Lecture Notes: Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies

Overview

• Logical fallacies are flaws in reasoning.
• Used by politicians and media to manipulate thought.
• Aim: Help identify and call out fallacies.

List of Common Logical Fallacies

Strawman

• Misrepresenting someone's argument to make it easier to attack.

False Cause

• Presuming that a real or perceived relationship between things means that one is the cause of the other.

Appeal to Emotion

• Manipulating an emotional response instead of presenting a valid argument.

The Fallacy Fallacy

• Assuming that because an argument contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false.

Slippery Slope

• Arguing that a small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant impact.

Ad Hominem

• Attacking an individual's character rather than their arguments.

Tu Quoque

• Avoiding having to engage with criticism by turning it back on the accuser.

Personal Incredulity

• Because you found something difficult to understand or are unaware of how it works, you made out like it's probably not true.

Special Pleading

• Moving the goalposts or making up exceptions when a claim is shown to be false.

Loaded Question

• Asking a question that has an assumption built into it so that it can't be answered without appearing guilty.

Burden of Proof

• Saying that the burden of proof lies not with the person making the claim, but with someone else to disprove.

Ambiguity

• Using double meanings or ambiguities of language to mislead or misrepresent the truth.

The Gambler's Fallacy

• Believing that 'runs' occur to statistically independent phenomena such as roulette wheel spins.

Bandwagon

• Appealing to popularity or the fact that many people do something as an attempted form of validation.

Appeal to Authority

• Using the opinion or position of an authority figure, or institution of authority, in place of an actual argument.

Composition/Division

• Assuming that what's true about one part of something has to be applied to all, or other, parts of it.

No True Scotsman

• Making what could be called an appeal to purity as a way to dismiss relevant criticisms or flaws of your argument.

Genetic

• Judging something good or bad on the basis of where it comes from, or from whom it comes.

Black-or-White

• Presenting two alternative states as the only possibilities, when in fact more possibilities exist.

Begging the Question

• A circular argument in which the conclusion was included in the premise.

Appeal to Nature

• Arguing that because something is 'natural' it is therefore valid, justified, inevitable, or ideal.

Anecdotal

• Using personal experience or an isolated example instead of a valid argument, especially to dismiss statistics.

The Texas Sharpshooter

• Cherry-picking data clusters to suit an argument, or finding a pattern to fit a presumption.

Middle Ground

• Saying that a compromise, or middle point, between two extremes must be the truth.

Resources

• Download free resources: Critical Thinking Cards, Fallacies & Biases wall posters.
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