Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Logical Fallacies
List of Fallacies
314
Philosophy
Professional
12/21/2006
Click here to study/print these flashcards.

Create your own flash cards! Sign up here.

Additional Philosophy Flashcards

 

 

Cards

Term
AD FIDENTIA

(Against Self-Confidence)
 Definition
If you cannot directly refute someone's
principles, you strike indirectly with an attack on their confidence in those principles. Question their certainty of the principles' validity:
"How can you be sure you're right?"
Term
AMBIGUOUS COLLECTIVE
 Definition
The use of a collective term without any meaningful delimitation of the elements it subsumes. "We" "you" "they" "the people" "the system" and "as a whole" are the most widely used examples. This fallacy is especially widespread and devastating in the realm of political discussion, where its use renders impossible the task of discriminating among distinctively different groups of people.
Term
AMBIGUOUS COLLECTIVE
 Definition
(The term "as a whole" is an assertion that a group of people somehow becomes an entity endowed with attributes other than those attributes possessed by an aggregate of individuals. It would be better to use the expression "composite" than "as a whole" as this preserves the awareness that the group is merely a collection of independent elements.)
Term
ANTI-CONCEPTUAL MENTALITY
 Definition
treats abstractions as if they were perceptual concretes. It regards a concept as a self-contained given, as
something that requires no logical process of integration and definition.
This syndrome is motivated by the desire to retain the effortless, automatic
character of perceptual awareness, and to avoid the mental independence, effort and risk of error that conceptual integration entails. In the anti-
conceptual mentality, the process of integration is largely replaced by a
process of association.
Term
ANTI-CONCEPTUAL MENTALITY
 Definition
breeds an identification with and dependence upon the group, usually a group united by such concrete traits as
race, sex, or geographical proximity. The moral universe of such people consists of concrete substitutes for ethical principles: customs, traditions, myths, and rituals.
Term
ANTI-CONCEPTUAL MENTALITY
 Definition
incapable of abstracting from concrete
differences among people and formulating general principles of common human
rights, or common standards for judging an individual's moral character and
conduct. Its sense of right and wrong is anchored not in reason but in loyalty to the tribe and its practices. The solidarity of the tribe is sustained in part by xenophobia - thus the bigoted racism frequently manifested with this.
Term
ANTI-CONCEPTUAL MENTALITY
 Definition
relativism is the only possible
alternative to tribal prejudice because for him the refusal to judge is the
only alternative to judging by concrete-bound criteria. If one does not
think in terms of principles, one has no way of distinguishing those aspects
of human conduct and character that are essential from those aspects that
are optional.
Term
ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM
 Definition
(bandwagon fallacy) "All societies require military service. We are a
society. Therefore we should require military service."
Term
ARGUMENTUM AD VERECUNDIAM
 Definition
The appeal to authority.
Whose authority? If an argument is to be resolved by such an appeal, the
authority must be one recognized by both parties. Both parties must agree on a completely neutral, objective authority to decide the issue. Where does one exist? Only in the facts of reality.
Term
ARGUMENTUM AD VERECUNDIAM
 Definition
Who decides? In all issues pertaining to objectivity, the ultimate authority is reality - and the mind of every individual who judges the evidence by the objective method of judgment: logic.
Term
ARGUMENT From Intimidation
 Definition
"Only the most degenerate, morally depraved, cretinous imbecile could fail to see the truth of my argument."
Term
ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION
 Definition
"It would be unwise to deny the possibility that my ideas are correct."
Term
ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION
 Definition
To dare or to challenge someone to perform an action as proof of his courage. An attempt to swindle into the acceptance of one's ideas and the use of your judgements as the standard for one's actions.
Term
ASSUMPTION CORRECTION ASSUMPTION
 Definition
He assumes (implicitly) that I will correct his mistaken assumptions.
Term
BAREFOOT
 Definition
FOR A NEW LIBERTY,"If government didn't
exercise control over the manufacture, distribution, price and sale of shoes
we would all go barefoot!"
Nothing the government claims to provide cannot be provided in a more
humane, just, and economical manner by free groups of individual people.
Term
ELEPHANT REPELLENT
 Definition
"Hey, mister, you better buy a bottle of my Elephant Repellent. If you don't buy it, the elephants will come into the neighborhood and trample you! My proof that this stuff really works is that there are no elephants around here." for "Elephant Repellent" substitute the word "Government" and for "elephants" substitute the word "crime" or "Russians" or "poverty" or "chaos" etc., that the government claims to prevent.
Term
ELEPHANT REPELLENT
 Definition
You should think postitively about life. I've thought postitively about my life for the last twenty years and nothing bad has happened to me the whole time.
Term
BARKING CAT
 Definition
"Free To Choose" by Milton Friedman: "I would like to have a cat provided it barked"? The political principles that determine the behavior of government agencies once they are established are no less rigid than the biological principles that determine the characteristics of cats. The way the government behaves and its adverse consequences are not an accident, not a result of some easily corrected human mistake, but a consequence of its nature in precisely the same way that a meow is a consequence of the nature of a cat.
Term
BEGGING THE QUESTION
 Definition
An assertion that implies and/or uses its answer.
"Why should you be good to people?" (He expects me to be good to him by responding to his question.)
Term
BOOLEAN
 Definition
"The Excluded middle" is another name for this fallacy.
Term
BOOLEAN
 Definition
Choosing to view a continuum as only represented by its extremities. Dividing a range of options exhaustively into the two extremes and then insisting that a choice be made between one or the other extreme without regard to any of the intervening alternatives. Example: to insist that if a man is not a genius he must therefore be a moron.
Term
CHERISHING THE ZOMBIE
 Definition
Touting the existence or effectiveness of an idea that has been dead for a long time. Example:
Stanley Miller's 1953 experiment reproducing then-proposed prebiotic atmosphere of hydrogen, water, methane, and ammonia proves that amino acids could have formed in a prebiotic soup.
Term
CHERISHING THE ZOMBIE
 Definition
Polonium Halos prove that the Earth is young. (The existence of polonium halos has been explained and accepted by geologists and scientists as not a problem to the idea that the Earth is 4.5b yrsold)
Term
False Dilemma
 Definition
Two choices are given when in fact there are three or more options.
Term
FANTASY PROJECTION
CONTEXT IMPOSITION
 Definition
Attempting to impose one's intellectual or moral context on another by someone who has closed his mind to reality and manufactured a fantasy, and expecting or demanding that others share the fantasy and help sustain it.
Term
FANTASY PROJECTION
 Definition
"If you were terminally ill, you too would advocate life preservation."
Term
CONTEXT IMPOSITION
 Definition
They have a six-inch knife and have stuck it four inches into me. Should
I be thankful they have not shoved it in the final two inches? Or resentful
that they have shoved it in four inches? [I am expected to accept their
behavioral context and to judge my situation from within that context.]
Term
I-CUBED
 Definition
An astrologer admonishes to "examine this field of study before you reject it!"

