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Fallacies:: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
Fallacies:: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
To
Fallacies:
The Art of Mental Trickery
and Manipulation
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
Richard Paul
Center for Critical Thinking
2004 Foundation for Critical Thinking
Linda Elder
Foundation for Critical Thinking
www.criticalthinking.org
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
Contents
Truth and Deception in the Human Mind ..............................................3
Uncritical Persons (intellectually unskilled thinkers) ..........................34
Skilled Manipulators (weak-sense critical thinkers) ...........................45
Fair-Minded Critical Persons (strong-sense critical thinkers) .............56
The Concept of Fallacies of Thought...................................................67
Naming Fallacies ...................................................................................78
Mistakes Versus Fallacies ..........................................................................8
There is No Exhaustive List of Fallacies .............................................910
Faulty Generalizations ......................................................................1012
Analyzing Generalizations ...............................................................1315
Post Hoc Generalizations .......................................................................16
Analogies and Metaphors ...............................................................1618
44 Foul Ways to Win an Argument .................................................1938
Accuse Your Opponent of Doing What He is Accusing You of
or worse....................................................................................................................20
Accuse Him of Sliding Down A Slippery Slope
(that leads to disaster).............................................................................................20
Appeal to Authority...............................................................................................2021
Appeal to Experience...................................................................................................21
Appeal to Fear..............................................................................................................21
Appeal to Pity (or sympathy).................................................................................2122
Appeal to Popular Passions .........................................................................................22
Appeal to Tradition or Faith (the tried and true)............................................2223
Assume a Posture of Righteousness ...........................................................................23
Attack the person (and not the argument) ...............................................................23
Beg the Question .........................................................................................................24
Call For Perfection (Demand impossible conditions).................................................24
Create a False Dilemma (the Great Either/Or) ...........................................................25
Devise Analogies (and Metaphors) That Support
Your View (even if they are misleading or false) ..............................................25
Question Your Opponents Conclusions .....................................................................26
Create Misgivings: Where Theres Smoke, Theres Fire .......................................2627
Create A Straw Man...............................................................................................2728
Deny or Defend Your Inconsistencies .........................................................................28
Demonize His Side Sanitize Yours .........................................................................2829
First
2004
Edition
Foundationfor
2004
Critical
Foundation
Thinking
for Critical Thinking
www.criticalthinking.org
www.criticalthinking.org
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
www.criticalthinking.org
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
www.criticalthinking.org
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
www.criticalthinking.org
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
people by appeals to emotion, prejudice, etc. in order to win them over quickly and so gain
power. (Websters New World Dictionary).
2004 Foundation for Critical Thinking
www.criticalthinking.org
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
jump to conclusions
fail to think-through
implications
misuse words
conclusions
think narrowly
confuse questions of
different types
think imprecisely
think illogically
think one-sidedly
think simplistically
think hypocritically
think superficially
think ethnocentrically
think egocentrically
think irrationally
be incompetent at
problem solving
come to unreasonable
www.criticalthinking.org
20
The Thinkers Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation
Dirty Trick # 1
Dirty Trick # 2
Dirty Trick # 3
Appeal to Authority 7
Most people are in awe of those with power, celebrity, or status. In
addition, there are many sacred symbols (flags, religious images, sacred
words, etc.) to which people feel intense identification and loyalty. Though
power, celebrity, and status rarely correlate in any way with knowledge and
insight, people are mesmerized by them.
Demagogues that successfully manipulate people know that most people
are readily tricked in this way. So they wrap themselves in the flag and
associate themselves with power, celebrity, or status (in any way they can).
This includes looking for scientists and other knowledgeable persons to
support their views.
Cigarette companies once hired scientists who were (in effect) prepared to
say that there was no PROOF that cigarettes caused lung cancer though
they knew (or should have known) that the proof was there. Cigarette
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