Informal Fallacies WACE, Appendix 1

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Informal FallaciesWACE, Appendix 1
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Informal Fallacies

• Informal because they do not contain formal flaws
  that make their conclusions automatically
  illegitimate
• Informal fallacies can fool us into thinking that
  an argument is stronger than it really is.

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Fallacies 3 Categories

• Fallacies of Pathos
• where there is a flawed relation between what is
  argued and the audience.
• Fallacies of Ethos
• in which a flawed relation exists between the
  argument and the character of the arguers.
• Fallacies of Logos
• where there is a flawed relation among the
  statements of the argument.

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Fallacies of Pathos

• Argument to the Peopleappealing to stirring
  symbols
• Eg. Flag-waving or appeals to ethnic or regional
  pride
• Provincialismappealing to the belief that the
  known (familiar, local) is always better than the
  unknown
• Eg. Low density suburban housing is better than
  high density urban housing

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Fallacies of Pathos

• Appeal to Emotional Premises
• Resorting to comforting reasons that have no
  basis in logic
• Appeals to common practice (everyone does it)
• Traditional wisdom (weve always done it this
  way)
• Popularity (bandwagon effect)
• Red Herring
• Shifting the audiences attention from a crucial
  issue to an irrelevant one
• (e.g., often used in political argument).

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Fallacies of Ethos

• Appeals to False Authority or Bandwagon Appeals
• Appealing to the authority of a popular person or
  to the opinion of the crowd
• E.g., many people do this or support that
• This appeal often appears in advertising (4 of 5
  dentists)
• Ad Hominem
• Attacking the character of the arguer rather than
  the argument itself.
• But whether this is a fallacy can depend on the
  nature and substance of the argument.

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Fallacies of Ethos

• Straw Man
• Greatly oversimplifying an opposing argument to
  make is easier to refute or ridicule
• e.g., While my opponent would grab the milk from
  the mouths of innocent children, I oppose a tax
  on food purchases.
• Also.. Distorting the opposing argument

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Fallacies of Logos

• Begging the Question
• Supporting a claim with a reason that is just a
  restatement of the claim
• e.g., Income taxes are bad because they take
  away money from people.
• False Dilemma
• Oversimplifying a complex issue so that only two
  choices appear possible
• e.g., either incarcerate all suspects while
  suspending rights to hearing charges and getting
  a speedy trial or suffer the consequences of
  terrorist attacks.

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Fallacies of Logos

• Confuse Correlation with Cause
• Assuming that event X causes Y because X precedes
  Y.
• A generalization of this is to assume strong
  correlation because of adjacency.
• Slippery Slope
• Once we move a bit toward an unpleasant end, we
  will have to go all the way.
• An example is the domino effect argument from
  the Vietnam war years.
• Or the If I do this for you, I will have to do
  it for everybody argument.

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Fallacies of Logos

• Hasty Generalization
• Making a broad generalization based on too little
  evidence
• Leaping to a conclusion
• Mistaking the Part for the Whole
• Sssuming that what is true for a part will be
  true for the whole
• e.g., wanting to wipe out the National Endowment
  for the Arts because it supports some artists we
  dont like

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Fallacies of Logos

• False Analogy
• Claiming that because X resembles Y in one
  regard, X will resemble Y in all regards.
• Arguments by analogy are tricky because the
  things being compared almost always differ in
  multiple ways
• e.g., Electing this person is like giving a
  thief the keys to your house.

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Fallacies of Logos

• Non Sequitur
• Making a claim that doesnt follow logically from
  the premises or
• Supporting a claim with irrelevant premises
• e.g., I shouldnt receive a C in this quiz
  because Ive received As and Bs in all my other
  quizzes.
• Im doing well on other classes!