"You haven't studied enough."

"You don't understand evolution."
Term
PIGEONHOLING
 Definition
An attempt to subsume something into a frame-of-reference that is too
small to incorporate the thing.
You call me a name so you don't have to see me - you just see the name
that you call me. "Bigot"
Term
PIGEONHOLING
 Definition
Tyrants have a need to call other people names; it soothes their consciences when they exerise coercion. Oppression of people offends their Christian values; but it is no crime to tyrannize a "wog" or a "raghead." It is the nature of tyranny to reduce its victims to names of disparagement.
Term
DISCARDED DIFFERENTIA
 Definition
Define by using the Genus only.

Not mentioning the details that would weaken the aruement.
Term
ECLECTIC
 Definition
Selecting the good parts from a set of ideas and discarding the bad parts.
But this process implies that you already know how to do the selecting, and have a standard of judgment to use for evaluating
the ideas.
Term
ECLECTIC
 Definition
When you approach a set of ideas from a state of ignorance, and are not intellectually equipped to pick and choose from among them. You can not know whether what you accept is true or false.
Term
ECLECTIC

A response to eclecticism
 Definition
If you are going to pick and
choose you must already have enough knowledge to do the selecting.
Term
SPURIOUS SUPERFICIALITY
 Definition
When a disputant insists on introducing irrelevant considerations and ignores his opponent's logic and evidence.
Term
SPURIOUS SUPERFICIALITY
 Definition
When someone can't grasp the whole of an
issue - or the principle underlying it - and focuses on some small part
(usually just one word) to direct a rebuttal to, or an attack on, that tiny
bit, which is all he can perceive.
Term
SPURIOUS SUPERFICIALITY
 Definition
When something is too strange or complicated to deal with directly or comprehensively, one extracts whatever parts of its behavior are comprehended and represents them by familiar symbols or things which are thought similar to the small part.
Term
SPURIOUS SUPERFICIALITY
 Definition
He seizes upon one instance and constructs a generalization from it:
Observing that I don't like oysters, he concludes that I have an aversion to
sea food in general. She sees something happen once or twice and concludes
that it is a regularly-occuring thing.
Term
HOMILY AD HOMINEM
 Definition
Appealing to a person's feelings or prejudices, rather than intellect, with a trite phrase designed to reinforce a subjective rather than objective view of a situation. If the homily is not accepted then an attack on the person's
character is made rather than an answer to his argument.
Term
EMPHATIC
 Definition
To emphasize one element of a set at the expense of other equally significant elements. Or to place emphasis on a spurious aspect of a situation. When people react violently to comparatively minor troubles but are seemingly unshaken by really serious ones.
Term
MEGATRIFLE
 Definition
Take a small, inconsequential effect and magnify it to become all-encompassing in its supposed influence. These are people whose fear of the snake in the grass is so great that they are unable to see the bear that is about to eat them.
Term
MEGATRIFLE
 Definition
When somebody gets all upset over something that makes no practical
difference, you are dealing with a person whose world exists only within her mind (and the minds of her significant others) rather than outside it. So don't bother asking "What difference does that make?" You will generally find that verbal assurances are the only way to calm her down.
Term
SIMPLISTIC-COMPLEXITY
 Definition
If someone comes up against a large bundle of particular facts, but has
no general principles with which to integrate those particulars, and is not
in the habit of thinking in principles, the multiplicity of facts will appear so complex that he will not be able to deal with the situation analytically. To many people, ethical issues seem a nightmare tangle of unanswered questions, a moral labyrinth. You will hear them say:
"This is too complex a situation to yield any easy solution!"
Term
SIMPLISTIC-COMPLEXITY
 Definition
"Unfortunately, no easy answers exist. The solution to the problem will turn out to be as complex as the problem itself."

"This is too complex a situation to yield any easy solution!"
Term
SIMPLISTIC-COMPLEXITY
 Definition
Answer:

"That's a simplistic view of a complex situation."
Term
SIMPLISTIC-COMPLEXITY
 Definition
Complexity does not make something unintelligible, any more than the
complexity of the symptoms of a disease makes the cause of those symptoms
unintelligible. What makes the phenomenon unintelligible is the attempt to
analyze it without reference to fundamental principle - to a unifying cause.
Term
FLOATING ABSTRACTION
 Definition
(Barbara Branden's lectures, Principles of Efficient Thinking - lecture #4)


A generalization subsuming no particulars.
Term
GOVERNMENT ABSOLUTIST
 Definition
This is the person who makes comparative judgments (usually of people's behavior) that are based not on any moral or ethical principle but are made by reference to a government (invariably his own government). The consequence is to make a spurious distinction between two people (or groups) who in fact manifest identical behavior.
Term
GOVERNMENT ABSOLUTIST
 Definition
Tom Clancy: "Terrorists don't relate to the people around them as being real people. They see them as objects, and since they're only objects, whatever happens to them is not important. Once I met a man who killed four people and didn't bat an eye; but he cried like a baby when we told him his cat died. People like that don't even understand why they get sent to prison; they really don't understand. Those are the scary ones." What Clancy cannot see is that any policeman or any soldier of any
country has the same behavior that Clancy has condemned as terrorism.
Term
GOVERNMENT ABSOLUTIST
 Definition
William Buckley: "The Cold War is a part of the human condition for so long as you have two social phenomena which we can pretty safely denominate as constants. The first is a society that accepts what it sees as the historical mandate to dominate other societies - at least as persistently as microbes seek out human organisms to infect. And the second phenomenon, of course, is the coexistence of a society that is determined NOT to be dominated or have its friends dominated."
Roles reversed says same thing.
Term
GRATUITOUS INCULPATION
SPURIOUS CAUSATION
 Definition
"The consumer will have to pay the bill for the oil spill."
Term
GRATUITOUS INCULPATION
SPURIOUS CAUSATION
 Definition
"Scientists are responsible for the danger of nuclear war."
Term
GRATUITOUS INCULPATION
SPURIOUS CAUSATION
 Definition
"The advance of modern medicine underlies the present population
explosion."
Term
GRATUITOUS INCULPATION
SPURIOUS CAUSATION
 Definition
"Henry Ford is responsible for air pollution."
Term
GRATUITOUS INCULPATION
SPURIOUS CAUSATION
 Definition
Related to this is the Confusion of Correlation and Causation:
A survey shows that more college graduates are homosexual than those with
lesser education; therefore education makes people gay.
Children who watch violent TV programs tend to be more violent when they grow up. [But did the TV cause the violence, or do violent children
preferentially enjoy watching violent programs? Very likely both are true.]
Term
GREEK MATH
 Definition
The inability to discriminate a scale delineating greater and lesser
positives from a scale delineating greater and lesser negatives. This
inability results in considering a lesser negative to be a positive. ("My
government is a good government - because it's not as bad as other
governments.") I call it the Greek Math fallacy because the Greeks did not
have the mathematical concept of zero - that which separates positive
quantities from negative quantities.
Term
EXCLUSIVITY
 Definition
Trying to make an idea of limited application extend in its coverage to
the inclusion of an overly large range:

