Fallacy Study Guide

Fallacy Study Guide (Flash Cards)

Create flash cards to help you study for the fallacy quiz in topic 4 by filling in a definition and an example on each fallacy card below. After you have submitted this completed document to your instructor for a grade, you can print it out, cut out each fallacy card, and fold them in half to study with.

Appeal to Ignorance

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Enter definition here: It is an argument against or for a proposition due to lack of evidence for or against that proposition. Lack of evidence is in this case not considered evidence in itself hence appeal to ignorance.
Enter example here: In the American criminal law the best example of appeal to ignorance is the absence of evidence being considered for falsity of the proposition therefore creating a presumption of it being false. In the case of lack of evidence, the burden of provision of evidence is placed on the prosecution and if they fail to come up with reliable evidence supporting the proposition of guilt, the jury has to take up the conclusion of innocence.

Hasty Generalization

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Enter definition here: It is an informal fallacy that involves reaching a conclusive and hasty generalization without having to makes all possible considerations of all factors. In statistics it involves basing a conclusion by conducting a survey on a sample group.
Enter example here: The hasty generalization takes this overall pattern: X is true for A, X is true for B and therefore X true for C, D and E. In this case, if in a given company the first 20 employees you meet are youths, then there can be a general conclusion that the other employees are all youths as observed in the first instances.

               

                                                                                                                                               

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

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Enter definition here: It is translated to `after this therefore because of this’. It is a logical fallacy that relates the cause of a second event in events occurring simultaneously to the previous event just before its occurrence hence the first event is said to be the cause of the second event.
Enter example here: Usually a rooster crows just before sunrise. The sun rises just after the rooster crows hence the post hoc fallacy associates the cause of sunrise to the crow of the rooster. The rooster causes the sun to rise.

Either/Or

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Enter definition here: Also known as false dilemma or false dichotomy. An informal fallacy associated with consideration of limited alternatives in fact where there is at least one additional option.
Enter example here: In the case of categorizing people into two broad categories of either good or bad therefore one person is either a good person or a bad person. In any case the person in question is not a bad person, then obviously he or she is a good person.

Composition

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Enter definition here: The composition fallacy arises when there is an assumption that a proposition is true for the whole owing to the fact that it is true to a part of the whole.
Enter example here: If a small piece of a metal cannot be fractured by a hammer, then a whole machine made by the same metal cannot be fractured by a hammer.

Extravagant Hypothesis

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Enter definition here: The fallacy involves formulating a complicated and unlikely explanation for a situation in the place of a possible simpler explanation.
Enter example here: The explanation of the lunar landing e.g. the explanations behind the landing and the faking of the landing on the moon by astronaut following condition can just be explained that astronauts were sent to the moon.

Slippery Slope

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Enter definition here: Argues that simple first action may results in a chain of related bigger events leading to a significant overall effect.
Enter example here: pushing an object over the edge of a slippery surface leads to its slide all through down the slippery surface as it hits and pushes other objects along.

Appeal to Authority

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Enter definition here: A logical fallacy that argues that a proposition is true or probably true since that individuals in authority e.g. managers agree with it and support it.
Enter example here: The decisions made by the authorities (management) are logically correct since they are inferred by the authority e.g. resource allocation.

Circular Reasoning

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Enter definition here: The reasoning begins with the proposition they intend to end with and if the original proposition is true then the conclusion is also true.
Enter example here: Any object that is less dense than water will float on water and therefore other objects of its characteristics cannot sink in water.

Division

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Enter definition here: The fallacy reasons that something that is true for the whole must also be true for all or some of its parts (individuals).
Enter example here: If high school students love to play chess, John is a high school student, he then automatically loves to play chess.

Appeal to Tradition

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Enter definition here: Argues that something is more true or correct because it has been done the way it is done over time or it is traditional.
Enter example here: Marriage has been between a man and a woman therefore gay marriages are unacceptable despite trials to make them seem normal.

Is/Ought

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Enter definition here: A logical fallacy based on the argument that something is the way it is because that is how it is originally meant to be.
Enter example here: The fact that abortion is made legal does not justify everyone to try.

Bandwagon Appeal

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Enter definition here: A logical fallacy that assumes the correctness of a proposition based on the general believe that it is correct by a majority of the people in a specified population.
Enter example here: In a referendum, people either vote yes or no and the choice of the majority is usually considered the way to go

False Analogy

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Enter definition here: Considers the similarity of things in one way as a possibility for the chance of another similarity.
Enter example here: People who have a cup of coffee every morning before they function are similarly addicted to coffee as are alcoholics to alcohol.