Common Logical Fallacies and Their Definitions

Fallacy Definition Example

Incorrectly characterizing an opponent’s

A “Straw Man” “Those who want to legalize drugs are fine with
viewpoint and then attacking or refuting
argument children taking ecstasy and LSD.”
that version of the argument.

Making an unfair moral comparison

Moral
between two things that are not really “Pro-choice activists are just as bad as terrorists.”
Equivalence
comparable.

Begging the When a conclusion is validated within the “Harmful, destructive mining practices should be
Claim claim itself. banned.”

When the evidence used to support a

Circular “My father is a great communicator, because he
claim is really just a repetition of the claim
Argument speaks effectively.”
itself.

“The sign said ‘fine for parking here,’ and, since it

When the writer subtly shifts the meaning was fine, I parked there.”
Equivocation of a word during the argument, so as to
shift the argument.   “All child murderers are inhuman, and, thus, no child
murder is human.”

Tu Quoque The logical fallacy equivalent of “No, YOU

are!” This is when someone avoids an “How can cops ticket me for speeding? I see cops
(“You’re argument by making similar charges speeding all the time!”
Another”) against the other person.

Attacking the person instead of the

argument. The goal is to discredit the
“Well, I don’t believe what Politician X has to say
argument by discrediting the person
Ad Hominem about the tax plan because he has said some
advocating the argument. Ad hominem
absolutely crazy things in the past.”
attacks are popular in online discussions,
especially when tempers flare.

Slippery slopes occur when a person

 “If we legalize same sex marriage, what will stop us
asserts that a relatively small step will lead
Slippery Slope from legalizing marriage between humans and
to a chain of events that result in a drastic
robots? Or humans and animals?”
change.

The bandwagon fallacy is committed by
arguments that appeal to the growing
Bandwagon
popularity of an idea as a reason for
accepting it as true.
Increasingly, people are coming to believe that
Eastern religions help us to get in touch with our true
inner being. Therefore, Eastern religions help us to
get in touch with our true inner being.

Latin for “after this, therefore because of

“It started to rain after my ice cream cone fell on the
Post hoc ergo this.” A fallacy that occurs when someone
ground. Therefore, my ice cream falling on the ground
propter hoc reaches a conclusion of causation
caused it to rain.”
because an event followed another event.
 Drawing a conclusion based on a small
Hasty sample size, rather than looking at
Generalization statistics that are much more in line with
the typical or average situation.
Reductio ad absurdum is also known as
"reducing to an absurdity." It involves
characterizing an opposing argument in
such a way that it seems to be ridiculous,
Reductio ad or the consequences of the position seem
absurdum ridiculous. It can be ridiculous in the sense
that the argument seems silly, or
ridiculous in the sense that that no
reasonable person would take such a
position.
A conclusion about something based on
Genetic Fallacy
the origin or history of that thing.
An attempt to change the subject to divert
attention from the original issue. You can
Red Herring
see countless examples of this when you
watch presidential candidates debate.
An argument that something must be okay
Appeal to
(correct, reasonable) because it is a
Common
common behavior or because most
Practice
people do it.
A belief or claim based on mistaken
reasoning. False Dilemma is a fallacy
based on an "either-or" type of argument.
Two choices are presented, when more
False Dilemma might exist, and the claim is made that
one is false and one is true-or one is
acceptable and the other is not. Often,
there are other alternatives, or both
choices might be false or true.
Appeal to Insisting that a claim is true simply
Authority because a valid authority or expert on the
issue said it was true, without any other
supporting evidence offered (or any other
authorities). Also called appeal to false
My father smoked four packs of cigarettes a day since
age fourteen and lived until age sixty-nine.  Therefore,
smoking really can’t be that bad for you.
One might say, for instance that the more sleep one
gets the healthier one is, and then, by the logical
reductio ad absurdum process, someone would be
sure to point out that, on such a premise, one who
has sleeping sickness and sleeps for months on end
is really in the best of health.
“The Nazis pioneered eugenics. Therefore eugenics
is unacceptable.”
“Yes, I would absolutely make the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq a priority. But with the
unemployment rate as high as it is, we really need to
concentrate on domestic issues and creating jobs,
and under my plan….”
“It's okay to let your children spend the night at the
house of someone you don't really know because
most other parents would be okay with it.”
When a teacher gets into trouble for leaving her
students unsupervised, she argues that many
teachers in the building besides her also leave their
students unsupervised from time to time.
1. I thought you cared about other people, but I
didn't see you at the fundraiser for the Harris
Family.
2. Child to parent: Either you buy me this new
book, or you decide that reading is not
important at all.
3. Politician: We have to decide if we are going
to support school choice or if we are going to
support failing schools. Those are the only
two options.
Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and
perhaps the foremost expert in the field, says that
evolution is true. (Therefore, it's true because one
authority says it).
authority.

It's important to note that this fallacy

should not be used to dismiss the claims
of experts, or scientific consensus.
Appeals to authority are not valid “Albert Einstein, one of the smartest people ever, said
arguments, but nor is it reasonable to that the best and healthiest breakfast is bacon and
disregard the claims of experts who have eggs, so it must be true.”
a demonstrated depth of knowledge
unless one has a similar level of
understanding and/or access to empirical
evidence. However, it is entirely possible
that the opinion of a person or institution
of authority is wrong; therefore the
authority that such a person or institution
holds does not have any intrinsic bearing
upon whether their claims are true or not.