5.4 Informal Fallacies and Critical Thinking

Informal fallacies are sneaky tricks that can fool us in arguments. They're like hidden traps in everyday thinking, making bad reasoning seem good. Spotting these fallacies helps us think more clearly and avoid being misled.

This part of the chapter breaks down different types of fallacies. We'll learn about relevance issues, faulty assumptions, and problems with evidence. Understanding these helps us become better critical thinkers and spot weak arguments.

Fallacies of Relevance

Personal Attacks and Distractions

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  3.5 Everything’s Persuasion – Why Write? A Guide for Students in Canada View original

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  PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The loud world of ad hominem attacks View original

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  3.5 Everything’s Persuasion – Why Write? A Guide for Students in Canada View original

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Top images from around the web for Personal Attacks and Distractions

• 

  PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The loud world of ad hominem attacks View original

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• 

  3.5 Everything’s Persuasion – Why Write? A Guide for Students in Canada View original

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• 

  PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The loud world of ad hominem attacks View original

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• 

  3.5 Everything’s Persuasion – Why Write? A Guide for Students in Canada View original

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• Ad hominem attacks the character or circumstances of an individual rather than addressing the substance of their argument
• Straw man misrepresents an opponent's position, often by oversimplifying or exaggerating it, to make it easier to attack
• Appeal to emotion manipulates feelings (fear, pity, guilt) to win an argument without addressing the merits of the case
• Red herring introduces an irrelevant topic to divert attention away from the main issue under discussion
• Tu quoque ("you too") points out hypocrisy in the opponent without directly refuting their argument (two wrongs don't make a right)

Faulty Appeals to the Crowd

• Bandwagon fallacy assumes something must be true or right because it is popular (appeal to popularity)
• Appeals to the masses to "jump on the bandwagon" rather than evaluating an argument based on its own merits
• Implies that an idea must be valid simply because it has gained widespread acceptance
• Overlooks the possibility that the majority opinion could still be mistaken or based on faulty reasoning
• Encourages conformity and discourages critical thinking (if everyone else believes it, it must be true)

Fallacies of Presumption

Unjustified Assumptions

• False dichotomy presents a situation as an "either-or" choice between two alternatives when other options may exist (false dilemma)
• Slippery slope argues that one event will inevitably lead to a chain of increasingly worse consequences without justification
• Circular reasoning begins with what it is trying to prove by restating the conclusion within the premise (begging the question)
• Argument from ignorance asserts that a claim is true because it has not been or cannot be proven false (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence)

Faulty Premises and Definitions

• Begging the question assumes the truth of the very point raised in a question (complex question fallacy)
• Asks a question that has a presumption built into it so that it can't be answered without appearing guilty (have you stopped cheating on your taxes?)
• Relies on a premise that has not been proven or accepted by those involved in the discussion
• Disguises a preconceived notion or assumption as an indisputable fact that must be accepted to answer the question
• Unfairly shifts the burden of proof and limits the respondent's options to address the actual issue under consideration

Fallacies of Defective Induction

Hasty Conclusions from Limited Evidence

• Hasty generalization draws a broad conclusion from a small sample size or limited set of examples (jumping to conclusions)
• Makes a sweeping claim about a group based on insufficient or unrepresentative evidence that does not justify the conclusion
• Ignores the diversity within a population and the potential for exceptions or individual differences
• Relies on anecdotal evidence or personal experience rather than methodical research and statistical analysis
• Rushes to an unjustified judgment before all the relevant facts have been gathered and considered (you can't judge a book by its cover)

Flawed Appeals to Experts and Causes

• Appeal to authority cites an expert or authority figure to support a claim, even though they may lack relevant expertise or be biased
• Assumes that a person must be correct simply because of their position or status rather than evaluating their actual arguments
• Overlooks the possibility that experts can be wrong, have conflicts of interest, or disagree with each other in their field
• Post hoc ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore because of this") assumes that because one event followed another, the first must have caused the second
• Confuses correlation with causation and does not consider other factors that may have been the actual cause
• Ignores the possibility of mere coincidence or the influence of a third variable on both observed events (superstitions about bad luck)