"All human experience can be
explained by a study of energy flows."
Term
FALSE ALTERNATIVE
 Definition
Assuming that only one alternative exists in a given situation, when in fact, other and usually more fundamental alternatives exist also. This is frequently expressed by the question,

"What other explanation could there be?"
Term
DONUT
 Definition
A form of false alternative. It insists that all donuts be divided into
two piles: large donuts and sugar donuts.
Term
OVERLOOKING SECONDARY CONSEQUENCES
 Definition
To consider only the immediate results of an action, ignoring the long-term effects. Along with this is the fallacy of ignoring historical example.
Term
IGNORING HISTORICAL EXAMPLE
 Definition
People who do not look into the future beyond the end of their nose also
do not look into the past beyond yesterday (and sometimes not even that
far). They would readily see that the previous implementation of their schemes was invariably a failure. Not only do they fail to see that their scheme WILL BE a failure, they fail to see that it HAS BEEN a failure.
Term
INSTANTIATION OF THE UNSUCCESSFUL
 Definition
To insist on implementing something which is known to have failed.

"What we need is government control of the economy!"
Term
FALSE ATTRIBUTION
 Definition
The Straw Man syndrome. Present a false description of your adversary and
then base your repudiation on that description. You caricature a position to
make it easier to attack:
Objectivism advocates infanticide, therefore Objectivism is evil.
Term
Gambler's Fallacy
 Definition
When a person assumes that a departure from what occurs on average or in the long term will be corrected in the short term.
Term
FALSE ATTRIBUTION
 Definition
If we allow abortion in the first weeks of pregnancy, it will be impossible to prevent the killing of a full-term infant.
If the state prohibits abortions even in the ninth month, it will soon be
telling us what to do with our bodies around the time of conception.
Term
FALSIFIABILITY
 Definition
The defendant must be found guilty; otherwise, it will be an encouragement for other men to murder their wives.
As a justification for your proposal, you present your supposition of
adverse consequences.
Term
FALSIFIABILITY
 Definition
Also known as the Appeal to Ignorance
Term
Falsifiability
 Definition
Karl Popper: A conjecture or hypothesis must be accepted as true until such time as it is proven to be false. Popper maintains that scientists approach the truth through what he calls "conjecture and refutation." In actuality,scientists approach truth not through conjecture and refutation, but through conjecture and CONFIRMATION - the demonstration, by means of careful experiment, that a hypothesis corresponds to reality.
Term
FALSIFIABILITY
 Definition
This impatience with ambiguity can be criticized by the phrase:

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
Term
FALSIFIABILITY

Response
 Definition
Until the phenomenon is proven TRUE there is no obligation to base your
attitude toward it on the assumption that it MIGHT be true. If there were
such an obligation, then you would be obliged to give serious consideration
to every crackpot notion that has ever been put forward.
Term
FALSIFIABILITY

Response
 Definition
"That kind of thinking can can help you to
disprove ideas which are incorrect. But it does not enable you to prove ideas which are correct."
Term
FLAT EARTH NAVIGATION SYNDROME
 Definition
Devoting a lot of time and energy to solving problems that don't exist,
such as figuring out ways to navigate on a flat earth. Looking for an easy way out of a dilemma that does not exist.
Term
FLAT EARTH NAVIGATION SYNDROME (labeled)

Affirming the consequent.
 Definition
"Theology is a study with no answers because it has no subject matter."
Term
Fallacist's Fallacy
 Definition
Rejecting an idea as false simply because the argument offered for it is fallacious.
Term
FALSIFIED INDUCTIVE GENERALIZATION
 Definition
Restrict a wide abstraction to a narrow set of particulars and then conclude that an attribute of these particulars must be definitive of the abstraction, thus negating the entire principled structure underlying the abstraction.
Term
Fallacist's Fallacy
 Definition
"People argue that there must be an afterlife because they just can't accept that when we die that's it. This is an appeal to consequences; there is no life after death."
Term
GOVERNMENT SOLIPOTENCE
 Definition
The claim that if the government is not doing something about a problem,
then nothing CAN be done about it. ONLY the government can solve society's
problems.
Term
GRAVITY GAME
 Definition
This consists of demanding that an idea be proven over and over again
indefinitely before its validity is acceptable.
Term
Fallacy of Composition
 Definition
Inferring from the fact that every part of a whole has a given property that the whole also has that property.
Term
Fallacy of Composition
 Definition
(1) Every song on the album lasts less than an hour.
Therefore:
(2) The album lasts less than an hour.
Term
Fallacy of Division
 Definition
Inferences from the fact that a whole has a property to the conclusion that a part of the whole also has that property.
Term
MOVING GOALPOST SYNDROME
 Definition
The proponents keep changing their definition, presenting you always with
a moving target that you can never get hold of. Rand referred to this as
trying to grasp a fog.
Term
NULL VALUE
 Definition
A statement (or question) that gives (or elicits) no cognitively meaningful information: "Are you honest?" If he's honest, he'll say 'Yes' - but if he's a liar, he'll say 'Yes' You learn nothing in either case.
Term
PERFECTIONIST
 Definition
"I'll stick with what I have, no matter how bad it is, rather than switch
to something that is better - but not perfect."
Term
PERFECTIONIST
 Definition
"No contraceptive is 100% reliable, therefore none of them is acceptable to me."
Term
Fallacy of Division
 Definition
(1) Water is liquid.
Therefore:
(2) H2O molecules are liquid.
Term
PRETENTIOUS
 Definition
Here the speaker assumes omniscience with respect to the subject under consideration. He assumes also that he speaks for the entire human race.
"We don't know what life is" (or insanity, intelligence, etc).
Term
PRETENTIOUS
 Definition
"We can't conceive of personal death."
Term
PRETENTIOUS
 Definition
"My contention must be true because we can think of no alternative mechanism as a cause for this phenomenon."
Term
PRETENTIOUS

