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20 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Personal Attack (Ad Hominem)
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1. X is a bad person.
2. Therefore, X's argument must be bad. (Fallacy of relevance) |
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Attacking the Motive
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1. X is biased or has questionable motives.
2. Therefore, X's argument or claim should be rejected. (Fallacy of relevance) |
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Look who's talking (Tu Quoque)
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1. X fails to follow his/her own advice.
2. Therefore, X's argument or claim should be rejected. (Fallacy of relevance) |
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Two Wrongs Make a Right
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An arguer attempts to justify a wrongful act by claiming that some other act is just as bad or worse.
(Fallacy of relevance) |
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Scare Tactics
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An arguer threatens harm to a reader or listener if they do not accept the arguers conclusion.
(Fallacy of relevance) |
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Appeal to Pity
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An arguer inappropriately attempts to evoke feelings of pity or compassion from listeners/readers.
(Fallacy of relevance) |
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Bandwagon Argument
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1. Everybody (or a select group of people) believe or does X.
2. Therefore, you should believe or do X, too. (Fallacy of relevance) |
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Straw Man Fallacy
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1. X's view is false or unjustified (but where X's view has been unfairly characterized or misrepresented)
2. Therefore, X's view should be rejected. (Fallacy of relevance) |
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Red Herring
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An arguer tries to sidetrack his/her audience by raising an irrelevant issue and then claims that the original issue has effectively settled by the irrelevant diversion.
(Fallacy of relevance) |
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Equivocation
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1. All A's are B's.
2. C is an A. 3. Therefore, C is a B. (Fallacy of relevance) |
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Begging the Question
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An arguer states or assumes as a premise the very thing he or she is trying to prove as a conclusion.
(Fallacy of relevance) |
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Inappropriate Appeal to Authority
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An arguer cites a witness or authority who, there is good reason to believe, is unreliable.
(Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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Appeal to Ignorance
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1. After years of extensive scientific testing, there is no evidence that substance XYZ is toxic to rodents.
2. Therefore, it's reasonable to conclude that substance XYZ is not toxic to rodents. (Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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False Alternatives
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An arguer poses a false either/choice.
"Look, the choice is simple. Either you support a pure free-market economy or you support a communist police state. Surely you don't support a communist police state. Therefore, you should support a pure free-market economy." (Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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Loaded Question
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A question that contains an unfair or questionable assumption.
"Do you steal from your boss?" (Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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Questionable Cause
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An arguer claims, without sufficient evidence, that one thing is the cause of something else.
(Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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Hasty Generalization
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A statement that asserts that all or most things of a certain kind have a certain quality of characteristic.
--We draw a conclusion from a sample that is biased or too small. (Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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Slippery Slope
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1. The arguer claims that if a certain seemingly harmless action, A, is permitted, A will lead to B, B will lead to C, and so on to D.
2. The arguer holds that D is a terrible thing and therefore should not be permitted. 3. In fact, there is no good reason to believe that A will actually lead to D. (Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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Weak Analogy
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1. A has characteristics of W, X, Y, and Z.
2. B has characteristics of W, X, and Y. 3. Therefore be probably has characteristics of Z too. (commonly true, but sometimes not) Another example: 1. A is an X, and A is a Y. 2. B is an X, and B is a Y. 3. C is an X, and C is a Y. 4. D is an X. 5. Therefore, D is probably a Y too. (Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
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Inconsistency
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Arguer asserts inconsistent or contradictory claims.
(Fallacy of insufficient evidence) |
