Dr.

Jay Communication College of Arts, Humanities

VerLinden Department and Social Sciences

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INFORMAL FALLACY DEFINITIONS GROUP 3

ADVOCATE'S RESPONSIBILITIES BASED FALLACIES

Quick Review

This page reviews the definitions of five fallacies. A common English name for
each fallacy is used, with alternative names in parentheses. This page does not
describe the fallacies in detail, so you should be sure to read some material on
these fallacies before you take the tests.

These fallacies have been grouped together because they can all be considered
to be based on the responsibilities advocates have when they make arguments.
Keep in mind that they could also be grouped in other ways, as could the
fallacies in other sections of this site.

APPEAL TO IGNORANCE ( ad ignorantium , burden of proof, shifting

burden of proof, evading burden of proof): arguing that a claim must be true
because there is no evidence that it is false.

A PRIORI : reasoning that determines the conclusion one wants first, then
accepts only evidence supporting that conclusion, or interprets all evidence as
support for that conclusion.

COMPLEX PROPOSITION (compound proposition): including more than one

claim in the proposition and treating proof for one claim as proof for all the
claims.

COMPLEX QUESTION (many questions, fallacy of interrogation, compound

question, plurium interrogationum ): asking a question that includes either
an unproven assumption or more than one question, thus making a
straightforward yes or no answer meaningless.

EXTENSION : a particular type of false criteria fallacy that argues something is

inferior just because it doesn't do something it was never intended to do.

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