Informal Fallacies

Informal Fallacies

1. Fallacies of Ambiguity

   • Fallacies of ambiguity include equivocation, amphiboly, fallacies of accent and division.
     • Arguments that have ambiguous words or phrases or more than one meaning (Equivocation)
     • Sloppy grammatical structure or confusion between two closely related concepts (Amphiboly)
     • Erroneous inference from the characteristics of an entireset or group about a member of a group or set (Division)
     • The meaning of an argument changes according to which word or phrase in it is emphasized (Accent)

2. What Is A Fallacy?

   • a fallacy is a faulty argument that at first seems to be correct
     • In a formal fallacy the form of argument itself is invalid
     • An informal fallacy is a type of mistaken reasoning that occur when an argument is psychologically or emotionally persuasive but logically incorrect

3. Fallacies of Relevance

   • One or more premises is logically irrelevant or unrelated to to the conclusion
     • Fallacies of relevance include personal personal attacks, scare tactics , appeals to pity, popular appeals, appeals to ignorance, hasty generalizations, distortion fallacies and side tracked arguments