Response
 Definition
"Just because your eyes are shut doesn't mean the sun has been turned off.
If you believe so, then your belief system has locked you into a low level
of awareness about a situation that has been resolved everywhere except in
your own mind."
Term
PRETENTIOUS ANTECEDENT
 Definition
Having made a brief reference to, or speculation about, a phenomenon, he
later asserts that the phenomenon has now been fully explained.
Although the direct evidence he presents is extremely thin, he later
assumes that his thesis has been established with certainty.
Term
PROOF BY SELECTED INSTANCES
 Definition
Texas Sharpshooter effect: a man shoots at the side of a barn and then proceeds to draw targets around the holes. He makes
every shot into a bull's-eye.
Term
PROOF BY SELECTED INSTANCES
 Definition
Hits are recorded misses are not.
Term
PROVING A NEGATIVE
 Definition
(The Objectivist Newsletter, April 1963) "Proving the non-existence of that for which no evidence of any kind exists. Proof, logic, reason, thinking,knowledge pertain to and deal only with that which exists. They cannot be applied to that which does not exist. Nothing can be relevant or applicable to the non-existent. The non-existent is nothing.
Term
PROVING A NEGATIVE
 Definition
A positive statement, based on facts that have been erroneously interpreted, can be refuted - by means of exposing the errors in the interpretation of the
facts. Such refutation is the disproving of a positive, not the proving of a
negative.... Rational demonstration is necessary to support even the claim
that a thing is possible.
Term
PROVING A NEGATIVE
 Definition
It is a breach of logic to assert that that which has not been proven to be impossible is, therefore, possible. An absence does not constitute proof of anything. Nothing can be derived from nothing."
Term
RELATIVE PRIVATION
 Definition
To try to make a phenomenon appear good, by comparing it with a worse phenomenon, or to try to make a phenomenon appear bad, by comparing it with a better phenomenon.
Term
RELATIVE PRIVATION
 Definition
A very nutritionally-conscious person has a rather low opinion of junkfood. But what would be your attitude toward a greasy hamburger if you hadn't eaten for three or four days? An Ethiopian would like nothing better than to have access to MacDonald's, Hardee's or Wendy's and, in fact, such access would be the best thing that could happen to an Ethiopian.
Term
RELATIVE PRIVATION
 Definition
The sweatshop is immensly preferable to the alternative of not working and earning money at all.
Term
RELATIVE PRIVATION
 Definition
"Eat your carrots! Just think of all the starving children in China."
Term
RELATIVE PRIVATION
 Definition
"I used to lament having no shoes - until I met a man who had no feet."

If people believe that their own situation really is ameliorated by such a comparison, they will naturally conclude that their own situation can, in practice, actually BE ameliorated by MAKING somebody else worse off!
Term
RELATIVE PRIVATION
 Definition
"beggar thy neighbor."
Term
Appeal to Poverty
 Definition
When it is assumed that a position is correct because it is held by the poor.
Term
Appeal to WEALTH
 Definition
Assuming that someone or something is better simply because they are wealthier or more expensive.
Term
RETROGRESSIVE CAUSATION
 Definition
An interview with a young woman who had seven children - all of them "crack babies": Interviewer: "Didn't you ever think about the effect your drug use was
having on your children?"
Woman: "Yeah, that thought entered my mind now and then. Whenever it did,
I got high so that I wouldn't have to think about it."
Term
RETROGRESSIVE CAUSATION
 Definition
Invokes the cause in order to eliminate the effect. Thus the effect acts retrogressively to induce further implementation of the cause.
Term
SELF EXCLUSION
 Definition
This is a form of the Stolen Concept fallacy. It denies itself. "Nothing
makes any difference." (including this statement?)
Term
SELF EXCLUSION
 Definition
"Music is the only genuine form of communication." (but this statement, meant to be a communication, is not music)
Term
SELF EXCLUSION
 Definition
"There are questions whose truth or untruth cannot be decided by men; all
the supreme questions, all the supreme problems of value are beyond human
comprehension." .... Nietzsche
Term
Begging the Question / Circular Reasoning
 Definition
If the conclusion is among the premises, if the assumtion is made (either explicitly or not) that what is trying to be proved is already a given.
Term
SELF EXCLUSION

Response
 Definition
If I say, "Anything is possible" I must admit the possibility that the statement I have just made is possibly false.
Term
UNINTENDED SELF-INCLUSION
 Definition
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -B Russell.
Why didn't he put "I think" at the end of it? By omitting the "doubt-qualifier" Russell is unintentionally described his own attitude.
Term
SHINGLE SPEECH
 Definition
Agglomerating several different superficial aspects of a subject, in
hopes that the resulting verbal structure will be comprehensible. There is no sense of which concepts are primary and which derivative, no sense of which ones explain, justify, or depend upon which. And there may not even be an interconnection among them.
Term
STOLEN CONCEPT
 Definition
Using a concept while ignoring,
contradicting or denying the validity of the concepts on which it logically
and genetically depends. "All property is theft."
Term
STOLEN CONCEPT
 Definition
"The axioms of logic are arbitrary."

(something is arbitrary only in distinction to that which is logically necessary.)
Term
STOLEN CONCEPT
 Definition
"All that exists is change and motion."

(change is possible only to an EXISTENT entity)
Term
STOLEN CONCEPT
 Definition
"You cannot prove that you exist."


(proof presupposes existence)
Term
STOLEN CONCEPT

(Not true)
 Definition
"Acceptance of reason is an act of faith."

(faith has meaning only in contradistinction to reason)

BAD EXAMPLE, WHY?
Term
SUPRESSION OF THE AGENT
 Definition
Dehumanization of the Action: "During the first two years of Garcia's
administration, the economy grew rapidly. But inflation escaped the government's control and the economy soon began to contract."
Term
THOMPSON INVISIBILITY SYNDROME
 Definition
(Atlas Shrugged Part3 Chap8 pg1076)

Someone so far removed from your
frame of reference that he is psychologically invisible.
Term
VERBAL OBLITERATION
 Definition
"When did I say that?"
A kind of denial of the past involved. Unless you can specify the exact moment I made a certain statement, then I insist that I never made that statement. For a clever (and bewildering) retort reply: "About 20 minutes past 2 on Thursday afternoon."
Term
UNKNOWABLES
 Definition
(The Objectivist Newsletter, Jan 1963) "That which, by its nature, cannot
be known. To claim it unknowable, one must first know not only that it
exists but have enough knowledge of it to justify the assertion. The assertion and the justification are then in contradiction. To make the assertion without justification is an irrationalism."
Term
VARIANT IMAGIZATION
 Definition
Generating dissimilar images from similar concepts. Certain kinds of
crops, such as corn, are "harvested", but other kinds, such as trees, are
"slashed" or "devastated". Who would forbid farmers to "harvest" a crop of
beets? But who would willingly allow men armed with chainsaws to "devastate"
the ecology?
Term
VERBAL OBLITERATION
 Definition
The alteration of history by personal decree is done by the sort of person who tries to rewrite history in your mind, just as he rewrites it in his own mind as time goes on.
Term
WOULDCHUCK
 Definition
A certain kind of dissertation made
by people who are trying to "prove" an idea for which they have no factual
corroboration, or who are simply trying to obliterate the distinction between the actual and the potential.
Term
WOULDCHUCK
 Definition
"Would", as an expression of conditional probability, is chucked around as though it were an assertion of factual reality. Implicit to such statements is the assumption that what seems plausible is therefore true and requires no further proof.
Term
WOULDCHUCK
 Definition
They always say: "This is what would happen if...."
They never say: "This is what does happen when...."
The former is based on surmise, the latter is based on fact.
Term
WOULDCHUCK
 Definition
The whole scheme rests on a very shaky basis. He has a plausible argument for everything, but no detailed answers to anything. This type of presentation can often turn an un-informed audience into a misinformed one.
Term
APPEAL TO IGNORANCE
 Definition
Assertions based on what we do NOT know: "No one knows precisely what would happen if a core was to melt down."

