PHRASAL VERBS EXERCISES

10 Logical Fallacies You Should Know and

How to Spot Them
A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning or a false assumption that might sound
impressive but proves absolutely nothing. Sometimes they are completely unintentional,
but more often than not they are used by people during debates, arguments or
presentations to mislead you into thinking, acting or behaving in a certain way.

As you might expect salespeople, politicians and con artists use them all the time often very
skilfully, and the public innocently continues to fall for them.

So, knowing how to spot a logical fallacy and call it out or refute it can be an incredibly useful life
tool to have at your disposal.

Unsurprisingly there are a lot of logical fallacies, hundreds, in fact, so to learn them all is a big
task. But to help you on your way here is a list of the 10 most common ones for you to get your
head around and start your learning journey.

1. The Argument Against the Man (Argumentum ad

Hominem)
Let’s start with probably one of the most common offenders. Also called ‘poisoning the well’ or
the ‘personal attack’ you will have I am certain seen the ad hominem fallacy used all the time.
How it works is that rather than refuting an opponent’s argument the person attacks the
individual instead. This can be directed towards their character, morals, intelligence, reputation
or credentials. In fact, it really doesn’t matter, the main thing to remember is that they are not
addressing the actual argument being presented but relying purely on feelings and prejudices to
win their case.
Here are some typical examples: “He is so evil you cannot trust a word he says about ______ ”
or ”Of course you would say that because you support _____” (incidentally going forward please
fill in all gaps in any way you like!).
P.S. There is also a variation to the Ad Hominem called ‘Guilt by Association’ that you also need
to watch out for and the clue to how it works is in its title!
2. The Appeal to Authority (Argumentum ad
Verecundiam)

This is another much loved and of course widely used and abused
fallacy.
It works by stating that whatever is claimed is true because a ‘so-called’ authority said so rather
than applying any logical reasoning or providing any evidence to support the claim.
For example: “Raising interest rates by 3% MUST be in the best interests of the economy
because the PM said so yesterday on the 9 o'clock news”.

3. The Straw Man

With this fallacy, you argue against a phoney, weak or ridiculous

position that you have created, and then proceed to easily knock it down.
For example: “Tree-hugging environmentalists are so dumb they think plants have feelings and
are more important than humans”.
Basically every time you see one of those ever so funny comedy skits on Gootube ridiculing
someone because they are (please take your pick here) vegan, meat eaters, millennials, GenX,
silver surfers, gun owners, pacifists, spiritual, non-spiritual, love tech, hate tech etc, now you
know how their little ruse works and what it’s called!

4. The Appeal to Ignorance

This fallacy works by using the premise that since we do not know (or cannot prove)
something that it must be either true or false. Which if you think about it is completely ridiculous
as not knowing something isn’t proof of anything, well, other than you don’t know something!
Here are some simple examples:
‘We have no hard evidence that fairies exist. Which must mean they are so incredibly magical
that they can make themselves completely invisible to humans’.
Or sometimes you might even see some ‘appeal to ignorance’ nonsense dressed up like this as
a serious product endorsement:
‘This supplement is totally amazing because no one who has taken it so far has become sick!’
P.S. Disclaimer; I have no idea if fairies exist or not – but think it would be kinda cool if they did!

5. The False Dilemma

This is also sometimes known as the False Dichotomy, the Black

and White Fallacy, or even the Bifurcation Fallacy. This is how it works:
Essentially you reduce an argument down to only two options despite the fact that there may be
many more (and far better possibilities) to choose from e.g:
‘You’re either with us or against us’ (note #1: This sucker even helped start a horrific war!)
or
‘You either love me or you hate me’ (note #2: Hang on a minute, what about words such as;
‘like’, ‘fancy’, ‘adore’ or ‘respect’ – or the many other hundreds of attitudes, opinions and
emotions you can have about another person???).

6. The Slippery Slope aka The Domino Theory

This fallacy works by taking an argument from a sensible moderate

place and moving it to an extreme place via a one thing leads to another kind of route
regardless of any logic or rational evidence to support the claim.
Of course, like most fallacies, you will see it played out everywhere, but it is an extremely
common occurrence in houses with stroppy teenagers who have sensible, concerned parents.
Typically the arguments go something like; “You simply must let me go to the psychedelic Goa
trance music festival this weekend, if I don’t go my friends will think I am totally square and a
complete loser, they will then dump me and I will end up with no life whatsoever, and be forced
to spend the rest of my life living as a sad recluse with no job, no money, no love life, no social
life, and absolutely no future…”.
7. The Circular Argument (Petitio Principii or Begging the
Question)

As well as the Circular Argument, Petitio Principii and Begging the

Question it also has a fourth name which is; The Vicious Circle. It is called this for a very good
reason because it works by repeating what has just been said which, hey presto, creates a
completely closed loop aka a circle!
Here are some basic examples:
‘Everyone wants to go see the new Star Wars movie because it is the hottest film going at the
moment’
or
‘Psychic powers exist because I have witnessed what can only be described as extraordinary
psychic powers’
(Note #3: This fallacy gained fame when it featured in the plot of a really good book called Catch
22. In it the protagonist claims he is mad in order to avoid flying dangerous bombing missions.
However, he finds his claim rejected on the grounds that by claiming he is insane it actually
proves he must be sane – as only a sane man would try and claim he was mad to avoid flying
the deadly missions!).

