The Logical Fallacies Collection - 30 Ways to Lose an Argument
1. Ad Hominem: Attacking a person or their character rather than making a claim based on reasoning. Ad homimem arguments include name-calling, labeling, and being offensive and show little intelligent thought. Example: “Vegetarians don’t have a clue about culinary sophistication. When it comes to food, you just can’t trust a tree-hugger.” 2. Anecdote: Using a personal or isolated experience as compelling and worthwhile evidence; suggesting that a personal or unique experience can be applied to other circumstances. Example: “Chevy trucks are the biggest waste of money! I owned one for four years and had to replace my transmission twice. Don’t buy that garbage!”
3. Appeal to Ignorance: Using human ignorance or the inability to prove something in order to make a claim. Example: “No one’s ever been able to prove that ghosts exist, so it’s obvious that they don’t.” 4. Appeal to Tradition: Using tradition or cultural belief to suggest that something is true or accurate, suggesting that, because something has long been done a certain way, it must be the correct way (Similar to Bandwagon.) Example: “Catholicism has been around for nearly two thousand years! Ther’s a reason why so many people believe it; it is a time-tested, people-tested faith. How could you possibly deny its validity?” 5. Appeal to Consequences: Concluding that a premise its either true or false based on what the consequence of that premise would be. Example: “If we taught Creationism in school, people wouldn’t wonder so much what the purpose of life is; for that reason alone, we ought to realize that Creationism is more valid than evolution.”
6. Argumentum ad Baculum: Making an argument by inciting fear or making threats. Example: “Not believing in God is about the worst thing you can do. You’ll burn in Hell if you don’t change the way you think.” 7. Arguemntum ad Ignorantiam: Relying on a person’s or groiup of people’s ignorance to make a claim; misleading a person or group by appealing to their lack of knowledge on a particular topic. Example: “Trust me, if you don’t get this electrical panel rplaced, it could start your house on fire. See the corrosion here? It’s been known to ignite sparks and burn through to the insulation.” 8. Argumentum ad Populum: Attempting to sway popular support by appealing to sentimental weakness rather than with facts or reason. Example: “Moving the country to the Affordable Care Act is the only thing that makes sense. Just think how many struggling single mothers and sick children are out there without insurance because they can’t afford it.”
9. Bandwagon: Claiming something to be true or accurate simply because most people believe it to be true or accurate (similar to Appeal to Tradition). Example: “Ninety-three percent of the students surveyed said they believe the tuition spike was to pay for the college president’s salary. How could it not be true?” 10: Begging the Question: Making a claim that uses a tacit or implied assumption; raises a question by assuming an answer or shared belief. Example: “The country’s moral situation will only get worse if religious attendance doesn’t improve” (This statement raises the question but does church attendance actually improve morality?) 11. Black or White: Suggesting only two alternate conclusions exist when, in reality, several possibilities exist (Similar to Excluded Middle). Example: “The United States needs to either triple its production of oil to reduce costs or require automobilie manufacturers to make cars that get 75 miles to the gallon. There’s no other way the economy can survive with these gas prices.”
12. Cherry-pick: Cherry-picking a particular data set or collection of facts while ignoring others in order to make an argument that suits a particular purpose. Example: “The Atheist Times just reported some pretty convincing evidence: 78% of people who give up God claim to be happier and healthier.” 13. Circular Reasoning: Using evidence that hasn’t been proven in order to prove something else, then using that something else to prove the orignal claim, using X to prove Y, then using Y to prove X. Example: “You can’t give me a C on this paper! I’m an A student: And A student don’t get C’s.” 14. Composition: Making erroneous conclusions about the composition of a whole or part of something making incorrect assumptions about how a whole or part of something relates to a whole or part of something else. Example: “Making erroneous conclusions about the composition of a thing or idea and then using the part or the whole of a thing or idea to relate it to a new thing or idea.”
15. Confirmation Bias: Making an argument that relies heavily on a personal bias; inadvertently ignoring certain facts because of previously held beliefs (Similar to Cherry-pick). Example: “Angels must be real because I’ve heard too many stories about how someone was healed or guided during a time of sickness or stress when they prayed for an angel” (Ignoring all the times when someone prayed for an angel and wasn’t healed or guided). 16. Confusion of Correlation and Causation: Making claims about the cause of something simply because there exists a correlation between two things (i.e., arguing that a statistical correlation between children who play violent vieo games and violent behavior means that violent video games cause violent behavior). Example: “It’s been shown over and over that kids who play violent video games tend to be more aggressive. Therefore, violent video games cause kids to be aggressive.” 17. Excluded Middle: Considering only the extremes in any argument and ignoring the possibilities that exist in between; false dichotomy (Similar to Black or White). Example: “If we don’t immediately put a stop to the selling guns to the public, violence is going to fly through the roof and anyone who doesn’t have a gun is going to get shot.”
