FALLACIES

Fallacies are defects that weaken the

arguments.
Fallacious arguments are very common and
can be quite persuasive (at least to the
casual reader or listener)
There are dozens of examples of fallacious
reasoning in newspapers, advertisements,
Talk shows, and many other sources.

Different types of fallacies:

Trickery with language
Trickery with emotions
Trickery with distraction

Trickery with Language

1- Word Ambiguity:
Example:

These blouses have the feel of silk

You can save as much as 3 liters of oil a day
You should be doing anything for love
The federal Government has too much
power

Trickery with Language Contd

2- Euphemisms: are words that make a less
acceptable idea seem positive (i.e. They can make
the bad seem good , and the good seems bad)

Examples:

Acceptable Losses (number of our soldiers expected

to die in battle)
Friendly Fire (shooting our own soldiers by mistake)
Body Bags (Plastic container for corpses)

Trickery with Language

Contd
3- Prejudicial Language: an attempt to
persuade through the use of loaded words that
express a bias.

Example:
Americas dirty little war in El Salvador has so far
been limited to thin transfusions of money and
material as well as moral support for
murderous regimes.

Trickery with Emotions

They seek to persuade by playing on our
weaknesses instead of inviting conscious
consideration. They depend primarily on
arousing reactions such as fear, pity, anger,
greed, and hatred.
Example:

Are you still postponing that

alarm system?

1) - Appeal to Fear-

2) Appeal to false
Authority

3) Appeal to false
Authority

4) Appeal to vague Authority

Experts agree that you should use an electric toothbrush

Doctors say you should brush your teeth everyday with signal2

5) The Bandwagon Fallacy:

If a herd is headed in one direction, that must be the right direction.
Example:

Join the Pepsi Generation

Do not vote for X. The polls show he did not get many votes

Trickery with Emotions Contd

6) Appeal to prejudice : Prejudice is a mixture of envy, fear and
resentment. A person who feels prejudice cannot maintain the
openness necessary for clear reasoning.
Example:

Youre just a fool! You cant tell me anything! (Personal Attack)

You are a man. I dont want to hear what you have to say. You cant
understand what women feel. (poisoning the well fallacy does not attack
but contaminates. It provokes prejudice against a person or a group so
that they are distrusted, avoided or feared. It uses a string of negative
connotations, uses hints, or discredits a person or group.)

Trickery with
Distractions
They lack support for their
arguments and use different
tricks to divert attention away
from their weaknesses.

Marijuana smoking is not all that harmful. I would feel

safer in a car with a driver who smoked weed
(marijuana) than one under the influence of liquor any
day.

Guns are not Americas major problem. Cars, cancer,

accidents in the kitchen all kill far more people than
guns do. It is not guns that we should be frightened of
but the effects of poverty, lack of education, a judicial
system that sends criminals and psychopaths (mentally
ill) back out into the streets.
TV cant be harmful to children, because it occupies their
attention for hours and keeps them off the streets.

The fallacy of red herring does not offer reasons to support its
conclusion but diverts attention to other issues that are
irrelevant.

Student to instructor: Why are you getting after me

for being late to class? You never say anything to that
pretty woman who comes late to class every day.

Why do you complain about cruelty to animals in

scientific experiments? Look at the way animals are
cruel to one another. Have you ever seen the way lions
bite into the necks of zebras, rip open their insides,
then eat their hearts and entrails (internal parts)?

fallacy of pointing to another wrong

Doctor : You need to get more exercise. Why dont

you walk to work?
Patient: I cant walk to work-I work at home!

Boss: What we need to get this business off the

ground is for all the employees to meet together on a
regular basis.
Manager: But we dont have a meeting room large
enough for all of us!
The straw man fallacy seeks to discredit an idea based on an
irrelevant objection

Movie stars are intelligent. If they werent intelligent,

they wouldnt be movie stars.

Running is good for your health. If you want to be

healthy, you should run

fallacy of circular reasoning is the assertion or repeated assertion

of a conclusion without reasons being given to support the
same conclusions..