8. The Alphabet Soup

This is the over use of acronyms, abbreviations and occulted

language to bamboozle people into thinking that they know what they are talking about and
therefore must be right (and you are wrong and ignorant to boot). Sad to say the well-being
industry is rife with this sort of hogwash often used to impress and confuse poor saps into taking
a dubious course of treatment often at great expense to their body and wallet – allegedly
Example (please note it is a very much made up one):
“It is very often the case that someone suffering from DSW2 deficiency in their lymphatic C5X
chromosome system will also show a 6% increase in IOK17 regression marked with a surge in
B523C plasma filament growth. The obvious solution is a course of XbandPharma FSX17 meds
twice daily and 6 XbandPharma HFD tablets every three days in the morning with a glass of
water.”

9. The Bandwagon

The bandwagon fallacy works on the basis that something is

correct, good, true, right or whatever the heck you want it to be just because most people think it
is as well. Named after the horse-drawn cart that politicians used to travel around on shouting
their dubious election promises and drawing attention to themselves so that people would give
them their support and vote for them. If you were dumb enough to be one of them, you could
literally jump on the bandwagon and enjoy being taken for a ride!
Anyway, no surprises here but it is a completely fallacious argument. Just because lots of
people might all agree with each other about something or another it doesn’t mean for one
second they are all correct.
For example; ‘One billion people drink diet _____ every year so it must be the best soft drink in
the world’.

10. The Red Herring (Ignoratio Elenchi)

You may well have heard of this one. It’s pretty famous after all!
But you may not recognise it in real life as we mostly hear it mentioned in whodunnit TV crime
shows.
So how does it work? Well, the red herring is a clever irrelevant argument that distracts you from
the real topic being scrutinized.
Apparently named after the smelly fish used when training hunting dogs, it is most frequently
employed by crafty individuals who want to lead the conversation (read; argument) away from
an area that they are vulnerable into one that they feel is a safer territory.
As you might well imagine ‘guilty’ politicians absolutely love the red herring and will use it in
almost every answer that they can possibly get away with e.g. ‘Why are we raising taxes?
Well…hmm… we need to increase taxes to generate more revenue to support the existing
commitments to primary school education. After all, children represent the future of the country,
don’t they? So we absolutely must always support them 100%. Don’t you agree?’.
11. Political Correctness (special bonus fallacy)

Lastly, and as bit of a special added bonus the ‘PC argument’ (aka
Language Control).
We are all for equality and fairness, but please bear with us on this one. This post-modern day
piece of fallacious sophistry used to have another name. Ironically it was once simply known as
the Name Calling Fallacy.
How it works is you change the nature of something by giving it another name. You must have
seen the sort of thing on the news or in the papers all the time.
People are no longer ‘poor’ but ‘economically disadvantaged’, they are not ‘broke’ but ‘have a
temporary negative cash flow situation’, and of course they no longer live in ‘slums’ but in
‘economically depressed urban environments’.
Naturally, the world of commerce and industry are masters of it just as much as governments
are.
Have you noticed how ‘bad debt’ is now ‘an underperforming asset’ and that organisations love
giving employees ‘up titles’ instead of ‘pay rises’?
There is also another way that PC logic (often the total opposite of factual correctness – think
George Orwell’s ‘Newspeak’) can be applied. Rather than simply re-naming things, specific
words themselves can be weaponized (or at least given greater power) by turning them into
‘control words’ . When rolled out properly, these can be used to great effect, especially
alongside other name calling strategies.
Control words are typically used to shut down debates, inhibit critical thinking, confuse us and
corral the target – or audience – down carefully constructed mental pathways (and hence safely
away from any specific issue the person applying them wants to avoid). They can however be
over used or too broadly applied. When this happens they can very quickly begin to lose their
power.
ESL TEFL Conversation Topics and Questions - Movies, Films CELTA

What is your all-time favorite movie?

Are there any kinds of movies you dislike?If so, what kinds?Why do you dislike them?
Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction books? How about movies?
Do you usually watch movies at home or at a movie theater?
Have you ever seen the same movie more than once?If yes, name it (or them).
If a book has been made into a movie, which do you prefer to do first, see the movie or
read the book? Why?
What do you think of people who talk during movies at a movie theater?
What was the last movie you saw?Was it good?Who did you see it with?
Who is your favorite actor or actress?
What do you think of reality shows?
Do you think that films can be educational?
Do you think movies have been developing technology or technology has been
developing movies?
What do you prefer animated movies or real movies?
What is your favorite movie soundtrack?
Do you think historical movies are educational?
Do you like documentaries?
Have you ever seen a movie in another country? Describe the experience.
What movie ratings are enforced in your country?
What does it mean if a movie "bombs"?
Do you think there should be more movies made in your country?
What is something that you have never seen happen in a movie?
What things happen too often in movies?

Do you think that many comedies are actually "funny"? What was the last film you saw
that made you laugh?
Do you think that different cultures have a different sense of humour?

Dubbing and subtitles

Do subtitled films help you to learn a new language?

If you want to learn a foreign language which would be better - an English film subtitled
in your language, or an English film subtitled in English? Why?
Do you think that subtitles are irritating to the eye. Do they prevent you from following
the action of the film?
Do you think that you lose something from the film if you can’t hear the actor’s real
voice? What do you lose?
Do you agree that it is more realistic to dub films than subtitle them?
Do you think that films should never be dubbed?
Do you think that reading is slower than listening?
What would happen if all foreign films were subtitled and not dubbed? Would people
continue going to the cinema? Would they learn other languages more easily?
What would happen if all foreign films were dubbed and not subtitled? Would people
continue going to the cinema?
What impact do you think the dubbing industry has on the local film industry?Should the
local film industry be subsidised?
Should there be some legal obligation which would force cinemas or TV channels to
show local films?