Argumentum ad Hominem (Attacking the Person)

The term Ad Hominem means, ‘attacking the person’ or

‘against the person.’ In this fallacy, the person does not
directly attack or criticize the views of another person,
instead, they attack or criticise the personal
characteristics of the other person such as physical
appearance, ethnicity, or other traits. These types of
attacks are flawed as they do not link to the real
argument, and distract the other people from the logical
argument.

Ad hominem arguments are generally observed in politics, which are commonly known as ‘mudslinging.’
These arguments makes it easier for politicians to manipulate the opinions of the voters regarding the
opposition parties. For example, Politician A will say that you should not vote the Politician B because
Politician B is not trustworthy as he/she is not fluent in speaking Hindi. Well, if we think logically, there is no
relevant link between these two factors, i.e., a person who can speak Hindi fluently does not mean that he/she
will be a trustworthy politician. Hence, this is an example of the ad hominem fallacy. People often confuse the
ad hominem fallacy with the insult. Remember we can not term anything as ad hominem fallacy if is not an
argument. For example, if we say that ‘all students in section B are liars’ then it is an insult, but if we say a boy
name Jay can not become the team leader as he belongs to section B, then it is the example of ad hominem
fallacy.
Argumentum ad Baculum (Appeal to Force)

Argumentum ad Misercordiam (Appeal to Pity)

The appeal to pity fallacy occurs when someone tries to strengthen his/her arguments by manipulating
or distracting the other person by provoking his/her emotions.
Examples of appeal to Pity Fallacy

Imagine a person is arrested in a certain case. The person as per his crime is supposed to get the jail for
a year. When the judge sees that the person is physically disabled and walking with the help of the
walker, it may provoke the human emotions of the judges. Although the judge has to abide by all the
laws and regulations, he/she is more likely to fall victim to the appeal to pity fallacy.
 Suppose you failed your last exam but you ask your professor to give you another chance. When your
professor asked for the reason behind your failure, you said him that your grandmother has passed
away suddenly, and you suffered from a major viral infection right after her funeral. The recovery took
a whole month and you barely had any time to prepare for your exam, hence you need grace marks in
that exam. Well, if this story is true, then chances are that your professor may feel for your situation
and he will give you another chance to appear for that exam.

Argumentum ad Populum“Appeal to people”/ Bandwagon fallacy

If one assumes something as right or wrong, only

because the majority of the people believes the
same, it refers to the bandwagon fallacy.
Bandwagon fallacy makes you believe that if
everyone in your group is thinking in a certain
way about any situation, then you should also
think in that way because it would be right as the
majority is believing that. However, this is a
fallacious argument as if a claim is accepted or
rejected by the majority of the population, it does
not justify it is factually right or wrong. So, next
time when you make your decision based on the
number of people who approve or rejects that
decision, think again.

Examples of Bandwagon Fallacy

If a student thinks that he/she should choose the medical stream in college because his/her parents are
the doctors, it is the bandwagon fallacy. Chances are that the student may be good in other fields or
areas, or he/she may have zero interest in being a doctor, but just because his/her parents are doctors
does not mean that the same will be the better carrear for that student also.

You must have seen the craze of imprinting tattoos in many people. Well, the idea behind printing the
tattoo is what matters. If you want to imprint a tattoo because you like that particular tattoo a lot, that
seems ok, but if you want to imprint a particular tattoo just because some celebrity have had imprinted
it, and all of your friends are imprinting that tattoo, then you may need to reconsider your decision of
imprinting tattoo. Because, if you are imprinting the tattoo only because the majority of the people are
doing so, you are felling prey to the bandwagon fallacy. The chances are you may regret this
permanent choice of imprinting tattoo after a few years.

The common statements like ‘All of my friends are going to the party this Saturday night, so I should
also go,’ ‘Most of my friends are opting for the management course, hence I should also choose that,’
and ‘Almost everyone is in favour of that political party, I should also vote for that party,’ represent the
bandwagon fallacy.

Argumentum and Ignorantiam “Appeal to Ignorance”

 This is also known as ‘argument from ignorance.’
This fallacy occurs when the person believes the
given argument is true because it has not been
proved false.

This argument can also lead to contradictory

conclusions, for example,

No one has proved that aliens exist, so aliens are

not real.
No one has proved that the aliens do not exist, so
aliens are real.
Well, both these statements are based on what no
one knows, hence one should not make these
statements as arguments. It’s a fact that ‘No one
knows everything,’ some knows less, or some
know more, but we all are learning and ignorant
about particular things.
Examples of an Appeal to Ignorance Fallacy

The Appeal to ignorance fallacy is often used by the terrorist groups or defence groups of some nations
to brainwash the people. In some countries, very young children are recruited in the army of their
nations, and they are made to believe that it’s their duty to serve their nation, and the people belonging
to other ethnicities or nations are evil. The children grew up in this environment and they believe in
false statements because they are ignorant about reality. They think the people of their ethnicities or
nation are right and those of the other are wrong only because this is what they have learned since
childhood. These arguments represent the appeal to ignorance fallacy as one does not have proper
evidence of supporting their argument.

Suppose an archaeologist is researching a 2000-year-old civilization. He found various artefacts and

tools in the excavation that made him draw a rough idea of people’s life at that time. But, he didn’t find
any written document or inscription in that area. One can assume that as no one find evidence of
written documents or inscriptions, there might not be any written language in that period. But, you can
also assume that there could be evidence of written language but no one finds that yet. It can be found
out if more research and excavation is carried in that area.

Hasty Generalization Fallacy

If the person claims something based on some random examples without any accurate proof it is known
as the hasty generalization fallacy. It is commonly seen that people make generalizations, this is not
wrong though as most of the principles or laws are based on the generalization principles in the field of
humanity. But, if the generalization is based on the character or behaviours of certain people to the
whole people belonging to that region or group, this could be a hasty generalization. These types of
generalization are based on the stereotypes mindest, or racism. The hasty generation arguments are
weak as they may be true in some situations but they do not hold for every situation. While making the
hasty generalization people tends to show biases towards a certain group of people or individuals. One
should always refrain from making a hasty generalization. This can be avoided by using qualifiers like
 ‘often,’ ‘sometimes,’ ‘considered as’ before making any generalised statements. When you add these
words before making the statements, it assures the listener that this is what you have generally seen and
you are not arguing with them regarding the rightness of that claim.

Examples of Hasty Generalization Fallacy

Suppose, three best employees of your company have done the management diploma. You may tend to
think that the person that holds the management diploma would become a better employee, and now,
you are giving preferences to the candidates with management diplomas in the recruitment process.
However, this is a hasty generalization as chances are that those three employees are performing well
because of their skillset not just because they hold the management diploma.

Hasty generalization is often seen in politics. For example, people tend to vote for the candidates, not
because of the capabilities of that candidate, rather because that person belongs to the party, whose
leader is very popular in the upper parliament. People tend to associate the popularity of a specific
party leader with the politician representing that party in your area. This is a hasty generalization as if
the leader of that party is famous, it does not mean the politician belonging to this party can become a
good leader.

Suppose your uncle eats junk food a lot but he looks healthy. Now, if you make the statement that junk
food is healthy to eat as your uncle is healthy because he eats junk food, then think again, you are
felling prey to the hasty generalization fallacy.

Argumentum ad Tradition“Appeal to Tradition”

Petitio Principii
(Begging the Question)
Cause and Effect
Fallacy of Composition
Fallacy of Division

Fallacy of Equivocation
The Dialectic Method

The Pragmatic Method

The Analytic Method