List of fallacies

For specific popular misconceptions, see List of common misconceptions.

A fallacy is incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric which undermines an argument's logical validity or more generally an argument's logical soundness. Fallacies are either formal fallacies or informal fallacies.

Formal fallacies

Main article: Formal fallacy

A formal fallacy is an error in logic that can be seen in the argument's form.[1] All formal fallacies are specific types of non sequiturs.

Propositional fallacies

A propositional fallacy is an error in logic that concerns compound propositions. For a compound proposition to be true, the truth values of its constituent parts must satisfy the relevant logical connectives that occur in it (most commonly: <and>, <or>, <not>, <only if>, <if and only if>). The following fallacies involve inferences whose correctness is not guaranteed by the behavior of those logical connectives, and hence, which are not logically guaranteed to yield true conclusions.
Types of Propositional fallacies:

Quantification fallacies

A quantification fallacy is an error in logic where the quantifiers of the premises are in contradiction to the quantifier of the conclusion.
Types of Quantification fallacies:

Formal syllogistic fallacies

Syllogistic fallacies – logical fallacies that occur in syllogisms.

Informal fallacies

Main article: Informal fallacy

Informal fallacies – arguments that are fallacious for reasons other than structural (formal) flaws and usually require examination of the argument's content.[12]

Faulty generalizations

Faulty generalizations – reach a conclusion from weak premises. Unlike fallacies of relevance, in fallacies of defective induction, the premises are related to the conclusions yet only weakly buttress the conclusions. A faulty generalization is thus produced.

Red herring fallacies

A red herring fallacy is an error in logic where a proposition is, or is intended to be, misleading in order to make irrelevant or false inferences. In the general case any logical inference based on fake arguments, intended to replace the lack of real arguments or to replace implicitly the subject of the discussion.[58][59][60]

Red herring – argument given in response to another argument, which is irrelevant and draws attention away from the subject of argument. See also irrelevant conclusion.

