Fallacies

    Cards (20)

    • *Jumping to conclusions (e.g. saying that just because a car is the most expensive, then it must be the best)
    • Hypostatinization (when we regard an abstract word as if it were a concrete one)
    • Intentional fallacy (assuming a speech/word mean exactly what the speaker/author intended them to mean)
    • Fallacy of division ( if it is true of the whole, it must be true of the part )
    • Style over substance (when someone bases their argument on compelling language, obfuscation, and various terms of art, instead of legitimate logical analyses)
    • Tu quoque (you too) (attacks the opponent's own personal behaviour and actions as being inconsistent with their argument, so that the opponent appears hypocritical)
    • Wishful thinking (when you assume that the way you want things to be, is the way they are)
    • Ad Hominem (attacking the character of the person making the argument, NOT the argument )
    • Straw Man (deliberately miss represent someone's argument- changing what they said unfairly)
    • Far- Fetched (lies/ excuses that are extremely unlikely or impossible)
    • Gambler’s fallacy (just because you have won/ predicted correctly any number of times, then you always will in the future)
    • False Dilemma (other options that you ignore- e.g. people are male or female, ignoring non-binary/ gender neutral/ etc)
    • Etymological (meaning of the word has changed- assuming the word means what it once meant)
    • Red-Herring (using something irrelevant to divert from an argument)
    • *Naturalistic Fallacy 1901 (just because something is natural, that is how it ought to be- e.g. women are naturally capable of bearing and nursing children therefore women must be the primary care giver. Flip side: is something is unnatural it ought not to be- e.g. people used this to oppose gay relationships)
    • *Fallacy of Equivocation (different meanings of words cause confusion and incorrect arguments – a feather is light, what is light is not dark therefore a feather is not dark)
    • Genetic Fallacy (assuming an argument is right/ wrong because of its source)
    • Fallacious Appeals to Authority (believing that just because someone is an expert in one field , then they are able to give an expert opinion in another)
    • *Fallacy of Composition (just because a part of something is ‘x’, does not mean the whole thing is ‘x’)
    • a philosophical fallacy is any kind of recognisable error or mistake in an argument