause a correlation between two events is asserted when no
such connection necessarily exists. In
this example fluoridation is said to cause heart disease. However, there could be many other
explanations why this man’s friends began dying of heart disease – their
lifestyle, age, and other risk factors which they share – which would make the
fact that fluoridation began at the same time only a coincidence.
[1] Many of these examples are taken directly from Saindon’s Argument and Argumentation or S. Morris Engel’s With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies, 6th Edition. (NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000)