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ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

A

Abstraction

Accent

Accident

Affirmation of the Consequent

Affirmative Conclusion from a Negative Premiss

Affirming a Disjunct/ Affirming One Disjunct

Affirming the Consequent

Alternative Syllogism, Fallacy of the

Ambiguity

Ambiguous Middle

Amphiboly/ Amphibology

Argument by Consensus


Appeal to/
Argument from...

Authority

Celebrity

Consequences

Envy

Fear

Force

Hatred

Ignorance

Pity

Popularity

Pride


Argumentum ad...

Baculum

Consequentiam

Hominem

Ignorantiam

Invidiam

Logicam

Metum

Misericordiam

Nazium

Odium

Populum

Superbium

Verecundiam


Asserting an Alternative

Asserting the Consequent

Authority of the Many

B

Bad Company Fallacy

Bad Reasons Fallacy

Bandwagon Fallacy

Beard, Argument of the/Fallacy of the

Begging the Question

Biased Sample

Bifurcation

Black-and-White Fallacy

Black-or-White Fallacy

C

Card Stacking

Circular Argument

Circulus in Probando

Commutation of Conditionals

The Company that You Keep Fallacy

Complex Question

Composition

Consequent, Fallacy of the

Converse Accident

Converting a Conditional

Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

D

Denial of the Antecedent

Denying a Conjunct

Denying the Antecedent

Dicto Simpliciter

Disjunctive Syllogism, Fallacy of the

Division

Doublespeak

E

Either/Or Fallacy

Emotional Appeal

Equivocation

Exclusive Premisses

Existential Fallacy/Existential Assumption, Fallacy of

F

Fake Precision

Fallacist's/Fallacy Fallacy


False...

Analogy

Cause

Conversion

Dilemma

Precision


Faulty Analogy

Formal Fallacy

Four-Term Fallacy

G

Gambler's Fallacy

Genetic Fallacy

Guilt by Association

H

Hasty Generalization

Hitler Card

I

Ignoratio Elenchi

Ignoring the Counterevidence


Illicit...

Conversion

Major

Minor

Negative/ Affirmative

Process

Process of the Major

Process of the Minor

Quantifier Shift

Substitution of Identicals


Improper...

Disjunctive Syllogism

Transposition


Informal Fallacy

Ipse Dixit

Irrelevant Thesis

JK
L

Loaded…

Language/Words

Question


Logical Fallacy

M

Many Questions

Masked Man Fallacy

Misplaced Precision

Modal Fallacy

Modal Scope Fallacy

Monte Carlo Fallacy

N

Negating Antecedent and Consequent

Negative Conclusion from Affirmative Premisses

Non Causa Pro Causa

O

One-Sided Assessment

One-Sidedness

P

Personal Attack

Petitio Principii

Plurium Interrogationum

Poisoning the Well

Post Hoc

Propositional Fallacy

Q

Quantificational Fallacy

Quantifier Shift

Quaternio Terminorum


Question-Begging…

Analogy

Epithets


Questionable Analogy

Quoting Out of Context

R

Redefinition

Red Herring

Regression/Regressive Fallacy

S

Scope Fallacy

Slanting

Slippery Slope

Some Are/Some Are Not

Special Pleading

Spurious Accuracy

Straw Man

Suppressed Evidence

Sweeping Generalization

Syllogistic Fallacy

T

Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

Transposition, Improper

Tu Quoque

Two Negative Premisses

Two Wrongs Make a Right

U

Undistributed Middle

Unrepresentative Sample

Unwarranted Contrast

V

Vagueness

Vicious Circle

Volvo Fallacy

W

Weak Analogy

Wishful Thinking

XYZ

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Classic Literature I Classic Literature II

The Fallacy Files Bookshelf



Introduction

Title:

With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies (Fifth Edition, St. Martin's Press, 1994)

Author: S. Morris Engel

Review:

Unfortunately, as its subtitle indicates, With Good Reason does not cover formal logical fallacies. However, it is one of the best introductions to informal ones.

For those who are new to logic, there is introductory material on arguments, the central notions of validity and soundness, and the distinction between deduction and induction. Engel also explains linguistic issues which play an important role in many informal fallacies, such as ambiguity and vagueness.

Unlike many textbooks, this one includes many "raw" examples, taken from the popular press, instead of just "cooked-up" ones. Cooked-up examples have both advantages and disadvantages: The advantages include the ease of acquiring examples—just cook them up!—as well as the fact that they can be constructed to be both obvious and unambiguous. This is good for learning the distinctions between different fallacies, and the basics of spotting fallacious arguments. The disadvantages, however, include the fact that fallacious arguments in their natural settings are much harder to spot than are the artificial examples in most textbooks. Engel's text is a step in the direction of providing practice on realistic examples.

Many of the raw examples that Engel gives are not arguments, so they are not full-fledged examples of fallacies, but boobytraps. Of course, boobytraps are fallacies waiting to happen, so they are legitimate examples, but the reader should keep this distinction in mind.

