Logical Fallacies Arguing Incorrectly
Logical
Fallacies
Arguing Incorrectly
Post Hoc Argument
- Assuming that since an occurrence happened after something
else, it must have occurred because of the initial incident.
- Essentially: since Thing B happened after Thing A, then
Thing A must have caused Thing B
- Just because one thing follows another does not mean that it
was caused by it.
Examples
Pre-Game
athlete
rituals.
Snow-
Dance
In the immortal words of Andrew Schlafly:
"In Romania, abortion was illegal under two
decades of rule by the communist dictator
Nicolae Ceausescu, and the country enjoyed
one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the
entire world during that time, far lower than
comparable Western countries." [3] (Just because
the breast cancer rate went down does not
mean that the illegality of abortions caused it.)
Scare Tactic
• An appeal to fear the attempts to increase support for an idea by using
deception in an attempt increase fear
LOGICAL FALLACIESBY: ASHLEY CLIFTON & MADISON VOGT
AD HOMINEM ARGUMENT
• Definition: The Ad Hominem Argument is a type of fallacy in which an argument is rebutted by attacking ones character that has no correlation to the topic at hand.
• Example: A blonde has an essay due for her class and one of her classmates assumes that she will receive a bad grade.
• Example: A car accident occurs on the highway and as soon as the man walks up to the window of the other party involved he shakes his head and walks away.
AD HOMINEM PICTURE EXAMPLE
RED HERRING
• Definition: Red herring is a kind of fallacy that is an irrelevant topic introduced in an argument to divert the attention of the audience from the original issue.
• Example: A mom telling her daughter it’s bedtime and then the daughter talks asks about animals going to sleep.
• Example: When you are getting home past curfew and you try to distract your parents by talking to them about the weather.
• Real Life Example: The current President making statements about how in debt the U.S. is in taxes.
RED HERRING PICTURE EXAMPLE
EITHER OR REASONING/NEWSPEAK LOGICAL FALLACIES
By: Matthew and Dylan
EITHER OR REASONING DEFINITION
Presenting an unavoidable need to chose between two alternatives; being limited to two options
EXAMPLES
If someone asked you, “Which would you rather have water or food?” This would represent an Either or Reasoning fallacy because you can’t pick only one of the two you need both to be able to live.
Another example would be, “You have to live with either a feral lion or a feral tiger.” The example would be an Either or Reasoning fallacy, because either of the animals will kill you there is no way out.
PICTURE
NEWSPEAK DEFINITION
To reduce the meaning of a language as well as the number of words possible, as seen through propaganda.
EXAMPLES
•“ungood”
•”Freedom is Slavery”
•”War is Peace”
PICTURE
FALSE ANALOGY & SLIPPERY SLOPE
Fallacies: Kelcie McCoy And Lauren Roberts
Definition:
◦ False Analogy: Is an informal fallacy, which applies to inductive arguments
Examples:
◦ People wo cannot go without their
coffee every morning are no better
than alcoholics .
◦ Axe Commercial, saying woman
will be more attracted to you if you
wear the product.
◦ Using hairspray everyday is like
launching a nuclear bomb.
-Instead of the Big Mac looking like
the commercial, it is sloppy .
Definition:
◦ Slippery Slope: One example of a fallacy, It is an argument that suggests
taking a minor action will lead to a major and sometimes ludicrous
consequences.
Examples:
◦ If you allow the students to redo this
test, they are going to want to redo
every assignment for the rest of the
year.
◦ If you break your diet and have one
cookie tonight, you will just want to eat
10 cookies tomorrow, and before you
know it, you will have gained back the
15 pounds you lost.
In the book, if you give a mouse a
cookie it leads to one thing after
another.
APPEAL TO TRADITION
DEFINITION
• SOMETHING IS ACCEPTED AS
TRUE OR BETTER BECAUSE IT'S
THE "WAY IT'S ALWAYS BEEN
DONE."
EXAMPLES
• CHURCH SHOULD BEGIN AT 11AM BECAUSE THAT'S THE TIME THAT WE HAVE ALWAYS BEGUN THE CHURCH SERVICE.
• THE TOWN HAS ALWAYS HAD A PARADE ON THE 4TH OF JULY AND IT HAS ALWAYS PROCEEDED THROUGH THE TOWN SQUARE. WE CANNOT HAVE CONSTRUCTION THIS SUMMER BECAUSE WE CANNOT CHANGE THE ROUTE OF THE PARADE.
NON-SEQUITUR
DEFINITION
• A REPLY OR CONCLUSION THAT
DOESN‘T LOGICALLY FOLLOW
THE PREVIOUS STATEMENT.
• THE LATIN PHRASE OF NON-
SEQUITUR MEANS “DOES NOT
FOLLOW”
EXAMPLE
• I READ ABOUT A PITBULL ATTACK. MY
NEIGHBOR OWNS A PITBULL. MY LIFE
IS IN DANGER.
