Logical fallacy
From RationalWiki
A Logical fallacy is, fundamentally, an error in logic.
Common fallacies include:
- Ad hoc -- using an off-the-cuff explanation with no evidentiary support.
- Ad hominem -- attacking the opponent directly rather than addressing the opponent's idea (favorite tactic of the likes of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and nearly everyone at Fox News); also, tu quoque, where a criticism is falsely dismissed because its author is also guilty of the charge.
- Argument from ignorance -- basing the truth of a premise only on whether it has been proved to your satisfaction.
- Argument from incredulity
- Argument from adverse consequences -- arguing against a point based on expected negative outcome.
- Argumentum ad baculum -- attempting to intimidate an opponent (baculum is Latin for "stick").
- Argumentum ad populum or bandwagon -- arguing for a point based on popularity rather than merit.
- Argumentum ad verecundiam -- "argument from shame". Also see emotional appeal.
- Argument from authority
- Begging the question
- Correlation does not equal causation
- Equivocation -- deliberately substituting the meaning of a given word in one context for another context that is inappropriate in order to make your argument.
- False analogy -- creating an analogy or metaphor, then extending it to prove one's point.
- False dilemma -- forcing the opponent into a yes-or-no answer with a multivalued question (see Pascal's wager for an example).
- My enemy's enemy -- supporting someone because they oppose the same people
- Negative proof -- arguing that something must exist because there is no evidence it does not exist.
- No True Scotsman -- excluding an inconveniently misbehaving member of a class to defend the class as a whole.
- Non sequitur -- giving an evasive or nonsensical answer to a challenge.
- One single proof -- dismissing all circumstantial evidence in favor of a single "smoking gun" that may not (and may not need to) exist.
- Poisoning the well -- attempting to refute an argument based on the perceived veracity of the presenter.
- Post hoc, ergo propter hoc
- Reductio ad Hitlerum -- saying that something is bad because a bad person or group did it, i.e. saying painting is evil because Hitler liked to paint or ties are immoral because Bush wears ties.
- Straw man -- falsifying an opponent's position for greater rhetorical flexibility.
- Style over substance fallacy
- Texas sharpshooter -- a data mining fallacy and pattern recognition error where the arguer makes an ad hoc conclusion from a set of unrelated data without looking for corroborating data.
- The Galileo fallacy
- Causalation
[edit] See also
