Guide to Logical Argumentation Fallacies

 Guide to Logical Argumentation Fallacies:

(from Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World")

1. Ad hominem - Attacking the individual instead of the argument.

2. Appeal to force (Ad baculum)  - The hearer is told that something bad will happen to him if he does not accept the argument.

3. Appeal to pity - The hearer is urged to accept the argument based upon anappeal to emotions, sympathy, etc.

4. Appeal to the popular - the hearer is urged to accept a position because a majority of people hold to it.

5. Appeal to tradition - trying to get someone to accept something because it has been done or believed

6. Begging the Question - Assuming the thing to be true that you are trying to prove. It is circular.

7. Circular Argument - see Begging the Question Division - assuming that what is true of the whole is true for the parts.

8. Equivocation - The same term is used in an argument in different places but the word has different meanings.

9. False Dilemma - Two choices are given when in actuality there could be more choices possible.

10. Guilt by Association - Rejecting an argument or claim because the person proposing it likes someone is disliked by another.

11. Non Sequitur - Comments or information that do not logically follow from a premise or the conclusion.

12. Poisoning the well - Presenting negative information about a person before he/she speaks so as to discredit the person's argument.

13. Red Herring - The introduction of a topic not related to the subject at hand.

14. Special Pleading (double standard) - Applying a different standard to another that is applied to oneself.

15. Straw Man Argument - Producing an argument to attack that is a weaker representation of the truth.

16. Category Mistake - Attributing a property to something that could not possibly have that property.

Video: http://youtu.be/y2_D9ks5h18