Top 20 Logical Fallacies

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Top 20 Logical Fallacies (in alphabetical order)

Ad hominem

1. Jack: If she wants to go, I think you should let her go.

Jill: Why do you say that? You have never loved anyone before so you do not know howit feels like to lose someone.

Ad ignorantiam

Time travel does not exist. No one has ever travelled in the past or in the future, right?"

Argument from authority

1. Jack: I am handsome.

ill: Why do you say that?

ack: Because my mom told me so.

ill: And you believed her, of course.

Argument from final Consequences

In order for us to exist, the universe has to be very fine -tuned in order for that to happen,

therefore God (or an Intelligence) was the one that created it.

Argument from Personal Incredulity

Humans cant possibly be responsible for global warming because Earth is too big of a system

for us to have that great an effect on it.

Confusing currently unexplained with unexplainable

False Continuum

The more money we spend on public schools, the better off our children will be. The less we

spend, the worse off they'll be. The false continuum is that it is possible to make schools better by

spending less money more efficiently. More is not necessarily better.

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False Dichotomy

"If you're not with us, you're against us."

Inconsistency

"All general claims have exceptions."

Non-Sequitur

"Since Egyptians did so much excavation to construct the pyramids, they were well versed in

paleontology."

Post-hoc ergo propter hoc

"The Soviet Union collapsed after instituting state atheism. Therefore we must avoid atheism for

the same reasons."

Reductio ad absurdum

Slippery Slope

"If we legalize marijuana, then more people would start to take crack and heroin, and we'd have to

legalize those too. Before long we'd have a nation full of drug-addicts on welfare. Therefore we

cannot legalize marijuana."

Special pleading, or ad-hoc reasoning

Straw Man

"To be an atheist, you have to believe with absolute certainty that there is no God. In order to

convince yourself with absolute certainty, you must examine all the Universe and all the places

where God could possibly be. Since you obviously haven't, your position is indefensible."

Tautology

Parent: Its bed time, go to bed.

Child: Why?

Parent: Because I said so.

The Moving Goalpost

opponents of evolutionary theory point to gaps in the fossil record, claiming that evolutionary

lines don't really connect because the record is incomplete. "Show us one fossil of a part-fish, part

frog, and we'll be satisfied," they cry. If that evolutionary gap is filled with a new fossil, deniers

now point to the two new gaps on either side of the new specimen. This prospect of these

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endless, shrinking targets helped to inspire my snail shell dartboard. Standards of acceptance

shrink so that sacred ideas don't have to.

Tu quoqueParent: Whats wrong with you? You always come home late!

Child: Whats wrong with me? You always come home late too!

Unstated Major Premise

If we label foods with their cholesterol content, Americans' will make healthier food choices.