Logical Fallacies

Sentimental Appeal Using emotion to distract the audience from the facts To which emotions is this appealing?

Ad Hominem Arguments that attack a person’s character instead of their reasoning What two ways are these men’s character being attacked?

False Authority Wants the audience to agree with the argument based simply on the person, who is not an expert in the field Freedom of speech=yes, credible authority=no. “When you talk about postpartum (depression) women today can use vitamins to help”.

Red Herring Using misleading or unrelated evidence to distract from the actual argument

Scare Tactic Trying to frighten people to agree with the argument or face unrealistically dire consequences

Bandwagon Encourages the audience to agree with the argument because everyone else is doing it

Slippery Slope Suggests that one thing will lead to another and another usually ending with disastrous results

Moral Equivalence Compares minor problems with much more serious crimes (or vice versa) Obamacare is just like what Hitler did to the youth of Germany prior to World War II.

Strawman (Person) An argument is set up and dismantled easily in order to misrepresent its strength

Hasty Generalization Draws conclusions from little or no evidence; extrapolates minute evidence into a larger claim

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc (Faulty Causality) Mob after a woman accused of witchcraft in Nepal In Latin it means: “After this, therefore because of this” One event is said to be the cause of a later event, simply because it occurred earlier.

Non Sequitur Latin for “does not follow” A statement does not logically follow that which comes before

Begging the Question Restating the same claim in a different way; circular logic A: Stem cell research is acceptable B: How do you know A: Because stem cell research science says so B: Why should I believe the stem cell research science A: Because stem cell research is acceptable