Engel divides informal fallacies into three broad categories:

"Presumption" seems to be a "miscellaneous" category to catch the fallacies which don't easily fit into the other two categories, so this grouping shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Engel describes, and provides examples of, over thirty specific informal fallacies, including the most frequently occurring ones, and those most prominently discussed in the logical literature. If you want to learn about informal logical fallacies, this is a good place to start.

Also, by the same author:


Reference

Title:

The Book of the Fallacy: A Training Manual for Intellectual Subversives (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985)

Author: Madsen Pirie

Review:

This book is the closest thing to an encyclopedia of logical fallacies to have been published, and it is a shame that it has gone out of print. There are 83 fallacies arranged in alphabetical order, and a standard classification in the back. Pirie classifies fallacies into formal and informal, then further divides informal ones into linguistic (such as Equivocation), and relevance; fallacies of relevance are subdivided into classes of Omission (Straw Man, for instance), Intrusion (Ad Baculum, among others), and Presumption (Bifurcation, for example).

In the introduction, Pirie explains:

"I take a very broad view of fallacies. Any trick of logic or language which allows a statement or a claim to be passed off as something it is not, has an admission card to the enclosure reserved for fallacies."

For this reason, some of the "fallacies" are linguistic boobytraps ("Loaded Words", for instance), or non-rational techniques of persuasion, such as "Emotional Appeals".

This is a good reference book to keep on a handy shelf, but it also makes an entertaining read. The entries are wittily written and easily understood but, given its A to Z format, it's not the best introduction to fallacies for the beginner. For that, see With Good Reason, above. Unlike Engel's book, Pirie's examples are mostly cooked-up, but there is compensation in the fact that they are memorable and amusing.

Resource:

The Book of the Fallacy is now available in an online version, thanks to the Adam Smith Institute.


Application

Title:

Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (Harper & Row, 1970)

Author: David Hackett Fischer

Review:

There are three reasons why this is a valuable book on fallacies:

Fischer, an historian rather than a logician, works with a broad conception of "fallacy" (which is another reason why there are so many!). As a result, some of the "fallacies" are more properly boobytraps or cognitive biases, but they are no less interesting or important for all that.

The book categorizes historical fallacies into eleven broad categories, of which the following are examples:

Of special interest are the two categories Fallacies of Causation and Fallacies of False Analogy, which give the best and most thorough treatments of mistakes in reasoning about causation, and by analogy, that I've ever read. In these two chapters, Fischer goes beyond application to make real contributions to the theory of fallacies.

In addition to being a rich reference source for fallacies and examples of them, Historians' Fallacies is intelligently written, and makes especially good reading for those interested in history. I hope that future historians and logicians will study this book carefully, with an eye to improving both fields.


Psychology

Title: How We Know What Isn't So:

The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life (Free Press, 1991)

Author: Thomas Gilovich

Quote…

…Unquote

Review: Why do people commit fallacies?


Fun with Fallacies

Title:

Lexicon of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations (LIAR) (Meadowbrook, 1988)

Author: Robert Thornton

Review:

Logical error has serious consequences, but it is also a laughing matter. Many logical fallacies have been the basis of jokes, but the biggest laughs seem to come from the fallacies of Ambiguity. There is something about double entendres that we find funny, and tapping into this vein of comedy is the Lexicon of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations.

The context of this book was a spate of litigation against writers of unfavorable letters of recommendation. You may be called upon to write letters of recommendation for people of whom you disapprove. If you turn them down, they may be angry with you; and if they don't get the job, due to the lack of your letter, you may have to continue working with them. If you write an honestly negative recommendation, you risk a lawsuit. Whereas, if you write a dishonestly positive one, you will have a lie on your conscience.

LIAR shows how to write an ambiguous letter which has two interpretations:

  1. Favorable enough to satisfy the subject of the recommendation.
  2. Unfavorable, for the eyes of the prospective employer who knows how to read such double-speaking recommendations.

I don't know whether such lawsuits are still a problem, and I wouldn't recommend LIAR for its stated use even if they were. In fact, I think that this little book's purported purpose is offered with tongue in cheek. Instead of a cynical self-help book for weasels, it's a satirical collection of backhanded insults. Here are some catty Equivocations:

And here are a few malicious Amphibolies:

What I found most impressive about Thornton's book is his creativity in inventing new forms of ambiguity. For instance, there is a section devoted to ambiguous punctuation:

There is also a section on giving ambiguous oral recommendations using homophones—words that are spelled differently, but sound the same—such as "right" and "write". For instance, the following sentence in a letter would be unambiguous, but what about in a telephone recommendation?

"The breadth of the man is overwhelming and quite obvious to those working closely with him." (P. 102)

Politicians and propagandists should stay away from this little book, which could be dangerous in the hands of someone with no sense of humor.


Acknowledgment:

The book shelves art prints are available from AllPosters.com.


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