And the compounding of arbitrarily asserted possibilities.
Term
APPEAL TO IGNORANCE
 Definition
What COULD happen is what is possible. The burden of proof is on the
skeptic to provide some specific reason to doubt a conclusion that all available evidence supports. It is not true that "coulds" and "maybes" are an epistemological free lunch that can be asserted gratuitously. The case
against the skeptic is that doubt must always be specific, and can only exist in contrast to things which cannot properly be doubted.
Term
SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT
 Definition
Consent to what? Just what is it I consent to when I do NOT vote? To the
policies of Bush? To the policies of Clinton? To the policies of Marrou? To
the policies of all those whose principled disagreement with the electoral system precludes their participation in it?
Term
SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT
 Definition
The process of implication contains a causal relationship. For one thing
to imply another thing, there must be a causal sequence between the two things.
No chain of logical connection between the silence and the consent.
Term
SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT

Response
 Definition
Precisely how does consent arise from silence? How can dead men be said to
consent to anything?
Term
SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT

Response
 Definition
Am I considered to consent to all things about which I am silent? Even those about which I am completely ignorant?
Term
SILENCE IMPLIES CONSENT
 Definition
If I must express disapproval of all things to which I do NOT consent, for fear of reproach resulting from my silence about any of them, there would not be sufficient hours in the day for such a plethora of expressions as would be required for me to preserve my honesty and impartiality.
Term
DETERMINISM
 Definition
Man is neither omniscient nor infallible
This means: (a) that he must work to ACHIEVE his knowledge, and (b) that the
mere presence of an idea inside his mind does not prove that the idea is true; many ideas may enter a man's mind which are false.
Term
DETERMINISM
 Definition
If man believes what he HAS to believe, if he is not free to test his beliefs against reality and to validate or reject them - if the actions and content of his mind are determined by factors that may or may not have anything to do with reason, logic and reality - then he can never know if his conclusions are
true or false....But if this were true, no knowledge - no CONCEPTUAL knowledge - would be possible to man. No theory could claim greater plausibility than any other - including the theory of psychological determinism."
Term
DETERMINISM
 Definition
The fundamental question of free will does not involve Man's physical behavior but his psychological behavior. It concerns Man's ability to control the functioning of his own mind.
Term
DETERMINISM
 Definition
It is my mind that chooses whether or
not I will act according to that motivation.
Term
DETERMINISM
 Definition
Under justice, individuals are held to be responsible agents for the acts
that they commit, and they are held responsible for the consequences of
those actions. Under all the forms of determinism you can't have justice,
because individuals are not held to be causal agents. Instead, they are regarded as billiard balls, as entities who are merely acted upon, and therefore helpless in doing the things they do.
Term
JOURNALISTIC/POLITICAL FALLACIES
 Definition
Weasel words - calling wars something else - "police actions" or "pacification." Euphemisms for war are one of a broad class of distortions
of language for political purposes. Talleyrand said, "An important art of
politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have
become odious to the public."
Term
Ad Fidentia

Against Self-confidence
 Definition
"How can you be sure you're right?"
Term
ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION
 Definition
To trick into performing an action or agreeing with a concept or idea by impugning the character of someone who would not otherwise do or believe the action or concept.
Term
BEGGING THE QUESTION
 Definition
"We must institute the death penalty to discourage violent crime."

(He assumes that capital punishment does in fact discourage crime.)
Term
FANTASY PROJECTION
 Definition
Ignoring the objective realities of a situation, concentrating instead on subjective perceptions that are false.
Term
CONTEXT IMPOSITION
 Definition
"There are no atheists in foxholes."
Term
I-Cubed
 Definition
You assume that your adversary is Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or
Inexperienced and then impose this context on the discussion.
Term
SPURIOUS SUPERFICIALITY
 Definition
He views things through his specialized
eyes, extracts a part of the truth and refuses to see more, sometimes quoting your least significant statements, in order to make it appear that you have said nothing better.
Term
SIMPLISTIC-COMPLEXITY
 Definition
"This is too complex a situation to yield any easy solution!"
Term
SELECTIVE SAMPLING
 Definition
"The death rate among American soldiers in Vietnam was lower than among
the general population."

But the soldiers in Vietnam were young and healthy. They are being compared with a data base including non-young and non-healthy people.
Term
IGNORING PROPORTIONALITY
 Definition
"You are safer walking down a dark alley than sitting in your living room
with friends, because most murders are committed in the victim's home by his
acquaintances."
This ignores the fact that most people spend much more of their time at home than walking down alleys.
Term
MISPLACED PRECISION
 Definition
The museum guide says the dinosaur skeleton is 90,000,006 years old -
because when he was hired six years ago he was told that it was 90 million
years old.
Term
Bandwagon Fallacy
 Definition
Arguments that appeal to the growing popularity of an idea as a reason for accepting it as true.
Term
Bandwagon Fallacy
 Definition
Places an emphasis on current fads and trends, on the growing support for an idea, whereas the appeal to popularity does not.
Term
Fallacist's Fallacy

Response
 Definition
A proposition should not be dismissed because one argument offered in its favour is faulty.
Term
The Gambler’s Fallacy
 Definition
(1) This coin has landed heads-up nine times in a row.
Therefore:
(2) It will probably land tails-up next time it is tossed.
Term
Genetic Fallacy
 Definition
An idea is either accepted or rejected because of its source, rather than its merit.
Term
Appeal to Force
 Definition
An attempt to persuade using threats. Its Latin name, “argumentum ad baculum”, literally means “argument with a cudgel”.
Term
Genetic Fallacy
 Definition
(1) My mommy told me that the tooth fairy is real.
Therefore:
(2) The tooth fairy is real.
Term
Genetic Fallacy
 Definition
(1) Eugenics was pioneered in Germany during the war.
Therefore:
(2) Eugenics is a bad thing.
Term
Irrelevant Appeals
 Definition
An attempt to sway the listener with information that, though persuasive, is irrelevant to the matter at hand.
Term
Appeal to Antiquity / Tradition
 Definition
Assuming that older ideas are better, or that since an idea has been around for a while it must be true.
Term
Appeal to Authority
 Definition
An argument from the fact that a person judged to be an authority affirms a proposition supposedly proves that the proposition is true.
Term
Appeal to Consequences
 Definition
An attempt to motivate belief with an appeal either to the good consequences of believing or the bad consequences of disbelieving.
Term
Appeal to Consequences
 Definition
(1) If believe in God then you’ll find a kind of fulfilment in life that you’ve never felt before.
Therefore:
(2) God exists.
Term
Appeal to Consequences
 Definition
(1’) If you don’t believe in God then you’ll be miserable, thinking that life doesn’t have any meaning.
Therefore:
(2) God exists.
Term
Appeal to Consequences
 Definition
"I don't believe in fate because I don't like the thought that I'm not in control."

