POLEMIC TRICKS

AND RHETORICAL
PLOYS
INFORMAL FALLACIES
DR. HUSEIN INUSAH
 Informal Fallacies
 An argument is said to be an informal fallacy
if it premises fail to support the conclusion
not because it fails to be consistent with a
logical form.
 Informal fallacies have been grouped
roughly, here, in three categories:
 Fallacy of manipulating language
 Fallacy of changing the subject
 Fallacy of manipulating data
 EQUIVOCATION
 Fallacy of equivocation: using an ambiguous term
in more than one sense in an argument, thus
making an argument misleading.
 Example:

The priest told me I should have faith.

I have faith that my son will do well in school
this year.
Therefore, the priest should be happy with me.
 The use of faith used by the priest denotes
“religious faith” and the faith used by the
character in the argument refers to “hope” or
“confidence” in something.
EQUIVOCATION
 Begging the Question
 Begging the question is a fallacy in which the
premises include the claim that the
conclusion is true.
 Examples:
 Kofi: “God must exist." 
Ama: "how do you know?." 
Kofi: "because the bible says so." 
Ama: "why should I believe the Bible?" 
Kofi: "because the Bible was written by
God.
BEGGING THE QUESTION OR
CIRCULARITY
Fallacy of Pseudo Precision OR
MATHEMATICAL MYSTIFICATION
 Empirical statement which is made precise
beyond the practical limits of accuracy.

 Dinosaurs became extinct 1.034 millions

years ago.

 What exactly is the number of countries in

the world that allow gay rights?
 We can’t, by any means, determine the
precise years since dinosaurs went extinct.
 THE FALLACY OF GRANDSTANDING OR APPEAL TO THE
MASSES

 This is a logical fallacy supposing that

something is true because a lot of people
believe it to be true. It relies on the power
of popular opinion to sway an argument one
way or the other.
 Example: my political party is the best in
Ghana because recent polls show that most
Ghanaians love my party
BANDWAGON ARGUMENT
 Ad Hominem
 An ad hominem is a general category of fallacies in
which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of
some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person
presenting the claim or argument

 Example of ad hominem
 Kofi: “I believe that abortion is morally wrong." 
Ama: “Of course you would say that, you're a priest." 
Kofi: “What about the arguments I gave to support my
position?" 
Ama: “Those don't count. Like I said, you're a priest,
so you have to say that abortion is wrong. Further,
you are just a lackey to the pope, so I can't believe
what you say
TWO FORMS OF AD HOMINEM
 Eulogistic ad hominem: If pleasant facts are
cited about the individual associated with
the conclusion.

 Dyslogistic ad hominem: If the facts cited

about the person associated with conclusion
are negative.
AD HOMINEM
 Genetic Fallacy
 A genetic fallacy is a line of "reasoning" in which
a perceived defect in the origin of a claim or
thing is taken to be evidence that discredits the
claim or thing itself. It is also a line of reasoning
in which the origin of a claim or thing is taken
to be evidence for the claim or thing. 
 Example of genetic fallacy
 The current Vice chancellor of Wawase
University at age 3 was trained by a notorious
armed robber. With that sort of background,
his so-called 'reform' plan must be a grand
robbery of the University’s resources."
GENETIC FALLACY
 ILLEGITIMATE APPEAL TO
AUTHORITY
 Citing an authority as evidence in your
argument when the authority is not really an
authority on the facts relevant to the argument
 Example: My Agric teacher once told me that
girls will go crazy for a boy if he learns how
to dance.  Therefore, if you want to make
the ladies go crazy for you, learn to dance.

 Even if your Agric teacher were an expert on

relationships, her belief about what makes girls
“go crazy” for boys is perhaps circumstantial.
ILLEGITIMATE APPEAL TO
AUTHORITY
APPEAL TO FORCE OR THREAT
 When force, coercion, or even a threat of
force is used in place of a reason in an
attempt to justify a conclusion.
 Example: Kofi: Boss, why do I have to work
weekends when nobody else in the company
does?
 Boss: Am I sensing insubordination?  I can
find another employee very quickly, thanks
to Tonaton, you know.
APPEAL TO THREAT
 APPEAL TO EMOTIONS/PITY
 This is the general category of many fallacies
that use emotion in place of reason in order
to attempt to win an argument.  It is a type
of manipulation used in place of valid logic.
 Example: student: ‘Can you please round up
my grade?
 Teacher: ‘I'm sorry, but my policy is not to
round up.‘
 Student: ‘But I studied really hard for this
test and my parents will be mad if I don't get
a good grade.
APPEAL TO PITY
FALLACY OF MISPLACED
VIVIDNESS
 This fallacy is committed when a very small
number of dramatic even are taken to
outweigh a significant amount of statistical
evidence.
 Example:

The minister had a near fatal accident on

this part of the road yesterday, we should fix
the road to avoid further avoidable accident.
It is possible a lot of people have had accident
on the same spot but its significance
downplayed.
HASTY GENERALISATION
 This fallacy is committed if we draw
conclusion from insufficient evidence.

 Example
 I spoke to three taxi drivers on campus and
they were quite willing to help.
 Therefore, all taxi drivers on campus are
always ready to help students
HASTY GENERALISATION
End of Lecture