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Online Writing Lab - (OWL)
Writing
and Revision Page
LOGICAL FALLACIES
Fallacies that result from errors in induction:
Dicto Simpliciter or Overstatement: An unqualified
generalization. “My English teacher never gives A's."
“Almonds are good for the heart; everyone should eat 2
handfuls of almonds every day.”
Hasty Generalization: Stating a conclusion based on too
little evidence or based on ignoring some evidence. “Running
must be bad for your heart. Look what happened to Florence
Joiner." “My little Yamaha motorcycle never gave me
problems. Yamaha motorcycles are the best.”
Stereotyping: Giving the same characteristics to everyone in
a group (related to overstatement and hasty generalization).
“Used-car salesmen can't be trusted.” “BYU coeds are fat.” “
Utah State graduates are all nerdy.” “ Mormons all have
several wives.” “ Southern Utahns are all right-wing
conservative fanatics who refuse to pay taxes and want to
destroy the environment.” “California blondes are all as
wild as they can be.”
Forced hypothesis: Reaching a conclusion that is not
supported by the evidence or a conclusion that is more
complicated than necessary. “Jerry and Kim live next door to
each other, so they must be really good friends.”
Non sequitur: From Latin, meaning “it does not follow"; this
refers specifically to conclusions which are not logically
derived from the reasoning that precedes them. “ Al Gore is
a wonderful father, so he would have made a great
president.” “President George W. Bush admitted to getting a
DUI ticket when he was younger, so we can be sure the booze
flows freely at White House Parties.” “We don’t see as many
women in calculus classes as we do men, so clearly their
brains are not capable of handling difficult math concepts.”
Slippery slope: An argument in which we assert that X should
not happen because it will inevitably be followed by
consequences Yand Z, which are terrible. “Utah should not
legalize parimutuel betting on horse races because that will
only lead to gambling on other sporting events and finally
to casino gambling.” “We should never allow families to have
doctors disconnect the respirators and feeding tubes of
brain dead patients. If we do, pretty soon we will be asking
doctors to kill people with Alzheimer’s disease and children
with Down’s syndrome.”
False dilemma: An argument asserting that only two (or a
limited number of) options exist when there are actually
more. “We must either ban Hustler and Penthouse or our
children will never learn respect for women.” “You either
support the war in Iraq or you are a traitor to your country
and an enemy to freedom.”
False analogy: An argument based on a comparison of two
things when the differences between the two are too great.
“There are 10,000 deaths from alcohol poisoning to 1 from
mad-dog bites in this country. In spite of this, we license
liquor but shoot the dogs.” “It is true that an embryo can
grow into a person, but an acorn can grow into an oak. We
don’t criticize people who step on an acorn just because the
acorn could become an oak, so we shouldn’t think it is a big
deal if someone decides to abort an embryo.” “In a pack of
wolves, there is always an alpha male, the powerful male who
makes the decisions and makes sure the whole system runs
well. Likewise, a man should be firm and forceful in his
dealings with his wife and children; then, the whole family
will run more smoothly.”
Post hoc: From the Latin "after this, therefore because of
it," this means simplyassigning a cause-effect relationship
where none exists or where it is difficult to prove there is
a cause-effect relation. “A black cat ran across my path on
the way to work this morning, and sure enough, I got a flat
tire on the way home." “The president had been in office
just a few months before the stock market went into the
toilet and unemployment soared. People in the market just
lost confidence because he was elected.” “Ever since my
teacher saw that I had my tongue pierced, my grades on tests
have gone down. I think he just doesn’t like body piercings.”
Fallacies that result from ignoring the issue:
Begging the question: To assume that part or all of your
argument will be accepted as true without support. “The
federal government should not subsidize development of
alternative-fuel automobiles because gasoline is the
cheapest and cleanest fuel.” “We should give every American
the right to have assault weapons in his or her home because
we know that a nation in which its citizens have assault
weapons will be safer that one without.” “We know that our
police are never involved in bribery, dishonesty, or abuse
of the law because the police report issued in January of
2004 said so.”
Red herring: To introduce an irrelevant side-issue and
divert attention from the topic at hand. “Mary Gordon
shouldn't be elected to the school board because she doesn't
have any children in public schools."
“The officer said I was going 50 miles an hour in a school
zone. Can you believe that? There are rapes and bank
robberies going unsolved in our city, and she has time to
worry about people’s driving habits!”
Straw man: To accuse your opponents of holding erroneous or
ridiculous view or attitudes and attacking those instead of
attacking their arguments. “Environmentalists are trying to
save the spotted owl because they want to run American
loggers out of business.” “Some conservatives are angry that
the Supreme Court recently banned the death penalty for kids
who commit crimes under the age of 18. Let’s face it;
conservatives hate kids. They want as many of them to die as
possible.” “Feminists are upset with all the laws passed
prohibiting same-sex marriages. They want to live in a world
in which no woman ever uses her womb for something as
subservient to a man as bearing his child.”
Ad hominem: From the Latin meaning “to or towards the
person.” “This is the strategy of attacking the proponent of
an argument rather than the argument itself. “Of course you
believe that--you're a woman.” Or “I'd expect something like
that from a socialist like you!" “You students are always
trying to cheat and get free money from the government; of
course you are going to be in favor of Social Security.” ( A
special form of Ad Hominem arguments occur when someone
attacks an argument by attacking the speaker before he or
she speaks. It is called “Poisoning the Well.” “Jane Fonda
is going to speak tonight about how we ought to give more to
help Tsunami victims. Don’t forget; this is the same Jane
Fonda that visited Hanoi and criticized the war when our
G.I’s. were dying in Vietnam. We should not listen to her.”)
Argument ad Miseriocordiam: "Argument to Pity": An emotional
appeal to a logical issue. While pathos generally works to
reinforce a reader's moral sense, if a writer relies on an
appeal to emotion only to accept a conclusion, it is a
fallacy. “ I know my paper is late, but I have had the worst
pimple on my nose for a week, so I was too miserable to
bring it to class. Please don’t mark it late.” “Or “Janice,
you have to marry me! If you don’t, I will be the most
miserable person alive. Who knows, I may even turn to drugs
and alcohol.”
Common practice: Sometimes called “bandwagon” fallacy. This
is to argue that an action should be taken or an idea
accepted because everyone is doing it. “Don't worry about
using your older brother's research paper. It's only a
general ed requirement, and half the kids in the class are
doing the same thing.” “Dad, I can’t live without a cell
phone and a laptop. All the kids have them now.”
Argument ad populum: from the Latin “to the people";
appealing to the beliefs of the multitudes.“Republican
candidates are the choice of red-blooded Americans who
believe in the traditional American values of liberty and
prosperity and America first.” “Everybody knows that women
care more deeply about their children than men do.” (A form
of this called “snob appeal” is often used in advertising:
“Buick is the choice of intelligent discerning Americans.”;
“Caring mothers choose Pampers.”)
Argumentum ad Baculum: Appeal to Force, bullying, or the
"Might-Makes-Right" Fallacy. This argument uses force, the
threat of force, or some other unpleasant backlash to make
the audience accept a conclusion. It commonly appears as a
last resort when evidence or rational arguments fail to
convince (Most of us have mothers and fathers who used it
with us.) Some years ago, the student newspaper here at
Dixie wanted to publish a story that was controversial. The
administration opposed publishing the article. When the
editor brought up the first amendment and the rights of free
speech and a free press, an administrator replied, “Oh, of
course you have a right to publish whatever you wish. But we
also have a right not to fund the newspaper. If you publish
this, there will be no newspaper here at Dixie.” The
argument was very effective.
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