Logical

Fallacies

Arguing Incorrectly

Post Hoc Argument

- Assuming that since an occurrence happened after something

else, it must have occurred because of the initial incident.

- Essentially: since Thing B happened after Thing A, then

Thing A must have caused Thing B

- Just because one thing follows another does not mean that it

was caused by it.

Examples

Pre-Game

athlete

rituals.

Snow-

Dance

In the immortal words of Andrew Schlafly:

"In Romania, abortion was illegal under two

decades of rule by the communist dictator

Nicolae Ceausescu, and the country enjoyed

one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the

entire world during that time, far lower than

comparable Western countries." [3] (Just because

the breast cancer rate went down does not

mean that the illegality of abortions caused it.)

Scare Tactic

• An appeal to fear the attempts to increase support for an idea by using

deception in an attempt increase fear

LOGICAL FALLACIESBY: ASHLEY CLIFTON & MADISON VOGT

AD HOMINEM ARGUMENT

• Definition: The Ad Hominem Argument is a type of fallacy in which an argument is rebutted by attacking ones character that has no correlation to the topic at hand.

• Example: A blonde has an essay due for her class and one of her classmates assumes that she will receive a bad grade.

• Example: A car accident occurs on the highway and as soon as the man walks up to the window of the other party involved he shakes his head and walks away.

AD HOMINEM PICTURE EXAMPLE

RED HERRING

• Definition: Red herring is a kind of fallacy that is an irrelevant topic introduced in an argument to divert the attention of the audience from the original issue.

• Example: A mom telling her daughter it’s bedtime and then the daughter talks asks about animals going to sleep.

• Example: When you are getting home past curfew and you try to distract your parents by talking to them about the weather.

• Real Life Example: The current President making statements about how in debt the U.S. is in taxes.

RED HERRING PICTURE EXAMPLE

EITHER OR REASONING/NEWSPEAK LOGICAL FALLACIES

By: Matthew and Dylan

EITHER OR REASONING DEFINITION

Presenting an unavoidable need to chose between two alternatives; being limited to two options

EXAMPLES

If someone asked you, “Which would you rather have water or food?” This would represent an Either or Reasoning fallacy because you can’t pick only one of the two you need both to be able to live.

Another example would be, “You have to live with either a feral lion or a feral tiger.” The example would be an Either or Reasoning fallacy, because either of the animals will kill you there is no way out.

PICTURE

NEWSPEAK DEFINITION

To reduce the meaning of a language as well as the number of words possible, as seen through propaganda.

EXAMPLES

•“ungood”

•”Freedom is Slavery”

•”War is Peace”

PICTURE

FALSE ANALOGY & SLIPPERY SLOPE

Fallacies: Kelcie McCoy And Lauren Roberts

Definition:

◦ False Analogy: Is an informal fallacy, which applies to inductive arguments

Examples:

◦ People wo cannot go without their

coffee every morning are no better

than alcoholics .

◦ Axe Commercial, saying woman

will be more attracted to you if you

wear the product.

◦ Using hairspray everyday is like

launching a nuclear bomb.

-Instead of the Big Mac looking like

the commercial, it is sloppy .

Definition:

◦ Slippery Slope: One example of a fallacy, It is an argument that suggests

taking a minor action will lead to a major and sometimes ludicrous

consequences.

Examples:

◦ If you allow the students to redo this

test, they are going to want to redo

every assignment for the rest of the

year.

◦ If you break your diet and have one

cookie tonight, you will just want to eat

10 cookies tomorrow, and before you

know it, you will have gained back the

15 pounds you lost.

In the book, if you give a mouse a

cookie it leads to one thing after

another.

APPEAL TO TRADITION

DEFINITION

• SOMETHING IS ACCEPTED AS

TRUE OR BETTER BECAUSE IT'S

THE "WAY IT'S ALWAYS BEEN

DONE."

EXAMPLES

• CHURCH SHOULD BEGIN AT 11AM BECAUSE THAT'S THE TIME THAT WE HAVE ALWAYS BEGUN THE CHURCH SERVICE.

• THE TOWN HAS ALWAYS HAD A PARADE ON THE 4TH OF JULY AND IT HAS ALWAYS PROCEEDED THROUGH THE TOWN SQUARE. WE CANNOT HAVE CONSTRUCTION THIS SUMMER BECAUSE WE CANNOT CHANGE THE ROUTE OF THE PARADE.

NON-SEQUITUR

DEFINITION

• A REPLY OR CONCLUSION THAT

DOESN‘T LOGICALLY FOLLOW

THE PREVIOUS STATEMENT.

• THE LATIN PHRASE OF NON-

SEQUITUR MEANS “DOES NOT

FOLLOW”

EXAMPLE

• I READ ABOUT A PITBULL ATTACK. MY

NEIGHBOR OWNS A PITBULL. MY LIFE

IS IN DANGER.

