Informal Fallacies

Fallacies of Insufficient Evidence premises fail to provide adequate evidence

for the conclusion.

1. Fallacy of Hasty Generalization the quantity of the evidence is not

commensurate with the scope and the importance of the conclusion being
drawn.
2. Fallacy of Assumption Without Proof assuming the conclusion is true even
without proofs on some premise or premises in an argument.
3. Fallacy of False or Misleading Premise argues on the basis of premises
known to be false or half-truths.

Fallacies of Relevance evidence is of the wrong kind in order to establish a

conclusion.

1. Argumentum ad Vericundiam (Appeal to Inappropriate Authority/Appeal to

General Eminence/Appeal to a Famous Person)
2. Argumentum ad Baculum (Appeal to Force)
3. Argumentum ad Mesericordiam (Appeal to Pity)
4. Argumentum ad Populum (Appeal to Popular Sentiment)
5. Argumentum ad Hominem (Argument Against the Person)
a. Abusive (Appeal to Personality/Poisoning the Well) attack on the
persons personality.
b. Circumstantial Argument Against the Person the circumstance of the
persons life are such that he/she could be expected to hold exactly
those views.
c. Tu Quoque or You-Too Argument attempt to defend ones self by
making a counter-charge against the accuser.
6. Genetic Fallacy similar to Argumentum ad Hominem but here the source is
not identifiable with the person.
7. Argumentum ad Ignorantiam a statement is true because it cannot be
proven false and vice-versa.
8. Petitio Principii (Begging the Question) when a given statement is offered as
evidence that the very statement is true.
9. Complex Question asking a question in such a way that if one answers the
question as stated, one is at least assenting to (or dissenting from) at least
one statement assumed by the question.
10.False Cause when A is identified to cause B with insufficient grounds to
justify the causal relationship.
a. Post Hoc Fallacy from post hoc ego propter hoc (after this, therefore,
before this); consists in arguing that A is the cause of B solely because
A occurred before B
b. Simple Correlation mistaken for causal relationship (e.g. divorce
among counselling psychologists)
 11.Ignoratio Elenchi (Fallacy of Irrelevant Conclusions/Red Herring Fallacy) an
argument presented supports a conclusion different from the conclusion
actually stated.
12.Straw-Man Fallacy a) one misrepresents the position that one wishes to
oppose ad b) one attacks the misrepresented position as if it were the real
position one wishes to oppose
13.Accident one applies a general rule to exceptional cases.
14.Converse Accident applying the rule which is true for exceptional cases to
non-exceptional cases within a class.
15.Arithmetical Fallacy applying rules of arithmetic to practical situations
without qualifications.
16.Black or White Fallacy (Fallacy of False Dilemma) one assumes that there
are only two contrary alternatives available, ignoring the possibility of other
alternatives between contraries.

Fallacies of Ambiguity intended meaning is not clear.

1. Fallacy of Accent false conclusion due to misplaced accent

2. Fallacy of Amphiboly (Syntactic Ambiguity) meaning of word is
indeterminate because of the loose or awkward way by which its words are
combined.
3. Fallacy of Composition treating distributed characteristics as if it were
collective.
4. Fallacy of Division treating a collective attribute distributively.
5. Fallacy of Equivocation given word or phrase may have more than one
meaning.