WRIT1005 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Slippery Slope, Straw Man, Ad Hominem
Lecture 9 – 4/10/17 – Logical Fallacies
Common logical fallacies
- Ad hominem argument
o Attacking person rather than argument
o Person A makes claim X, there is something objectionable about Person A, therefore
claim X is false
- Ad populum argument
o Because something is popular it must be acceptable
o Eeoe else is doig it
- Appeal to false authority
o When a non-expert is cited
o Or the cited authority is an expert but not disinterested
o The assumption that an expert in one field is also an expert in another
- Appeal to flattery
o Appeal to emotion
o Along with appeal to fear/pity/ridicule
- Appeal to widespread belief
o Similar to ad populum
o Bandwagon argument
- Begging the question
o Circular argument – he a aguet’s popositio is assued i oe of the
premises
o E.g. The Bible must be true because God would not lie. We know we can trust God
because it says so in the Bible.
- Either/or fallacy (
o Proposes that a complicated question only has two answers when there are many
o Either with us or the terrorists
- False analogy
o A aalog that does’t hold eause it does ot ague the issue
o If e a put a a o the oo, h a’t e fid a ue fo the oo old?
- Hasty generalisation
o Jumping to conclusion when claim is based on too little evidence
o Also refers to unrepresentative or insufficient samples
- Sweeping generalisations
o Saying everyone in a group is the same
o Words such as all, always, never, no one
o Stereotypes
- Non-sequitur
o It does not follow
- Post hoc fallacy
o After this, therefore, because of this
o Because B follows A, B must be because of A
o Coincidence mistaken for causality
- Red herring
o An irrelevant issue intended to distract readers from the relevant issues
- Reductive fallacy
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Document Summary
Ad hominem argument: attacking person rather than argument, person a makes claim x, there is something objectionable about person a, therefore claim x is false. Ad populum argument: because something is popular it must be acceptable, (cid:862)e(cid:448)e(cid:396)(cid:455)o(cid:374)e else is doi(cid:374)g it(cid:863) Appeal to false authority: when a non-expert is cited, or the cited authority is an expert but not disinterested, the assumption that an expert in one field is also an expert in another. Appeal to flattery: appeal to emotion, along with appeal to fear/pity/ridicule. Appeal to widespread belief: similar to ad populum, bandwagon argument. Begging the question: circular argument (cid:449)he(cid:374) a(cid:374) a(cid:396)gu(cid:373)e(cid:374)t"s p(cid:396)opositio(cid:374) is assu(cid:373)ed i(cid:374) o(cid:374)e of the premises, e. g. The bible must be true because god would not lie. We know we can trust god because it says so in the bible. Either/or fallacy : proposes that a complicated question only has two answers when there are many, (cid:862)either with us or the terrorists(cid:863)
