Informal Falacies

Front 1

argument from (or appeal to) outrage

Back 1

attempt to persuade by appealing to, expressing, and/or trying to induce anger or outrage

Front 2

scapegoating

Back 2

assigning blame to someone or some group of people who are not actually responsible for the thing in question, but who are nevertheless an easy target

Front 3

scare tactics

Back 3

attempting to persuade by inducing fear

Front 4

argument from pity

Back 4

attempting to persuade by appealing to and/or trying to induce pity

Front 5

argument from envy

Back 5

attempting to persuade by appealing to and/or trying to induce envy

Front 6

appeal to loyalty

Back 6

attempting to persuade by appealing to one's sense of loyalty

Front 7

apple polishing

Back 7

flattery disguised as a reason for accepting a claim

Front 8

guilt trip

Back 8

attempting to persuade someone to accept a claim or do something by inducing a sense of guilt if that person does not accept the claim or do what is desired

Front 9

whishful thinking

Back 9

accepting a claim because you want it to be true, or rejecting a claim because you want tit not to be true

Front 10

peer pressure argument

Back 10

attempting to persuade, or being persuaded, by the threat of rejection by peers or by the promise of acceptance by peers

Front 11

groupthink fallacy

Back 11

being persuaded of, or swayed toward, something on the basis of identification with a particular group

Front 12

nationalism

Back 12

a form of groupthink that invloves identification with one;s country/nation; usually a matter of blind endorsement of the policies or practices of one;s own nation

Front 13

argument from popularity

Back 13

attempting to persuade, or being persuaded, of something by an appeal to what all or most people supposedly believe or do

Front 14

argument from common practice

Back 14

defending an action or practice by appealing to the fact that it is a common one

Front 15

argument from tradition

Back 15

defending a claim or practice by appealing to its status as integral to a particular tradition or to the supposed fact that it has been traditionally believed or practiced

Front 16

subjectivist fallacy

Back 16

attempting to persuade , or being persuaded, to reject something by appealing to the supposed subjectivity of values or truth

Front 17

objectivist-pluralist fallacy

Back 17

fallacy of claiming that a moral standard holds universally while simultaneously maintaining that it doesnt hold within societies or groups that don't accept it- a kind of inconsistency involving a supposition both of objectivity and or relativism

Front 18

rationalization

Back 18

offering of reason(s) for one's conduct or belief that are really not one;s own reasons - often referred to as making excuses

Front 19

two wrongs make a right

Back 19

the attempt to defend one;s wrong action or practice by noting that someone else either already or would have acted in that same or similar way

Front 20

tu quoque

Back 20

a species of both ad hominem and of the two wrongs make a right fallacy that invloves attempting to dismiss an accusation by appealing to the fact that the accuser is guilty of the same thing or something similar