Conditional or questionable fallacies

See also

References

Notes
  1. Bunnin & Yu 2004, "formal fallacy".
  2. Leon, Joseph (23 April 2011). "Appeal to Probability". Logical & Critical Thinking. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013.
  3. McDonald, Simon (2009). "Appeal to probability". Toolkit For Thinking. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015.
  4. Curtis, "Fallacy Fallacy".
  5. "Base Rate Fallacy". Psychology Glossary. AlleyDog.com. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  6. Straker, David. "Conjunction Fallacy". ChangingMinds.org. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  7. Curtis, "The Masked Man Fallacy".
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Wilson 1999, p. 316.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Wilson 1999, p. 317.
  10. Pirie 2006, pp. 133–136.
  11. Wilson 1999, p. 316–317.
  12. Bunnin & Yu 2004, "informal fallacy".
  13. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2709600
  14. Damer 2009, p. 165.
  15. Carroll, Robert T. "The Skeptic's Dictionary". divine fallacy (argument from incredulity). Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  16. "Toolkit for Thinking".
  17. "Repetition". changingminds.org.
  18. http://www.toolkitforthinking.com/critical-thinking/anatomy-of-an-argument/inductive-logic-arguments/ad-nauseam
  19. http://www.toolkitforthinking.com/critical-thinking/anatomy-of-an-argument/inductive-logic-arguments/argument-from-silence
  20. Bo Bennett. "Argument from Silence". logicallyfallacious.com.
  21. Damer 2009, p. 150.
  22. "Your logical fallacy is begging the question". Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies.
  23. "Fallacy: Begging the Question". nizkor.org.
  24. Bo Bennett. "Begging the Question". logicallyfallacious.com.
  25. "Begging the Question". txstate.edu.
  26. Dowden 2010, "Line-Drawing".
  27. Pirie 2006, p. 41.
  28. Feinberg, Joel (2007). "Psychological Egoism". In Shafer-Landau, Russ. Ethical Theory: An Anthology. Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-4051-3320-3.
  29. Damer 2009, p. 121.
  30. Copi & Cohen 1990, p. 206.
  31. Fischer 1970, p. 119.
  32. Gula 2002, p. 70.
  33. Pirie 2006, p. 31.
  34. Pirie 2006, p. 53.
  35. Gula 2002, p. 97.
  36. "Fallacy – False Dilemma". Nizkor. The Nizkor Project. Retrieved 2011-02-01.
  37. Damer 2009, p. 178.
  38. Damer 2009, p. 186.
  39. Fischer 1970, p. 209.
  40. Bunnin & Yu 2004, "Homunculus".
  41. 41.0 41.1 "A List Of Fallacious Arguments". Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  42. Wimsatt, William K. and Monroe C. Beardsley. "The Intentional Fallacy." Sewanee Review, vol. 54 (1946): 468-488. Revised and republished in The Verbal Icon: Studies in the Meaning of Poetry, U of Kentucky P, 1954: 3-18.
  43. Copi & Cohen 1990, p. 105.
  44. Taleb, Nassim (2007). The Black Swan. Random House. p. 309. ISBN 1-4000-6351-5.
  45. "TheFreeDictionary". Naturalistic fallacy.
  46. John Searle, "How to Derive 'Ought' from 'Is'", The Philosophical Review, 73:1 (January 1964), 43-58
  47. Alex Walter, "The Anti-naturalistic Fallacy: Evolutionary Moral Psychology and the Insistence of Brute Facts", Evolutionary Psychology, 4 (2006), 33-48
  48. Damer 2009, p. 180.
  49. Damer 2009, p. 208.
  50. Semiotics Glossary R, Referential fallacy or illusion
  51. Gula 2002, p. 135.
  52. Pirie 2006, p. 5.
  53. Flew 1984, "No-true-Scotsman move".
  54. Hurley 2007, p. 155.
  55. Damer 2009, p. 151.
  56. Hurley 2007, p. 134.
  57. Fischer 1970, p. 127.
  58. Gary Curtis. "Logical Fallacy: Red Herring". fallacyfiles.org.
  59. http://logical-critical-thinking.com/logical-fallacy/red-herring-fallacy/
  60. "Logical Fallacies". logicalfallacies.info.
  61. Walton 2008, p. 187.
  62. Bo Bennett. "Ad Hominem (Abusive)". logicallyfallacious.com.
  63. Clark & Clark 2005, pp. 13–16.
  64. Walton 1997, p. 28.
  65. Bo Bennett. "Appeal to Accomplishment". logicallyfallacious.com.
  66. Walton 2008, p. 27.
  67. Damer 2009, p. 111.
  68. Bo Bennett. "Appeal to Fear". logicallyfallacious.com.
  69. "Appeal to Fear". changingminds.org.
  70. Gula 2002, p. 12.
  71. Walton 2008, p. 128.
  72. "Appeal to Ridicule". changingminds.org.
  73. Bo Bennett. "Appeal to Ridicule". logicallyfallacious.com.
  74. "Appeal to Spite". changingminds.org.
  75. Damer 2009, p. 146.
  76. Bo Bennett. "B-List Fallacies". logicallyfallacious.com.
  77. 77.0 77.1 Gary Curtis. "Logical Fallacy: Appeal to Nature". fallacyfiles.org.
  78. Pirie 2006, p. 116.
  79. Pirie 2006, p. 104.
  80. Pirie 2006, p. 14.
  81. Pirie 2006, p. 39.
  82. Damer 2009, p. 106.
  83. "Appeal to Widespread Belief". Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  84. Gary Curtis. "Logical Fallacy: Guilt by Association". fallacyfiles.org.
  85. http://davidlavery.net/Barfield/Encyclopedia_Barfieldiana/Lexicon/Chronological.html
  86. http://www.davidbergan.com/Summa/Chronological_snobbery
  87. Damer 2009, p. 93.
  88. Dowden 2010, "Is-Ought".
  89. Dowden 2010, "Naturalistic".
  90. Walton 2008, p. 22.
  91. Curtis, "The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy".
  92. Pirie 2006, p. 164.
  93. Johnson & Blair 1994, p. 122.
  94. Beggs, Jodi. "The Broken Window Fallacy".
  95. Frankena, W. K. (October 1939). "The Naturalistic Fallacy". Mind (Oxford University Press) 48 (192): 464–477. JSTOR 2250706.
  96. Walton 2008, p. 315.
Works

Further reading

The following is a sample of books for further reading, selected for a combination of content, ease of access via the internet, and to provide an indication of published sources that interested readers may review. The titles of some books are self-explanatory. Good books on critical thinking commonly contain sections on fallacies, and some may be listed below.

External links