This page discusses and lists popular fallacies encountered in daily life.
What are fallacies?
Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument. Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim
Some Questions
- Why do we study fallacies?
- People are often illogical, in what situations are understanding fallacies important?
- Should we point out others' fallacies in their arguments?
Formal Fallacies
Affirming the consequent
This is a formal fallacy of taking a true conditional statement (e.g., "If the lamp were broken, then the room would be dark,") and invalidly inferring its converse ("The room is dark, so the lamp is broken,") even though the converse may not be true. This arises when a consequent ("the room would be dark") has more than one other possible antecedents (for example, "the lamp is not plugged in" or "the lamp is in working order, but is switched off").
Appeal to probability
Argument from fallacy
Base rate fallacy : statistical paradox
- STAR TREK Logical Thinking #38 - Base Rate Neglect (Base Rate Fallacy)
- How To Update Your Beliefs Systematically - Bayes’ Theorem
- False positives and false negatives: disease screening - conditional probability - Bayes Theorem
- Bayes theorem, the geometry of changing beliefs
Informal Fallacies
Ad hominem
Ad hominem (Latin for 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem, refers to several types of arguments, some but not all of which are fallacious. Typically this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself. This avoids genuine debate by creating a diversion to some irrelevant but often highly charged issue.
Assuming the conclusion
Another name for this fallacy is Begging the Question. To 'assume the conclusion' or to 'beg the question' (also called petitio principii) is to attempt to support a claim with a premise that itself restates or presupposes the claim. It is an attempt to prove a proposition while simultaneously taking the proposition for granted. (source: Wikipedia page on "Begging the Question" dated 22/8/21.)
During the Australian same sex marriage debate in 2017, an opponent to same sex marriage argued that same sex marriage was unacceptable as marriage was defined to be a union between a man and a woman. The premise "marriage was defined to be a union between a man and a woman" assumes the conclusion "same sex marriage was unacceptable".
Equivocation
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Slippery slope
Statistical fallacy
Using numbers in such a manner that – either by intent or through ignorance or carelessness – the conclusions are unjustified or incorrect. Another term for this fallacy is 'Misuse of Statistics'.
The claim by PM Scott Morrison in June 2021 on the success of hotel quarantine is an example of Statistical Fallacy as shown in the ABC fact checker article below: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-15/fact-check-is-hotel-quarantine-99-9-per-cent-successful/100289242
Politicians routinely quote statistics that shine a good light on their story. For example, carbon dioxide emission is quoted as a percentage of total global emission (and not emission per capita); while refugee intake is presented as ranking on per capita basis (and not as a percentage of total refugee intake).
For CO2 emission, see: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/australia
For refugee intake, see: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/2018-global-trends/
Straw man
A straw man is an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, whereas the real subject of the argument was not addressed or refuted, but instead replaced with a false one. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man". (source: Wikipedia page on "Straw man" dated 25/8/21.)
For example:
A: Practice X should be banned as it can cause serious harm to people.
B: Banning practice X is an attack on freedom of expression. Freedom of expression must not be tempered with. This is the most serious attack on our freedom of expression ever....
B is attacking a straw man since instead of arguing about whether practice X harms people or not, B is arguing about freedom of expression.
Fallacy Lists
The following lists some websites that provide list of fallacies:
Fallacy and Biases - https://philosophy.hku.hk/think/fallacy/index.phpFallacy Files - http://www.fallacyfiles.org/index.html
Information is Beautiful - Rhetological Fallacies
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Fallacies
Wikipedia - List of Fallacies - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
Youtube playlists:
Your Bias is - https://yourbias.is/
Your Logical Fallacies - https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/
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