"I don't believe in God because I don't like the idea that someone is watching me all the time."
Term
Appeal to Force
 Definition
Disbelief will be met with sanctions, perhaps physical abuse; therefore, you’d better believe.
Term
Appeal to Force
 Definition
(1) If you don’t accept that the Sun orbits the Earth, rather than the other way around, then you’ll be excommunicated from the Church.
Therefore:
(2) The Sun orbits the Earth, rather than the other way around.
Term
Appeal to Novelty
 Definition
Assumes that the newness of an idea is evidence of its truth.
Term
Appeal to Novelty
 Definition
(1) String theory is the most recent development in physics.
Therefore:
(2) String theory is true.
Term
Appeal to Pity
 Definition
Attempts to persuade using emotion--specifically, sympathy--rather than evidence.
Term
Appeal to Pity
 Definition
Showing images of aborted foetuses, anti-abortion materials seek to disgust people, and so turn them against the practice of abortion.
Term
Appeal to Popularity
 Definition
An idea must be true simply because it is widely held.
Term
Appeal to Popularity
 Definition
(1) Most people believe in a god or ‘higher power’.
Therefore:
(2) God, or at least a higher power, must exist.
Term
Appeal to Poverty
 Definition
(1) The working classes respect family and community ties.
Therefore:
(2) Respect for family and community ties is virtuous.
Term
Appeal to Wealth
 Definition
(1) My computer cost more than yours.
Therefore:
(2) My computer is better than yours.
Term
The Moralistic Fallacy
 Definition
Moves from statements about how things ought to be to statements about how things are; it assumes that the world is as it should be.
Term
The Moralistic Fallacy
 Definition
Reasoning that people shouldn’t be driving the wrong way up a one way street so there’s no risk of being run over from that direction.
Term
The Naturalistic Fallacy
 Definition
An argument whose premises merely describe the way that the world is, but whose conclusion describes the way that the world ought to be.
Term
The Naturalistic Fallacy
 Definition
(1) Feeling envy is only natural.
Therefore:
(2) There’s nothing wrong with feeling envy.
Term
Red Herring
 Definition
A fallacy of distraction, and is committed when a listener attempts to divert an arguer from his argument by introducing another topic.
Term
Red Herring
 Definition
The fallacy gets its name from fox hunting, specifically from the practice of using smoked herrings, which are red, to distract hounds from the scent of their quarry.
Term
Weak Analogy
 Definition
(1) A and B are similar.
(2) A has a certain characteristic.
Therefore:
(3) B must have that characteristic too.
Term
Fallacies of Ambiguity
 Definition
Appear to support their conclusions only due to their imprecise use of language.
Term
Fallacies of Ambiguity
 Definition
It is to avoid fallacies of this type that philosophers often carefully define their terms before launching into an argument.
Term
Accent Fallacies
 Definition
Fallacies that depend on where the stress is placed in a word or sentence. The meaning of a set of words may be dramatically changed by the way they are spoken, without changing any of the words themselves.
Term
Equivocation
 Definition
Committed when a term is used in two or more different senses within a single argument.
Term
Equivocation
 Definition
(1) Christianity teaches that faith is necessary for salvation.
(2) Faith is irrational, it is belief in the absence of or contrary to evidence.
Therefore:
(3) Christianity teaches that irrationality is rewarded.
Term
Straw Man Arguments
 Definition
An argument that misrepresents a position in order to make it appear weaker than it actually is, refutes the misrepresentation of the position, and then concludes that the real position has been refuted.
Term
Straw Man
 Definition
(1) Trinitarianism holds that three equals one.
(2) Three does not equal one.
Therefore:
(3) Trinitarianism is false.
Term
Logical Fallacy
 Definition
Roughly speaking, an error of reasoning. When someone adopts a position, or tries to persuade someone else to adopt a position, based on a bad piece of reasoning.
Term
Fallacies of Presumption
 Definition
Begin with a false (or at least unwarranted) assumption, and so fail to establish their conclusion
Term
Affirming the Consequent
 Definition
(1) If A then B
(2) B
Therefore:
(3) A

There may be other times when there is B and no A.
Term
Argument from Ignorance
 Definition
Infer that a proposition is true from the fact that it is not known to be false.
Term
Argument from Ignorance
 Definition
(1) No one has been able to disprove the existence of God.
Therefore:
(2) God exists.
Term
Begging the Question

Circular Reasoning
 Definition
“I have a right to say what I want, therefore you shouldn’t try to silence me”
Term
Begging the Question

Circular Reasoning
 Definition
“Women have a right to choose whether to have an abortion or not, therefore abortion should be allowed”
Term
Complex Question
 Definition
When a question is asked (a) that rests on a questionable assumption, and (b) to which all answers appear to endorse that assumption.
Term
Complex Question
 Definition
"Are you going to admit that you’re wrong?"
Term
Complex Question
 Definition
"Have you stopped beating your wife?"
Term
Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
 Definition
when it is assumed that because two things occur together, they must be causally related.
Term
Cum Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
 Definition
“People who eat Shredded Wheat tend to have healthy hearts.”
Term
Bifurcation / False Dilemma
 Definition
When someone is asked to choose between two options when there is at least one other option available.
Term
Bifurcation / False Dilemma
 Definition
(1) Either a Creator brought the universe into existence, or the universe came into existence out of nothing.
(2) The universe didn’t come into existence out of nothing (because nothing comes from nothing).
Therefore:
(3) A Creator brought the universe into existence.
Term
Hasty Generalisation
 Definition
Draws a general rule from a single, perhaps atypical, case.
Term
Hasty Generalisation
 Definition
(1) My Christian / atheist neighbour is a real grouch.
Therefore:
(2) Christians / atheists are grouches.
Term
‘No True Scotsman’
 Definition
A way of reinterpreting evidence in order to prevent the refutation of one’s position. Proposed counter-examples to a theory are dismissed as irrelevant solely because they are counter-examples, but purportedly because they are not what the theory is about.
Term
‘No True Scotsman’
 Definition
No Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge.
Term
‘No True Scotsman’
 Definition
Once one becomes a Christian one cannot fall away.

