I.

Fallacy is the application of erroneous argumentation or misleading in the

construction of an argument. A fallacious argument may be plausible by seeming to be
more satisfying than it is. The other fallacies are employed purposely
to manipulate or induce by deception while others are performed inadvertently due to
negligence or ignorance.
II.
Logical fallacy is an omission in rationalizing that provides reasoning invalid. It is
further described as a fallacy, an informal logical fallacy, and an informal fallacy. All
logical fallacies are aberration arguments in which a conclusion doesn't comprehend
logically from what preceded it.
III.
The difference between a Formal and an Informal Fallacy is that a formal fallacy
is based exclusively on the logical form, and an informal fallacy requires a description of
the non-logical content of the argument. This parallels the distinction
between deductive and non-deductive modes of reasoning. Typically, formal fallacies
are committed by deductive arguments, whereas informal fallacies occur in arguments
that could be at best inductively firm.
A formal fallacy can be stated correctly in a standard system of logic, such
as propositional logic, while an informal fallacy introduces in an error in argumentation
other than an improper logical form. Arguments containing informal fallacies may be
formally accurate, but still deceptive.
IV.
The importance of scrutinizing fallacies is an essential component of logic and
one that can directly enhance your living. It will aid you to develop the vocabulary and
skills required to better assess the arguments of politicians, neighbors, advertisers,
authorities.
No reader is performing to be influenced by an illogical or confusing argument.
So, when you're writing, you want to evade logical fallacies. A logical fallacy is basically
a flawed argument or error in reasoning. Logical fallacies are predicaments in the way
that a writer has constructed an argument.

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 V.
The following Fallacies with definitions and examples:
A. The Ad Hominem means attacking the person, making the argument, rather
the argument itself. As the name recommends, it is a literary word that suggests
commenting on or against an adversary, to weaken him instead of his contentions.
e.g.
“How can you argue your case for vegetarianism when you are enjoying that steak?”
“He’s not a great athlete; he’s a fraud, a cheat and a liar. That’s why not everybody is
‘happy for Lance.”
B. The Appeal to ignorance is a fallacy based on the assumption that description
must be true ifit cannot be proven false — or false if it cannot be proven true. Also
known as argumentum ad ignorantiam and the argument from ignorance. It asserts that
a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false or a proposition is false
because it has not yet been proven true.
e.g.
•
"When ice cream sales increase, so do murders, therefore more ice cream
causes more murders". (These events correlate due to the common element of
high temperatures. High temperatures, not ice cream sales, leads to more
murders).

• "A recent study said there is no strong evidence that shows flossing reduces
cavities or gum disease." The NIH dental health expert indicated that large-scale,
long-term clinical trials are expensive and challenging to perform, and that
patients would still likely benefit from flossing.

• “A patient uses an antibiotic for only one day and stops because they feel it isn't
working. (Had they used it for 7 days the drug would have worked).”

• "I take the view that this lack (of enemy subversive activity in the west coast) is
the most ominous sign in our whole situation. It convinces me more than perhaps
any other factor that the sabotage we are to get, the Fifth Column activities are to
get, are timed just like Pearl Harbor ... I believe we are just being lulled into a
false sense of security." – Earl Warren, then California's Attorney General (before
a congressional hearing in San Francisco on 21 February 1942).”

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 C. The False Dilemma is a variety of logical fallacy, which is a theory or claim
based on mistaken reasoning. False Dilemma is a fallacy based on an "either-or" type of
argument. Two choices are presented, when more might exist, and the claim is made
that one is false and one is true-or one is acceptable and the other is not. Often, there
are other alternatives, or both choices might be false or true.
e.g.

• Politician: We have to decide if we are going to support school choice or if we are

going to support failing schools. Those are the only two options.
D. The Hasty generalization is a fallacy in which a conclusion that is reached is
not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. It's also called an insufficient
sample, a converse accident, a faulty generalization, a biased generalization, jumping to
a conclusion, secundum quid, and a neglect of qualifications.

e.g.

• Mrs. Miller taught your older brother, who was the class clown. She decides to be
strict with you from the very first day of class because she thinks you will be a
clown, too.
E. The Red Herring is a sort of fallacy that is an inconsequential topic presented in
an argument to avert the attention of listeners or readers from the original issue. In
literature, this fallacy is often used in detective or suspense novels to mislead readers or
characters, or to induce them to make false conclusions. This fallacy consists in diverting
attention from the real issue by focusing instead on an issue having only a surface
relevance to the first.
e.g.

• Senator Clark: "Why are you not willing to support the antiabortion amendment?
Don't you have any feelings at all for the unborn children whose lives are being
indiscriminately blotted out?" Senator Rich: "I just don't understand why you
people who get so worked up about lives being blotted out by abortion don't
have the same feelings about the thousands of lives that are blotted out every
year by the indiscriminate use of handguns. Is not the issue of the sanctity of
human life involved in both issues? Why have you not supported us in our efforts
at gun-control legislation?"

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 F. The Appeal to authority is a common type of fallacy or an argument based
on unsound logic. When writers or speakers use appeal to authority, they are claiming
that something must be true because it is believed by someone who said to be an
"authority" on the subject. Whether the person is actually an authority or not, the logic is
unsound. Instead of presenting actual evidence, the argument just relies on the
credibility of the "authority."
e.g.

• A book argues that global warming is not actually happening, and cites the
research of one environmental scientist who has been studying climate change
for several years.
G. The fallacy of equivocation occurs when a key term or phrase in an argument is
used in an ambiguous way, with one meaning in one portion of the argument and then
another meaning in another portion of the argument. It is Using an ambiguous term in
more than one sense, thus making an argument misleading.
e.g.

• The laws imply lawgivers. There are laws in nature. Therefore there must be a
cosmic lawgiver.

H. The Appeal to pity is directed to sway an audience member’s emotions and

uses the manipulation of the recipient’s emotions rather than valid logic to win an
argument. An emotional appeal uses emotions as the basis of an argument’s position
without factual evidence that logically supports the major ideas endorsed by the
presenter. In an emotional appeal, persuasive language is used to develop the
foundation of an appeal to emotion-based arguments instead of facts. Therefore, the
validity of the premises that establish such an argument does not prove to be verifiable.
e.g.

• "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, look at this miserable man, in a wheelchair,
unable to use his legs. Could such a man really be guilty of embezzlement?"
G. The Bandwagon is a fallacy based on the assumption that the opinion of the
majority is always valid: that is, everyone believes it, so you should too. It is also
sometimes called the appeal to common belief or appeal to the masses because it’s all
about getting people to do or think something because “everyone else is doing it” or
“everything else thinks this.”

• "The Steak Escape. Americas Favorite Cheesesteak"

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 H. The Straw Man Fallacy involves misrepresenting an opponent’s position to make
it easier to refute. Straw man arguments often oversimplify opposing views or disregard
inconvenient points in favor of points that are easy to argue against.
e.g.

• Straw man arguments often arise in public debates such as a (hypothetical) prohibition
debate:

A: We should relax the laws on beer.

B: No, any society with unrestricted access to intoxicants loses its work ethic
and goes only for immediate gratification.

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