Informal Fallacies

 Defective reasoning that makes weak arguments

appear stronger.
 Tools of advertisers, propagandists, charlatans, and
sincere yet self-deceived people who make claims
without the benefit of good evidence.
 Aristotle was the first thinker to begin to classify
various types of defective inferences that provide
psychologically persuasive (but not logically adequate)
reasons to believe a claim.
Fallacious Assumptions
 False Dilemma:  If the glove does not fit, you must
acquit!
Presenting two
alternatives as the only
ones when others are
possible.
 Either you accept every
verse of Scripture as
God’s word or reject it all
as false human religious
speculation.
Circular Reasoning
 Begging the question: when the arguer assumes as a
premise the conclusion he or she is arguing for.
 Abortion is murder because it kills babies.
 No affirmative action policy can be fair or just because
you can’t fix one injustice by committing another.
 We have to have the death penalty to keep murderers
off our streets.
 We must reject Obamacare. Government programs are
never as effective as private enterprise.
Ambiguity
 Equivocation: Shifting
the meaning of an
ambiguous term.
 Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Therefore, knowledge
corrupts.
We have the right to study
logic. We have a duty to
do right….
Ambiguous Phrasing: Amphibole
 Dog for sale. It eats  False implication: When
anything and is very fond an advertiser says
of children. something true but
 If you don’t go to other implies something that
people’s funerals, they isn’t true.
won’t come to yours.
 He is trying to quit
smoking cold turkey.
 Tired of cleaning
yourself, let us do it for
you.
Composition and Division
 Composition: Incorrectly
inferring that what is true
of the parts is true of the
whole.
 We have the best athletes
in the league on our team,
so we have the best team.
 OxiClean is yours for just
four easy payments of
$19.95
 Division: Incorrectly
inferring that what is true
of the whole is true of the
parts.
 USC has a great school of
business. Therefore, since
Jane went to USC, she must
be a great businesswoman.
 TRW is a high paying
company so Lester will
make a lot now that he
works for them.
Vagueness
 Abuse of vagueness: Using a vague expression for it’s
persuasive power as a substitute for evidence.
 Homosexual behavior is perverse because it isn’t
natural.
 Puffery: Intentional overstatement in advertising.
 Great Western Bank, we’ll always be there.
 Gillette, the best a man can get.
 Hype: Exaggeration: Amazing bargains! Incredible
deals! Biggest sale of the season!
More Advertising Fallacies
 Unspecified
Comparison:
 When a product is
compared to an
unnamed competitor.
 Taster’s Choice Coffee-
smoother taste.
Smoother than what?
 Less filling, lower in fat,
etc.
 Weasel Words:
Advertisers use weasel
words to make vacuous
claims look substantive.
 Make your floor look like
new.
 Helps you look younger!
 Lasts up to eight hours.
Extreme Quantifiers and
Intensifiers shut off debate.
 Everything she says is a
lie!
 PETA activists are
completely misguided.
 Obamacare is totally
flawed.
 I know that my redeemer Your resume claims you
liveth! are absolutely the greatest
Economics instructor in the
World (?)
Emotional Appeals
 Appeal to Anger: Arouse feelings of anger as a
substitute for evidence.
 If you want my gun you’ll have to pry it from my cold,
dead, hand!
 Appeal to Fear (or force)
 Listen, Galileo, drop this heliocentric nonsense or
Brother Vito will rotate your head around the sun!
 Hurry in! These unbelievably low prices won’t last!
False Authority
Unidentified Authority
 When expert opinion is
alluded to without explicit
identification of who the
expert is.
 Studies show that gun control
doesn’t work.
 Experts agree that legalizing
pot would be a disaster.
Irrelevant Authority
 The authority cited must be
qualified on the topic in
question.
 Reverend John McArthur claims
that the theory of evolution is
not grounded in good science.
Apologist Hank Hanegraaff, the
Bible Answer Man, concurs with
this opinion. Hence, we can
conclude that evolution is a
flawed theory.
More False Authority Fallacies
 Testimonials: When a  Division of Expert
celebrity or unknown Opinion: When the
user of a product experts have not reached
endorses it’s value, their a consensus, we cannot
testimony provides weak appeal to one expert’s
support. view to resolve a dispute.
 Tiger Woods says drive a  We know alien abductions really
occur. Even Harvard
Buick, chicks dig it! psychiatrist John Mack believes
 I lost 50 lbs in two days alien abduction reports are
authentic.
with the lap band!
Conflict of Interest
 When there is reason to  Bbb
believe that the authority
cited has a vested
interest in the topic, his
or her testimony is
compromised by bias.
 The CEO of Shell Oil says
offshore drilling is
completely safe, so we
can approve their request  Trust me, I know!
to drill.
Statistical Inference Fallacies
 Small Sample: Overestimating the statistical
significance of evidence derived from too few cases.
 In a published article, three gay men testified that their
homosexuality was a choice, not a decision forced on
them by their genes or upbringing. Thus, there is no
biological basis for male homosexuality.
 All three of my husbands had affairs so don’t deny the
fact that all men are cheaters.
 My husband died of brain cancer and he was a pot
smoker so marijuana smoking causes brain cancer.
Causal Fallacies
 Confusing correlation  Prayer works! I said four
with causation. “Hail Mary’s” before the
 83% of criminals drink game and the Chargers
alcohol before committing won!
crimes. So Alcohol use  Common Cause:
causes crime. Inferring a causal
 Post hoc ergo propter connection when two
hoc. Mistaking temporal items are both produced by
succession for causal an underlying cause.
 75% of Prozac users have
connection.
contemplated suicide. That stuff
is dangerous!