• THE MURDER TOOK PLACE AT VITO’S

PIZZA. THE DEFENDANT WORKS AT

VITO’S PIZZA. THEREFORE, THE

DEFENDANT MUST HAVE COMMITTED

THE CRIME.

Fallacies By: Courtney Haggard and Gloria Mercer

Pars Pro Toto

• Definition:

Latin for “part for the whole”, is a figure of speech where the name of a portion of an object, place, or concept represents its

entirety.

Examples

• “My father smoked four packs of cigarettes a day since age fourteen and lived until age sixty-nine. Therefore, smoking can’t be that bad for you.”

• “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.” – Donald Trump

Name Calling

• Definition:

The use of offensive names especially to win an argument or to induce rejection or

condemnation without objective consideration of the facts.

Examples

• “Truly weird Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain. He was terrible at the DEBATE.” –Donald Trump

• “The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.” -H.L. Mencken

STRAWMANBY: NEVAEH MCNERNEY, HANNAH COLLINSWORTH

A fallacy is an argument or belief based on erroneous reasoning. ... Straw man occurs when

someone argues that a person holds a view that is actually not what the other person believes.

Instead, it is a distorted version of what the person believes.

Prof. Jones: "The university just cut our yearly budget by $10,000."

Prof. Smith: "What are we going to do?"

Prof. Brown: "I think we should eliminate one of the teaching assistant positions. That would take

care of it."

Prof. Jones: "We could reduce our scheduled raises instead."

Prof. Brown: " I can't understand why you want to bleed us dry like that, Jones."

LOGICAL FALLACIES Nicholas & Brooklyn

SUI GENERIS

⦁ Latin for of its own kind, and used to describe something that is unique or different. Used in law typically with intellectual property.

SUI GENERIS

• Guess Who.

• A snowflake.

ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM (PATRIOTIC APPROACH)

• Argumentum Ad Populum is the popular appeal, it is accepted by the majority. This fallacy tries to win popular assent by arousing the feeling and enthusiasm of the multitude rather than building an argument.

• The Patriotic Approach is assuming that something is true because it is somehow patriotic. If you do not agree with what one says, then you are unpatriotic.

• The patriotic approach is unworthy of a good citizen because a true American would never use this approach.

ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM (PATRIOTIC APPROACH)

• “Draping Oneself in the Flag”

• Fake News

https://youtu.be/D-y_N4u0uRQ

APPEAL TO NOVELTY

By: Lillyrose Conley

Definition: • Claiming that something

that is new and modern is

superior to the status quo,

based exclusively on it’s

newness.

Examples: • New Coke- In 1985 Coca-Cola came out with “New

Coke”. They advertised it as new and improved and

guaranteed it was better than the old recipe. However,

most people hated it. Those who did think it was better

probably only thought so because it was new.

• Car companies- Car companies are constantly coming

out with new vehicles promising better abilities and

safer driving.

• iPhones- Apple debuts new phones every year. Hordes

of people line up to buy the “ enhances” version

whether their old phone is working or not.

CIRCULAR REASONING

By: Katia Torres

Definition: • A type of reasoning in which the

proposition is supported by the

premises, which is supported by the

proposition, creating a circle in

reasoning where no useful information

is being shared

• Basically it means that x is true because

of y, and y is true because of x

Examples: • “You have to save enough money to

pay your bills each month because bills

have to be paid”

• “God exists, because the Bible is the

inspired word of God, and the Bible

says God exists.”

• “The politician was truthful because he

told us he always tells the truth”

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Logical Fallacies: Overgeneralization And

Argumentum ad Populum (Bandwagon

Fallacy)

By Ben Spratt and Jonas Alger

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Argumentum ad Populum(Bandwagon Fallacy)

Argument that since something is popular

or everyone is doing it, so should you.

Popularity is the basis of the argument

Ex. McDonalds’ signs advertising “Billions

and billions served”

Ex. “Everyone else is cheating so why

shouldn’t I?”

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Problems With the Bandwagon Fallacy

Just because the majority agrees on something doesn’t

necessarily mean it is correct

Ex. You believe that those who receive

welfare should submit to a drug test but

your friends tell you you’re crazy and don’t

accept it. You decide to change your

position based upon their beliefs.

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Overgeneralization

Basing an argument on a stereotype

that generalizes a group

Often based off small sample size

Ex: All sharks are man-eaters

Ex: Three elderly people died from a

vaccine in 1976, therefore vaccines are

dangerous.

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Problems With Overgeneralization

Bases conclusion of large group off of a couple people

Does not cover all of the

Ex. Sam is riding her bike in her home town in Maine, minding

her own business. A station wagon comes up behind her and the

driver starts beeping his horn and then tries to force her off the

road. As he goes by, the driver yells "get on the sidewalk where

you belong!" Sam sees that the car has Ohio plates and

concludes that all Ohio drivers are jerks.