When saying that since someone appears to have fallen away the argument is made that they were never a true Christian in the first place.
Term
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
 Definition
“after this therefore because of this.”
Term
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
 Definition
When it is assumed that because one thing occurred after another, it must have occurred as a result of it. Mere temporal succession, however, does not entail causal succession.
Term
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
 Definition
(1) Most people who are read the last rites die shortly afterwards.
Therefore:
(2) Priests are going around killing people with magic words!
Term
Slippery Slope
 Definition
Falsely assuming that one thing must lead to another, on down the line to a disasterous ending...
Term
Slippery Slope
 Definition
If we do one thing then that will lead to another, and before we know it we’ll be doing something that we don’t want to do. They conclude that we therefore shouldn’t do the first thing.
Term
Sweeping Generalisation
 Definition
Applies a general statement too broadly.
Term
Sweeping Generalisation
 Definition
(1) Children should be seen and not heard.
(2) Little Wolfgang Amadeus is a child.
Therefore:
(3) Little Wolfgang Amadeus shouldn’t be heard.
Term
Tu Quoque
 Definition
(Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right)
Term
Tu Quoque
 Definition
When it is assumed that because someone else has done a thing there is nothing wrong with doing it.
Term
Tu Quoque
 Definition
(1) The Romans kept slaves.
Therefore:
(2) We can keep slaves too.
Term
Tu Quoque
 Definition
“Other Premiership clubs charge more, therefore our ticket prices are justified.”
Term
Fallacies of Presumption
 Definition
Not errors of reasoning in the sense of logical errors, but begin with a false (or at least unwarranted) assumption, and so fail to establish their conclusion.
Term
Appeal to Belief
 Definition
1. Most people believe that a claim, X, is true.
2. Therefore X is true.
Term
Appeal to Flattery
 Definition
"Might I say that this is the best philosophy class I've ever taken. By the way, about those two points I need to get an A..."
Term
Appeal to Flattery
 Definition
"That was a wonderful joke about AIDS boss, and I agree with you that the damn liberals are wrecking the country. Now about my raise..."
Term
Appeal to Ridicule
 Definition
"Sure my worthy opponent claims that we should lower tuition, but that is just laughable."
Term
Appeal to Ridicule
 Definition
"Those wacky conservatives! They think a strong military is the key to peace!"
Term
Appeal to Spite
 Definition
Bill: "I think that Jane did a great job this year. I'm going to nominate her for the award."
Dave: "Have you forgotten last year? Remember that she didn't nominate you last year."
Bill: "You're right. I'm not going to nominate her."
Term
Appeal to Spite

Response
 Definition
Actual feelings of malice or spite are not evidence.
Term
Biased Sample
 Definition
When a person draws a conclusion about a population based on a sample that is biased or prejudiced in some manner.
Term
Description of Burden of Proof
 Definition
The one that does not bear the burden of proof, is assumed to be true unless proven otherwise. The difficulty in such cases is determining which side, if any, the burden of proof rests on.
Term
Middle Ground
 Definition
When it is assumed that the middle position between two extremes must be correct simply because it is the middle position.
Term
Misleading Vividness
 Definition
When a very small number of particularly dramatic events are taken to outweigh a significant amount of statistical evidence.
Term
Poisoning the Well
 Definition
Trying to discredit what a person might later claim by presenting unfavorable information (be it true or false) about the person.
Term
Relativist Fallacy
 Definition
When a person rejects a claim by asserting that the claim might be true for others but is not for him/her.
Term
Relativist Fallacy
 Definition
Bill: "Your position results in a contradiction, so I can't accept it."
Dave: "Contradictions may be bad on your Eurocentric, oppressive, logical world view, but I don't think they are bad. Therefore my position is just fine."
Term
Special Pleading
 Definition
When a person applies standards, principles, rules, etc. to others while taking herself (or those she has a special interest in) to be exempt, without providing adequate justification for the exemption.
Term
Special Pleading

Response
 Definition
Two people can be treated differently if and only if there is a relevant difference between them.
Term
Spotlight
 Definition
When a person uncritically assumes that all members or cases of a certain class or type are like those that receive the most attention or coverage in the media.
Term
Amphiboly
 Definition
The structure of a sentence allows for two different interpretations.
Term
Slothful Induction
 Definition
The conclusion of a strong inductive argument is denied despite the evidence to the contrary
Term
Accident
 Definition
A generalization is applied when circumstances suggest that there should be an exception.
Term
Converse Accident
 Definition
An exception is applied in circumstances where a generalization should apply.
Term
Wrong Direction
 Definition
The direction between cause and effect is reversed.
Term
Joint effect
 Definition
One thing is held to cause another when in fact they are both the joint effects of an underlying cause.
Term
Denying the Antecedent
 Definition
Any argument of the form: If A then B, Not A, thus Not B.
Term
Inconsistency
 Definition
Asserting that contrary or contradictory statements are both true.
Term
Abuse of Etymology

Response
 Definition
If one's goal is to communicate, then the "real" or "true" meaning of a word is its current meaning. Since the meanings of words change over time, often considerably, the meaning of an etymon may be very different from the current meaning of the word derived from it.
Term
Etymological fallacy
as a semantic error
 Definition
The mistake of confusing the current meaning of a word with the meaning of one of its etymons, or of considering the meaning of the etymon to be the "real" or "true" meaning of the current word.
Term
Etymological fallacy
as a logical mistake
 Definition
When one reasons about the etymon as if the conclusion applied to the current word.
Term
Card Stacking

Suppressed Evidence
 Definition
Presents only evidence favoring its conclusion, and ignores or downplays the evidence against it.
Term
False Conversion
 Definition
All communists are atheists.
Therefore, all atheists are communists.
Term
Illicit Process of the Major Term
 Definition
All communists are leftists.
No conservatives are communists.
Therefore, no conservatives are leftists.
Term
Illicit Process
 Definition
An argument with a term distributed in the conclusion, but not in its premiss.
Term
The Masked Man Fallacy
 Definition
The masked man is Mr. Hyde.
The witness believes that the masked man committed the crime.
Therefore, the witness believes that Mr. Hyde committed the crime.
Term
The Masked Man Fallacy
 Definition
Substitution of Identicals, also known as "Leibniz' Law", is a validating form of argument so long as the context in which it occurs is extensional, or referentially transparent.
Term
Improper Transposition
 Definition
If there's a fire, then there's smoke.
Therefore, if there's no fire, then there's no smoke.
Term
Improper Transposition
 Definition
If we guillotine the king, then he will die.
Therefore, if we don't guillotine the king, then he won't die.
Term
Logic
 Definition
The science of reasoning, proof, thinking, or inference.
Term
Appeal to Gallery
 Definition
The writer uses emotive language that will produce a desired effect on a group or "gallery" of readers. By appealing to the fears or interests of the audience, the writer hopes to gain approval.
Term
Appeal to Gallery
 Definition
Same-sex marriage must be prohibited, or the family structure as we know it will collapse.
Term
Anthrocentric (human-centered) fallacy
 Definition
The presupposition level: human language, reason, instincts, and desires are assumed to be the orbit around which everything else in the universe (including the aforementioned demons) revolve.

