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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
Bandwagon
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Fallacy in which a person's opinion is influenced due to the public/peer's opinion.
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June says she likes the color green but everyone says green is the ugliest color. She succiently changes her opinion to agree.
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Appeal to false authority/Doubtful Authority
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arguing with references to so-called experts or famous people that have no true citation on the issue
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"According to Ted Koppel, interest rates will remain low during the next fiscal year," he is not an expert in business even though he is a respected journalist.
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Appeal to ignorance
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Fallacy that a statement is true because it hasn't been proved false.
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UFOs exist. It hasn't been proven otherwise.
UFOs don't exist. It hasn't been proven otherwise. |
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Ad hominem
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This fallacy tries to divert the attention from the facts of an arguement by attacking the motives or character of the person making the opposing argument.
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"The public should not take Dr. Mason's plan for improving county health services seriously. He is a former alcholic whose wife recently divorced him."
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Non sequitur
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Literally, "does not follow." A conclusion or statement that does not arise logically from the premises of a given argument.
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"Disarment weakened the US after WWI. Disarment also weakened the US after the Vietnam War. For this reason, efforts to control guns will weaken the US."
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Tu quoque
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This fallacy asserts that an opponent's argument has no value because the opponent does not follow his or her own advice.
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A judge favors stronger penalties for convicted drug dealers. During his confirmation hearings, he admitted to smoking marijuana when he was a student.
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Post hoc/Ergo propter hoc
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"After This, Therefore Because of This." This fallacy assumes that because of two events occurring close together in time, the first must be the cause of the second.
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"Every time a Republican is elected president, a recession follows. If we want to avoid another recession, we should elect a Democrat as our next president."
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Straw man (person) reasoning
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attempting to strengthen your own view by distorting the opposing view or making it seem overly simplistic. The opposing view thus becomes a "straw man" that you can knock down easily. This techinique usually hurts your credibility.
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"Why, apart from moral considerations, do you think teenagers should be taught to abstain from sex until marriage?
…[N]ot one of 800 sexologists at a recent conference raised a hand when asked if they would trust a thin rubber sheath to protect them during intercourse with a known HIV infected person. … And yet they're perfectly willing to tell our kids that "safe sex" is within reach and that they can sleep around with impunity." |
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Red herring
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Avoiding the "real" argument by introducing something irrelavant or tangentially related, thereby changing or shifting the topic of discussion.
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"The mayor has proposed building a new baseball-only sports stadium. How can he even consider allocating millions of dollars when so many pro baseball players are being paid such high salaries?"
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Dogmatism
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Representing one written piece as only possible approach to truth.
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Everything you need to know is in the Bible.
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Slippery Slope
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Fallacy that one thing WILL lead to another.
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"(1) If you buy a Green Day album, then next you’ll be buying Buzzcocks albums, and before you know it you’ll be a punk with green hair and everything.
(2) You don’t want to become a punk. Therefore: (3) You shouldn’t buy a Green Day album" |
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Begging the question/circular reasoning
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Cicular reasoning--that is, drawing conclusions from assumptions that have not been proven.
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"The unfair and shortsighted legislation that limits free trade is a threat to the American economy."
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Hasty or sweeping generalizations
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This fallacy occurs when a conclusion is reached on the basis of too little evidence.
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"Because our son really benefited from nursery school, I am convinced that every child should go."
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Misleading statistics
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Statistics that have been misrepresented or distorted in an attempt to influence an audience.
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"Women will never be competent firefighters; after all, 50% of the women in the city's training program failed the exam." ... Only two women were in the program.
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False dichotomy/dilemma (either/or)
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Contrasting your own choice only with one that is wholly undesirable, while overlooking other options.
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"We must choose between life and death, between intervention and genocide. No one can take a neutral position on this issue."
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Scare tactics
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To reduce complicated issues to simple threats or to exaggerate a possible danger well beyond its actual likelihood
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Because there is a chance of a hijacking or mechanical problem on the plane, flying should be avoided all together.
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Equivocation
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Using a word with two or more definitions, usually in order to confuse or deceive.
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"As a human endeavor, computers are a prasieworthy and even remarkable accomplishment. But how human can we hope to be if we rely on computers to make our decisions?" --human refers to the race originally then to the characteristics of the race (merciful or civilized).
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Faulty analogy/argument for analogy
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Assuming that since two things are alike in one respect, they must be alike in others. Often, an analogy is false because important pieces of information are missing or overlooked.
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"The overcrowded conditions in some parts of out city have forced people together like rats in a cage. Like rats, they will eventually turn on one another, fighting and killing until a balance is restored."
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