Gabrielle Ann F.

Seguiran
LAW1715710

INFORMAL LOGIC FALLACIES
Circular Argument
- when the premise and the conclusion
are the same proposition.
- where the premise and the conclusion
are the same sentence
- premise and conclusion will be
different sentences that express the
same proposition
"A because A."
Example: Fried foods are bad for you
because they are not part of a healthy
diet
Begging the Question
- arguing unfairly in a way that tries to waiting for.
use the conclusion in support of
itself.
- instead of giving independent reasons
for belief, it gets support from
propositions distinct from itself
CLASSIFICATION OF FALLACIES
FALLACIES OF FAULTY AUTHORITY FALLACIES OF CAUSE AND EFFECT
Appeal to Authority
- When we want to know something we
don’t know, it is perfectly rational to ask
someone who does. We call this an
appeal to authority
- What makes someone a legitimate
authority?
(a) authority must exist
(b) authority is an expert
(c) expert must be objective or
disinterested
Example: I was reading the expert
reviews for this product on its website. All
of them were outstanding. I think that
this could be the product we’ve been
Appeal to Common Opinion
- ad populum
- simply because many people believe
something does not make it true.
The Post Hoc Fallacy
- causes come before their effects, but
time order is not sufficient warrant to
assert cause-and-effect relations; to
do so is to commit this error
- post hoc, ergo propter hoc - “after
this, therefore because of it.”
- just because it comes after, it does not (1) "you're a jerk"
mean that it happened because of it
- made around individual events when in this world who do nothing to make
the effect is something unusual or
significant
Example: I had eggs for breakfast, and
then I played the best round of golf in
my entire life. It’s eggs every Saturday
for me. I want to bring down my
handicap.
Neglect of a Common Cause
- By taking correlation to imply
causation, we commit this fallacy
FALLACIES OF IRRELEVANCE
Ad Hominem
- instead of attacking the argument, we
instead focus on attacking the arguer.
- to argue that we should not accept—
or, indeed, even consider— the
argument because of the source of the
argument is to commit this fallacy
- There are horrible, immoral people
the world a better place and who often
serve their own petty desires at the
cost of the well-being of others.
(2) Guilt by Association
- discount an argument not for
objective reasons, but because the
person offering it belongs to some
identifiable group.
Example: Don’t listen to her; she’s a
feminist.

- Leading Question - question that is not
fairly asked to elicit an honest response
from the listener, but rather a sentence
that looks like a question but is designed
to lead the listener to a particular
desired response.
Example: Do you want to go to the
same old boring beach this year for
vacation, or should we be adventurous
and try something new, such as the
mountains?
Equivocation
- occurs when we change the meaning
of a word in the middle of an argument
Example: That dish can’t be too spicy;
after all, she said she made it with chili
peppers. Chilly is the opposite of hot,
and she didn’t say she used hot
peppers
Distinction Without a Difference
- occurs when we try to draw a
distinction between two things that are
not, in fact, distinct.
"It’s not A; it’s A."
Example: It’s not that I don’t care about
you; I’m just not concerned with your life - just because it is new does not entail
choices.
- simply because something is a common
belief, that is not sufficient for rational
belief, but what we are dealing with
here is not mere intellectual laziness but
a deeper cognitive bias: groupthink
Example: Look at the line for that
new movie! It is out of the theater
door, down the street, and around the
corner. That film must be great.
Appeal to Tradition
- widely held beliefs might be true, or
they might be false. We need
independent reason to believe them
rationally, and simply appealing to the
fact that everyone else thinks so is not
enough
“But we’ve always done it that way….”
Example: “It is an ancient Chinese
cure”
The Fallacy of Novelty
- just because something is the latest
does not necessarily make it the
greatest.
that it is improved.
Example: My GPS says that we should
take route 70 to route 97. You think we
should take route 85 to Buckminster
Road after looking at a map. I’m thinking
that the GPS directions are better
because the GPS is equipped with the
latest route-finding algorithm.
- Just because whenever we see A, we
also see B does not mean that A
causes B or that B causes A; there
might be a third thing, C, that causes Example: “Of course, you’d say that.
both A and B.
Example: People who drive nice cars
also tend to have large homes. I guess Attacking a Straw Man
that if you have a car that nice, you don’
t want to park it in front of a small
house
Causal Oversimplification
- picking out one part of a complex
causal web and ignoring the web
- pick out one element, one causal
factor, and say it is the cause
- committed often when we are dealing
with complex social issues.
Example: The reason drug use is
down is because they have been
showing those “just say no”
commercials on television. The
message must really be getting
through to people.
Confusion of a Necessary with a
Sufficient Condition
- A condition A is necessary for B if
you cannot have B without first
having had A.
(3) Motivations of the Speaker
You stand to profit if it’s true.”
- arguments that do not address the
actual argument made but rather a
weaker, easier-to-refute version
(1) alter the scope of the premises
offered
- making them broader or narrower
than the ones offered to weaken the
argument while keeping the rest of the
premises intact
Example: “Oh, so what you are saying
is….”
(2) the interlocutor replaces all of the
premises wholesale
- replacing the original reasons—that
is, the premises—with new premises,
and odds are that these new premises
are going to be a whole lot easier to
undermine.
Example: “the real reason…”
Example: My GPS says that we should
take route 70 to route 97. You think we
should take route 85 to Buckminster
Road after looking at a map. I’m thinking
that the GPS directions are better
because the GPS is equipped with the
latest route-finding algorithm.
Arguing by Analogy
- like faulty authority in that it’s a
flawed version of a good form of
reasoning
- occurs when we argue by analogy
using a flawed analogy, where the
system and the analogue are not alike in
the ways used to draw the inference
Example: She must wear dentures. He
said that her teeth were like the stars,
and we know that the stars come out at
night
- In other words, A is necessary for B Red Herring
if A is required for even the possibility - we change the conclusion
of B. A doesn’t bring about B by
itself, but if there is no A, there is no B. - when we change the conclusion, we
are completely changing the topic of
conversation.
Example: Zydeco music always has an
accordion in it. This polka band has an Example; “You really need to clean
accordion player, so I guess they play those dishes in the sink. You make
Zydeco yourself a snack and just clutter the
kitchen and leave it for me. That is not
respectful or fair to me.”
The Slippery Slope Fallacy
- there are causal chains— that is, an (1) Combination of Red Herring and tu
event A causes B, but then the effect quoque
of B becomes the cause of C, which Well, you do it, too, or something so
in turn causes D. much like it that you can’t criticize me
for doing what you do.
- the domino fallacy
- asserts the existence of such a chain (2) Agenda-based Red Herrings
without giving full causal arguments for
- often seen in political discussions
each step in the chain
“Your gun control proposal is an affront
Example: I wouldn’t take that first sip to gun owner rights. We are talking
of beer. It always starts with beer, about liberty being seized by an
but then it goes to wine and then hard overinvasive government here.”
liquor, which paves the way for
marijuana, and then addictive drugs like
cocaine and heroin. That little sip
might seem harmless, but it is the
first step on a slippery slope to
addiction, losing your house and your
family— everything will be gone.