Types of LOGICAL FALLACIES

• TYPES OG LOGICAL FALLACIES:

  1. Hasty Generalization
  2. Post Hoc
  3. Slippery Slope
  4. Appeal to Authority
  5. Ad Hominem
• A logical fallacy is a type of error, flaws or misconception in reasoning that occurs when an argument is based on invalid or faulty logic. In other words, it is an argument that may seem convincing on the surface, but upon closer inspection, it does not actually prove the point being argued.
• Logical fallacies can be problematic because they can lead people to accept arguments that are not valid and can prevent them from considering alternative perspectives or reaching a well-reasoned conclusion. It is important to be aware of logical fallacies and to try to avoid them in your own reasoning and arguments.
• • Hasty Generalization
  • it is sometimes called the over-generalization fallacy. It is basically making a claim based on evidence that it just too small or inadequate. Essentially, you can't make a claim and say that something is true if you have only an example or two as evidence.
• Example of Hasty Generalization

  Lee concludes that because this is the second time he got into a small fender bender with a woman, women don't know how to drive.

  Lee got the bumper of his car hit by another driver. It turns out that the other driver is a woman. Lee was in a previous car accident with another woman too.
• Example pf Hasty Generalization

  My friend has been eating only hamburgers, pizza, and fries for 10 years, and he has no health issues. Therefore, fast food is not unhealthy for you."EnterYou sentI saw a basketball player sneeze; thus, all basketball players have allergies.EnterYou sentMy child is being treated poorly be peers in his kindergarten class. Kids are so cruel!"
• Example of Hasty Generalization

  "Anytime I've gone to a Japanese restaurant, the food was terrible. Japanese food is not good."
• Example of Hasty Generalization

  "Growing up, none of my brothers or my dad would ever clean up around the house. Men are useless when it comes to doing chores."
• Example of Hasty Generalization

  "Did you hear about those teenagers that vandalized the store downtown? Teenagers are so irresponsible and thoughtless."
• • Post Hoc
  • -Stressing that two events or concepts are related in the sense that one causes another when they're not.
• Example of Post Hoc

  Yesterday I ate a golden salted dried fish, and today I have a stomachache. The golden salted dried fish must have caused this stomachache.
• Example of Post Hoc

  Our basketball team was losing until I bought new shoes. We have not lost a game since I got my lucky shoes.
• Example of Post Hoc

  A tennis player won two games in a row, and also happened to eat chicken the night before each game. From then on, he decides to always eat chicken before his games because it seems to cause him to win.
• Example of Post Hoc

  "The rooster crows always before the sun rises, therefore the crowing rooster causes the sun to rise."
• • Slippery Slope
  • an acceptance of a succession of events without direct evidence that this course of events will happen. In a slippery slope argument, a course of action is rejected because, with little or no evidence, one insists that it will lead to a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end or ends.
• Slippery slope argument from parents.

  •If you don't do your homework, you'll fail the class.

  •If you fail this class, you won't graduate from school.

  •If you don't graduate, you won't get into college.

  •If you don't attend a good college, you won't get a good job.

  •If you don't get a good job, you'll be poor and homeless.

  •You don't want to be poor and homeless, do you?
• Slippery Slope on tardiness:

  •If you do not have a strict policy about being on time for class, students will arrive late.

  •If students who arrive late to class are not punished, they'll keep coming to class late.

  •If they keep coming late, they'll start coming to class later and later until they skip class altogether.

  •If they skip one class, they'll skip another and another, until they've failed all their subjects.
• Same-Sex Marriage Equality Slippery Slope

  •People might say that if same-sex marriage is legal, then it won't be long before people demand to marry minors.

  •If it becomes legal to marry children, this can open up the floodgates for other arrangements, like marrying animals or inanimate objects.

  •Marriage will no longer have the meaning and significance it has had for centuries.
• Example of Slippery Slope

  "If we legalize marijuana now, next they will legalize all the other drugs, and then crime will explode."
• • Appeal to authority
  • Insisting that a claim is true simply because a known personality or supposed authority back up a claim and said it was true, without any other supporting evidence offered, sometimes they aren't actually experts particularly in line with the issue at hand.
• • Example of Appeal to Authority
  • Peace is the best strategy because Einstein said so.Note: this is fallacious because Einstein was an expert in physics, not political science.
• Appeal to Authority


  • You should take those vitamins because Brad Pitt said they are the best
  • A commercial claims that a specific brand of cereal is the best way to start the day because athlete Michael Jordan says that it is what he eats every day for breakfast
• Example of appeal to authority

  Telling the police officer, who pulled you over for speeding, that it's okay because your boss gave you permission to speed if you're running late for work (Not an authority in the field)
• Example of Appeal to Authority

  Listening to your husband's advice on what to do when you're in labor (Not an authority at all)
• Example of Appeal to Authority

  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
• • Ad Hominem
  • An ad hominem fallacy is one that attempts to invalidate an opponent's position based on a personal trait or fact about the opponent rather than through logic.
• Example of Ad Hominem

  A professor is presenting their latest research on quantum mechanics to a group of colleagues. At the end of the presentation, a person whispers to the other: "I don't believe a word. I think it's all made-up. Do you realize that this person has been cheating and lying to their partner for years?"
• In a debate, an ad hominem argument might look like:

  •"You have no idea what you're talking about; you've only lived here for six months."

  •"It's hard to take your claims seriously because you spend your days playing video games."
• in writing, an ad hominem argument might look like:

  •"Marx's ideas are irrelevant today because the technologies we use and rely on would have been unimaginable to him."