Fallacies

Fallacies

1. Fallacies of Irrelevance

   • Appeal to Pity
     • Structure; (1) There is something pitiful in X's situation. (2) So something else about X is true (where the pity appealed to is irrelevant so the conclusion).
   • Appeal to Popularity
     • Structure; (1) Most (or all or many) people believe that it is true that P. (2) So it is true that P.
     • Finding a particular practice is commonly accepted gives us at best, some, but not conclusive, evidence for its moral acceptability. In addition, a true conclusion does not prevent this fallacy.
   • Appeal to Ignorance
     • Structure; (1) It has never been shown that such-and-such is not the case. (2) So such-and-such is the case OR (1) It has never been shown that such-and-such is the case. (2) So such-and-such is not the case.
       • Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. | Just because the conclusion is true does not mean that appeal to ignorance is not committed.
   • Argument Against the Person - Abusive
     • Structure; (1) There is something objectionable about so-and-so. (2) Thus, so-and-so's argument is faulty (or has a false conclusion, or can be ignored).
       • Note that sometimes character flaws are logically relevant to the conclusion and is not a fallacy.
   • Argument Against the Person - Circumstantial
     • Structure; (1) Because of person Z's circumstances, Z has a motive for arguing X. (2) Therefore, Z's argument is faulty (or has a false conclusion or can be ignored).
     • Sometimes, motives may matter and the argument no longer becomes a fallacy.
   • Argument Against the Person - 'You Too'
     • Structure; (1) So-and-so argues that it is wrong to do X (2) But so-and-so does X. (3) Thus so-and-so's argument is faulty (or has a false conclusion or can be ignored).
   • Straw Man
     • Structure; (1) My opponent's argument is X (but X is a weaker misrepresentation of the opponent's actual argument, Y). (2) X is a bad argument. (3) So my opponent's argument is bad.
       • There are always 2 arguments in the straw man fallacy. (1) is presented by the arguer and is a misrepresentation of an earlier argument that was offered by someone else.
         • So-and-so's argument is X, but it is a stretch to say Y. The speaker is unfairly distorting so-and-so's argument and then attacked the distorted version.
   • Red herring
     • Structure; (1) The arguer commits himself to arguing for conclusion C1. (2) Distracting claims are presented. (3) The required argument for C1 is never completed.
   • Missing the Point
     • Structure; (1) Premises which support a conclusion P. (2) Conclusion Q drawn, but unsupported.

2. Fallacies of Weak Induction

   • False Cause - After This, So Because of This
     • Structure; (1) B happened just after A. (2) A is caused by B.
   • False Cause - With This, Because of This
     • Structure (1) A is correlated with B. (2) A probably caused B.
       • Temporal correlation
   • False Cause - Mistaken Cause
     • Structure; (1) F is correlated with G. (2) G probably caused F.
       • Misidentifying the cause and effect
   • Hasty Generalisation
     • Small Sample
       • Structure; (1) Small amount of A (< 10%) are Y. (2) Therefore, all A are Y.
     • Biased Sample
       • Structure; (1) % of X selected (from a biased sample of X) are Y. (2) Hence, all X are Y.
   • Appeal to Unqualified Authority
     • Structure; (1) So-and-so says this or that. (2) So this or that is true.
   • Causal Slippery Slope
     • Structure; (1) Such-and-such is the argument. (2) But X turns it into a worst case scenario. (3) Each of the step has some plausibility. but not very much, and there are many steps as well. So the argument combined is not very good.
   • Occurs when an argument is supposed to establish that a claim is probably true but fails to do so.

3. Fallacies of Presumption

   • Begging the Question
     • By Omission of Premise
       • Structure; The Arguer creates the illusion that inadequate premises provide adequate support for the conclusion by leaving out a key, controversial premise
     • Restatement
       • Structure; (1) It is true that P. (2) So it is true that Q.
     • Circular Chain
       • Structure; (1) P because Q. (2) Q because R. (3) R is just P in disguise.
   • False Dichotomy
     • By Overlooking Alternatives
     • By Overlapping Alternatives
   • Complex Question

4. Miscellaneous

   • Equivocation
   • Composition
     • Structure; (1) Every part of X has property A. (2) X has property A.
   • Division
     • Structure; (1) X is part of Y. (2) Y has property A. (3) X has property A.
   • Missing Comparative
   • Rejecting the conclusion of a bad argument
     • Structure; (1) So-and-so's reasons for concluding so are bad. (2) There it is not the case that such-and-such.