Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing Quiz Review: Fallacies – Flashcards
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Ad Hominem
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"Against the man"; attacking the arguer rather than the argument or issues.
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Ad Populum
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"To the people"; playing on the prejudices of the audience. The bandwagon fallacy.
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Appeal to Tradition
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A proposal that something should continue because it has always existed or been done that way.
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Appeal to Ignorance
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An argument which is based on information that the audience does not know.
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Slippery Slope
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Predicting justification that one step in a process will lead unavoidably to a second undesirable step.
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Straw Man
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Disputing a view similar to, but not the same as, that of the arguer's opponent.
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Many Questions
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A question is provided which is unanswerable unless both of its implicit presuppositions are true.
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Ambiguity
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An argument in which the confusion surrounding a group of words gives rise to more than one possible meaning.
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Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
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"After this therefore because of this."
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False Dichotmy
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A complex form of oversimplification in which not all of the options are presented to the audience.
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Death by 1,000 Qualifications
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An argument in which there are just too many reservations or qualifications.
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Appeal to Authority
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Using the esteem of a distinguished figure as evidence for the truth of one's argument.
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Division
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The fallacy that each member of a group has a certain quality if the group as a whole possesses that quality.
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Poisoning the Well
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An attempt to shift attention from the merits of the argument to the source of origin of the argument. Purposely choosing a poor proponent to discredit an argument.
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Two Wrongs Make a Right
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Responding to an accusation with a counteraccusation that makes no attempt to refute the first accusation. No attempt is made to deny wrong-doing, one simply chooses to attack opponent's wrong-doing.
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Equivication
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"Equal voice"; giving two meanings at the same time in one word or phrase.
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False Anology
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Assuming without sufficient proof that if objects or processes are similar in some ways, then they are similar in other ways as well.
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Appeal to Emotions
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The appeal to an audience to suggest a position solely for emotional reasons.
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Begging the Question
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Making a statement that assumes that the issue being argued has already been decided. The conclusion of the argument is hidden among its assumptions.
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Composition
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The suggestion that the best members of various teams will necessarily come together to form the best overall team.
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Oversimplification
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Extreme generalizations which distort or exaggerate the truth.
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Out of Context
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Separating an idea or fact from the material surrounding it.
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Card Stacking
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An argument which ignores evidence on the other side of the issue.
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Red Herring
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An attempt to sidetrack an argument by bringing up a totally unrelated issue.
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Provincialism
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An argument which suggests that the known is always better than the unknown.
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Ad Baculum
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Resorting to violence; threatening the audience with the painful consequences of an action or inaction.
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Protecting the Hypotesis
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Manipulating data to prove a point.
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Special Pleading
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Applying standards, principles, rules, etc. to others while taking oneself (or those a person has a special interest in) to be exempt, without providing adequate justification for the exemption.