• THE MURDER TOOK PLACE AT VITO’S
PIZZA. THE DEFENDANT WORKS AT
VITO’S PIZZA. THEREFORE, THE
DEFENDANT MUST HAVE COMMITTED
THE CRIME.
Fallacies By: Courtney Haggard and Gloria Mercer
Pars Pro Toto
• Definition:
Latin for “part for the whole”, is a figure of speech where the name of a portion of an object, place, or concept represents its
entirety.
Examples
• “My father smoked four packs of cigarettes a day since age fourteen and lived until age sixty-nine. Therefore, smoking can’t be that bad for you.”
• “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.” – Donald Trump
Name Calling
• Definition:
The use of offensive names especially to win an argument or to induce rejection or
condemnation without objective consideration of the facts.
Examples
• “Truly weird Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain. He was terrible at the DEBATE.” –Donald Trump
• “The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.” -H.L. Mencken
STRAWMANBY: NEVAEH MCNERNEY, HANNAH COLLINSWORTH
A fallacy is an argument or belief based on erroneous reasoning. ... Straw man occurs when
someone argues that a person holds a view that is actually not what the other person believes.
Instead, it is a distorted version of what the person believes.
Prof. Jones: "The university just cut our yearly budget by $10,000."
Prof. Smith: "What are we going to do?"
Prof. Brown: "I think we should eliminate one of the teaching assistant positions. That would take
care of it."
Prof. Jones: "We could reduce our scheduled raises instead."
Prof. Brown: " I can't understand why you want to bleed us dry like that, Jones."
LOGICAL FALLACIES Nicholas & Brooklyn
SUI GENERIS
⦁ Latin for of its own kind, and used to describe something that is unique or different. Used in law typically with intellectual property.
SUI GENERIS
• Guess Who.
• A snowflake.
ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM (PATRIOTIC APPROACH)
• Argumentum Ad Populum is the popular appeal, it is accepted by the majority. This fallacy tries to win popular assent by arousing the feeling and enthusiasm of the multitude rather than building an argument.
• The Patriotic Approach is assuming that something is true because it is somehow patriotic. If you do not agree with what one says, then you are unpatriotic.
• The patriotic approach is unworthy of a good citizen because a true American would never use this approach.
ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM (PATRIOTIC APPROACH)
• “Draping Oneself in the Flag”
• Fake News
https://youtu.be/D-y_N4u0uRQ
APPEAL TO NOVELTY
By: Lillyrose Conley
Definition: • Claiming that something
that is new and modern is
superior to the status quo,
based exclusively on it’s
newness.
Examples: • New Coke- In 1985 Coca-Cola came out with “New
Coke”. They advertised it as new and improved and
guaranteed it was better than the old recipe. However,
most people hated it. Those who did think it was better
probably only thought so because it was new.
• Car companies- Car companies are constantly coming
out with new vehicles promising better abilities and
safer driving.
• iPhones- Apple debuts new phones every year. Hordes
of people line up to buy the “ enhances” version
whether their old phone is working or not.
CIRCULAR REASONING
By: Katia Torres
Definition: • A type of reasoning in which the
proposition is supported by the
premises, which is supported by the
proposition, creating a circle in
reasoning where no useful information
is being shared
• Basically it means that x is true because
of y, and y is true because of x
Examples: • “You have to save enough money to
pay your bills each month because bills
have to be paid”
• “God exists, because the Bible is the
inspired word of God, and the Bible
says God exists.”
• “The politician was truthful because he
told us he always tells the truth”
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Logical Fallacies: Overgeneralization And
Argumentum ad Populum (Bandwagon
Fallacy)
By Ben Spratt and Jonas Alger
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Argumentum ad Populum(Bandwagon Fallacy)
Argument that since something is popular
or everyone is doing it, so should you.
Popularity is the basis of the argument
Ex. McDonalds’ signs advertising “Billions
and billions served”
Ex. “Everyone else is cheating so why
shouldn’t I?”
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Problems With the Bandwagon Fallacy
Just because the majority agrees on something doesn’t
necessarily mean it is correct
Ex. You believe that those who receive
welfare should submit to a drug test but
your friends tell you you’re crazy and don’t
accept it. You decide to change your
position based upon their beliefs.
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Overgeneralization
Basing an argument on a stereotype
that generalizes a group
Often based off small sample size
Ex: All sharks are man-eaters
Ex: Three elderly people died from a
vaccine in 1976, therefore vaccines are
dangerous.
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Problems With Overgeneralization
Bases conclusion of large group off of a couple people
Does not cover all of the
Ex. Sam is riding her bike in her home town in Maine, minding
her own business. A station wagon comes up behind her and the
driver starts beeping his horn and then tries to force her off the
road. As he goes by, the driver yells "get on the sidewalk where
you belong!" Sam sees that the car has Ohio plates and
concludes that all Ohio drivers are jerks.