Miscellaneous  Fallacies  1   Begging  the  Question   Loading  the  conclusion  in  the  claim;  

assuming  that  something  is  true  before  it’s  proven  

⦁  “The  antiwar  demonstrators  of  the  1970s  should  be  remembered  as  the  cowards  that  they  were.”  ⦁  “Your  arguments  against  Freud  are  due  to  your  unresolved  unconscious  conflicts.”  

2   Ad  Hominem  –Personal  Attack  

An  attack  on  the  character  of  the  individual  rather  than  his/her  actual  arguments  or  qualifications  

⦁  “Rudy  Giuliani  divorced  his  loving  wife  of  many  years.    How  could  he  possibly  be  qualified  to  be  mayor?”  ⦁  “How  can  you  trust  Freud—he  himself  was  bipolar!”  

 3   Ad  Populum  

–Bandwagon  Appealing  to  prejudices  or  inclinations.      If  a  majority  of  people  believe  or  do  something,  everyone  else  should,  too.  

“Over  70  percent  of  Americans  favor  the  adoption  of  a  national  sky  marshal  program;  what’s  your  problem?”  

   4   Red  Herring   Avoiding  countering  an  opposing  

argument  directly  by  introducing  a  new  or  non-­‐issue  to  the  argument  

“Equal  pay  for  women  is  an  important  issue,  but  I  wonder  whether  women  really  want  to  take  the  responsibility  that  comes  with  higher-­‐paying  jobs.”  

       http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/michele-­‐bachmann-­‐announces-­‐her-­‐presidentia  5   Complex  Question  

–Loaded  Question  An  unanswerable,  biased  question  —sometimes  allowing  only  two  possible  answers:  yes  or  no.  

“Hey,  Frank,  have  you  quit  hanging  around  crack  addicts  yet?”  

6   Appeal  to  False  Auth.  

–Association  Fallacy  Ideas  or  actions  are  (un)acceptable  because  of  people  associated  with  them  

⦁  “The  hijackers  were  Egyptian;  obviously  Egyptians  support  terrorism.”  ⦁  “All  those  who  can  afford  it  prefer  Freudian  therapy.”  

   7   Non  Sequitur   Any  illogical  conclusion  (usually  reached  

from  faulty  premises  or  poor  evidence)  “Japanese  children  spend  40%  more  time  in  the  classroom  than  U.S.  children.    American  parents  should  take  more  interest  in  the  kids’  education.”  

 8   Shifting  Burden  of  Proof  

–Appeal  to  Ignorance  Whatever  has  not  been  proven  false  must  necessarily  be  true;  whatever  has  not  been  proven  true  must  necessarily  be  false.    Absence  of  evidence  is  evidence.    

⦁  “There  is  no  compelling  evidence  that  UFOs  are  not  visiting  the  Earth;  therefore,  UFOs  exist.”  ⦁  “In  its  30+  years,  SETI  hasn’t  ever  detected  signals  from  an  ET,  so  neither  aliens  nor  their  UFOs  exist.”      

   9   Contradiction   Simultaneous  acceptance  and  denial  of  a  

proposition  or  statement;  two  contradictory  inferences  can  be  drawn  from  the  premise  

⦁  “Intelligent  people  have  open  minds.  Politicians  are  supposed  to  be  intelligent.  But  anyone  who  says  that  recreational  drugs  shouldn’t  be  legalized  has  a  closed  mind.  Therefore,  politicians  

are  not  intelligent  people.”  

10   Fallacy  of  Composition   A  property  shared  by  a  number  of  individual  items,  is  also  shared  by  a  collection  of  those  items;  a  property  of  the  parts  of  an  object,  must  also  be  a  property  of  the  whole  

⦁  “Every  course  I  took  in  college  was  well-­‐organized;  therefore,  my  college  education  was  well-­‐organized.”  ⦁  “This  new  truck  is  made  entirely  of  lightweight  aluminum  components,  and  is  therefore  very  lightweight.”  

 11   Fallacy  of  Division   Assuming  that  a  property  of  some  object  

must  apply  to  its  parts;  a  property  of  a  collection  of  items  is  shared  by  each  item.  

⦁  “Ocelots  are  now  dying  out.  Sparky  is  an  ocelot.    Therefore,  Sparky  is  now  dying  out.”  ⦁  “Humans  are  conscious  and  are  made  of  cells;  therefore,  each  cell  has  consciousness.”  

12   Circular  Argument   A  sentence  or  argument  that  restates  rather  than  proves  

⦁  “President  Reagan  was  a  great  communicator  because  he  had  that  knack  of  talking  effectively  to  the  people.”  ⦁  “Plagiarism  is  dishonest  because  it  is  deceitful.”  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-­‐QNAwUdHUQ  

13   Genetic  Fallacy   Arguing  that  the  origins  of  a  person,  object,  or  institution  determine  its  worth  

⦁  “He  speaks  with  a  German  accent.    He  must  be  a  Nazi.”  ⦁  “Can  there  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth?”  (John  1:46).  

   14   Oversimplification   Ignores  an  issue’s  complexities,  variations,  

or  exceptions  “The  influx  of  foreign  cars  almost  destroyed  the  American  auto  industry.”