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INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments.

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Page 1: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

INFORMAL FALLACIES

The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments.

Page 2: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Fallacies are dangerous

Fallacies, or flawed arguments, are often used by cult recruiters on college campuses to target freshmen.

Critical thinking is the antidote to fallacious arguments. By recognizing fallacies and other types of flawed arguments, we can protect ourselves against those seeking to control or manipulate us.

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© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 3: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Fallacies: formal and informal

An argument is the process of supporting a claim by providing reasons or evidence for that claim. An argument contains a fallacy when it appears to be initially correct, but upon further examination is found to be incorrect.

In formal fallacies, the form of the argument itself is invalid.

An informal fallacy is mistaken reasoning that occurs when an argument is psychologically or emotionally persuasive but logically incorrect.

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Page 4: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Fallacies of ambiguity

Arguments that contain ambiguous words or phrases, sloppy grammar, or confusion between two closely-related concepts can lead to fallacies of ambiguity.

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Page 5: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Fallacies of ambiguity (continued)

Four types of fallacies of ambiguity: Equivocation occurs when a key term in an argument is

ambiguous – when it has more than one meaning. Amphiboly occurs when an argument contains a grammatical

mistake. Fallacies of accent occur when an argument’s meaning changes

depending on which words or phrases are emphasized. Fallacies of division occur when we make erroneous inferences

from group characteristics about those of individuals within the group.

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© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Page 6: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Fallacies of relevance

In fallacies of relevance, one or more of the premises is logically irrelevant, or unrelated, to the conclusion.

Fallacies of relevance include personal attacks, or ad hominem fallacies, appeals to force, or scare tactics, appeals to pity, popular appeals, appeals to ignorance, hasty generalizations, straw man fallacies, and red herrings.

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Page 7: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Ad hominem and appeal to force

Ad hominem fallacy occurs when we disagree with another’s conclusion and attack them personally instead of presenting a valid counter-argument.

Appeal to force fallacy occurs when we use or threaten to use force in an attempt to get others to back down or accept our conclusions.

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Page 8: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Appeal to pity and popular appeal

Appeal to pity fallacy occurs when we try to evoke feelings of pity in others when pity is irrelevant to the conclusion.

The fallacy of popular appeal occurs when we appeal to popular opinion to gain support for our conclusion. Two types of this fallacy include the bandwagon approach and the snob approach.

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Page 9: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Appeal to ignorance and hasty generalization

Appeal to ignorance fallacy occurs when we try to argue something is true because no one has proven it false.

The fallacy of popular appeal occurs when we generalize from a sample that is too small or biased.

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Page 10: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Straw man and red herring fallacies

Straw man fallacy occurs when a person distorts or misrepresents the opponent’s argument, making it easier to knock down or refute.

The red herring fallacy occurs when a person tries to sidetrack an argument by going off on a tangent and bringing up a different issue directed toward a different conclusion.

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Page 11: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Fallacies involving unwarranted assumptions

Fallacies involving unwarranted assumptions occur when an argument includes an assumption that is not supported by evidence.

Fallacies involving unwarranted assumptions include begging the question, inappropriate appeal to authority, loaded question, false dilemma, questionable cause, slippery slope, and the naturalistic fallacy.

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Page 12: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Begging the question and inappropriate appeal to authority

Begging the question fallacy occurs when an argument’s conclusion is simply the rewording of its premise. This fallacy is also known as circular reasoning.

The inappropriate appeal to authority fallacy occurs when we look to an authority in a field that is unrelated or not under investigation.

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Page 13: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Loaded question and false dilemma

The loaded question fallacy occurs when a question is asked that assumes a particular answer to another unasked question.

The false dilemma fallacy reduces responses to complex issues to an either/or choice. By doing so, this fallacy polarizes stands on issues and ignores common ground or other solutions.

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Page 14: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Questionable cause and slippery slope

The questionable cause, or post hoc fallacy occurs when a person assumes, without sufficient evidence, that one thing is the cause of another.

According to the slippery slope fallacy, if we permit a certain action, then all actions of this type, even extreme ones, will soon be permissible.

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Page 15: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

The naturalistic fallacy

The naturalistic fallacy is based on the unwarranted assumption that what is natural is good or morally acceptable and that what is unnatural is bad or morally unacceptable.

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Page 16: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Strategies for avoiding fallacies

Once you have learned to identify informal fallacies, the next step is to develop strategies to avoid them.

The following strategies are recommended: Know yourself and the fallacies you are most

susceptible to. Build your self-confidence and self-esteem. Cultivate good listening skills; study others’ arguments

for fallacies. Avoid ambiguous, vague terms and faulty grammar.

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Page 17: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

More fallacy avoidance strategies

Avoid confusing the soundness of an argument with the character or circumstances of the person making the argument.

Know your topic. Do your research. Adopt a skeptical “default” position. Watch your body language. Avoid inflammatory actions. Don’t be set on winning every argument. Seek the truth,

not victory.

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Page 18: INFORMAL FALLACIES The aim of this tutorial is to help you learn to recognize and resist fallacious arguments

Conclusions

Use of fallacies in communication can damage relationships and impair sound critical thinking.

Identification and avoidance of fallacies through the use of effective strategies can improve our relationships with others and increase the credibility of our arguments.

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