"I told the dog to quit."
Term
Invincible ignorance
 Definition
Insisting on the legitimacy of one's position in the face of contradictory facts.
Term
Invincible ignorance
 Definition
"I really don't care what the experts say; no one is going to convince me that I'm wrong"
Term
Invincible ignorance
 Definition
"nothing you say is going to change my mind"

"yeah, okay, whatever!"
Term
Argument By Gibberish
(Bafflement)
 Definition
"baffle them with BS"
Term
Argument By Gibberish
(Bafflement)
 Definition
"Each autonomous individual emerges holographically within egoless ontological consciousness as a non-dimensional geometric point within the transcendental thought-wave matrix."
Term
Amazing Familiarity
 Definition
The speaker seems to have information that there is no possible way for him to get, on the basis of his own statements.

"He was the only survivor and died alone with no one to tell his story to."
Term
Least Plausible Hypothesis
 Definition
"I left a saucer of milk outside overnight. In the morning, the milk was gone. Clearly, my yard was visited by fairies."
Term
Argument By Scenario
 Definition
Telling a story which ties together unrelated material, and then using the story as proof they are related.
Term
Fast Talking
 Definition
If you go from one idea to the next quickly enough, the audience won't have time to think.
Term
Having Your Cake

(Failure To Assert,
or Diminished Claim)
 Definition
Almost claiming something, but backing out.

Do angels have wings?
Well yes, some angels do, but there are some angels that don't.
Term
Ambiguous Assertion
 Definition
A statement is made, but it is sufficiently unclear that it leaves some sort of leeway.
Term
Failure To State
 Definition
If you make enough attacks, and ask enough questions, you may never have to actually define your own position on the topic.
Term
Argument By Repetition

(Argument Ad Nauseam)
 Definition
If you say something often enough, some people will begin to believe it.
Term
Argument By Poetic Language
 Definition
If it sounds good, it must be right.

Songs often use this effect to create a sort of credibility - for example, "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult.
Term
Argument By Slogan
 Definition
If it's short, and connects to an argument, it must be an argument.
Term
Argument By Prestigious Jargon
 Definition
Using big complicated words so that you will seem to be an expert.

Why do people use "utilize" when they could utilize "use" ?
Term
Lies
 Definition
Intentional Errors of Fact.
Term
Pious Fraud
 Definition
If the speaker thinks that lying serves a moral end.
Term
Argument By Laziness
 Definition
The arguer hasn't bothered to learn anything about the topic. He nevertheless has an opinion, and will be insulted if his opinion is not treated with respect.
Term
Fallacy Of The Crucial Experiment
 Definition
Claiming that some idea has been proved (or disproved) by a pivotal discovery. This is the "smoking gun" version of history.
Term
Pious Fraud
 Definition
A fraud done to accomplish some good end, on the theory that the end justifies the means.
Term
Reifying
 Definition
An abstract thing is talked about as if it were concrete.

"Nature abhors a vacuum."
Term
Statement Of Conversion
 Definition
The speaker says "I used to believe in X".
The speaker is implying that he has learned about the subject, and now that he is better informed, he has rejected X. So perhaps he is now an authority, and this is an implied Argument From Authority.
Term
Statement Of Conversion

(With appeal to anonymous authority)
 Definition
There are a number of Creationist authors who say they "used to be evolutionists", but the scientists who have rated their books haven't noticed any expertise about evolution. (Scientists)
Term
Appeal To False Authority
 Definition
Quoting an Authority on a subject outside his area of expertise.
Term
Appeal To Anonymous Authority
 Definition
"Experts agree that ..", "scientists say .." or even "they say ..".
Term
Argument From False Authority
 Definition
"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV."
Term
Stolen Concept
 Definition
Using what you are trying to disprove. That is, requiring the truth of something for your proof that it is false.
Term
Stolen Concept
 Definition
Arguing that you do not exist, when your existence is clearly required for you to be making the argument.
Term
Argument To The Future

(Punting to the Future)
 Definition
Arguing that evidence will someday be discovered which will (then) support your point.
Term
Poisoning The Wells
 Definition
Discrediting the sources used by your opponent.
Term
Not Invented Here
 Definition
Ideas from elsewhere are made unwelcome.

"This Is The Way We've Always Done It."
Term
Psychogenetic Fallacy
 Definition
If you learn the psychological reason why your opponent likes an argument, then he's biased, so his argument must be wrong.
Term
Reductive Fallacy

(Oversimplification)
 Definition
Over-simplifying.

As Einstein said, everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Political slogans such as "Taxation is theft" fall in this category.
Term
Argument by Rhetorical Question
 Definition
Asking a question in a way that leads to a particular answer.
Term
Argument By Question
 Definition
Asking your opponent a question which does not have a snappy answer. (Or anyway, no snappy answer that the audience has the background to understand.) Your opponent has a choice: he can look weak or he can look long-winded.
Term
Needling
 Definition
Attempting to make the other person angry, without trying to address the argument at hand.
Term
Phonic Fallacies
 Definition
The phonetic sound of a word should not be used to twist its meaning.
Term
Shoehorning
 Definition
Force-fitting some current affair into one's personal, political, or religious agenda.

Psychics are famous for forcing events to fit vague statements they made in the past.
Term
Sunk-cost fallacy
 Definition
When one makes a hopeless investment, one sometimes reasons: I can’t stop now, otherwise what I’ve invested so far will be lost. This is true, of course, but irrelevant to whether one should continue to invest in the project.
Term
If-by-whiskey
 Definition
Where the response to a question is contingent on the questioner's opinion.
Term
If-by-whiskey
 Definition
If by dissension you mean peaceful opposition to unjust laws, then I am for it; but if by dissension you mean violent opposition to all law, then I am against it.
Term
If-by-whiskey
 Definition
If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew,...then certainly I am against it.
But;
If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation,...then certainly I am for it.
Term
Nirvana fallacy
 Definition
The logical error of comparing actual things with their idealized counterparts.
Term
Halo Effect
 Definition
Where the first traits we recognize in other people then influence the interpretation and perception of latter ones (because of our expectations).
Term
Halo Effect
 Definition
Attractive people are often judged as having a more desirable personality and more skills than someone of average appearance. Celebrities are used to endorse products that they have no expertise in evaluating.
Term
Wisdom of repugnance
 Definition
The belief that an intuitive (or "deep-seated") negative response to some thing, idea or practice should be interpreted as evidence for the intrinsically harmful or evil character of that thing.
Term
Perfect solution fallacy
 Definition
When an argument assumes that a perfect solution exists and/or that a solution should be rejected because some part of the problem would still exist after it was implemented.
Term
Regression fallacy
 Definition
Ascribing cause where none exists. The flaw is failing to account for natural fluctuations.
Term
Style over substance fallacy
 Definition
When one emphasises the way in which the argument is presented, while marginalising (or outright ignoring) the content of the argument.
Term
Trivial objections
 Definition
Where irrelevant and sometimes frivolous objections are made to divert the attention away from the topic that is being discussed. The word that best defines this type of argument is "quibble".
Term
Truthiness
 Definition
The quality by which a person claims to know something intuitively, instinctively, or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts.
Supporting users have an ad free experience!