Written Discourse: Types of Fallacy

Written Discourse:

Types of Fallacy

Ad hominem

attacks the person and not the issue

Appeal to emotions

manipulates people's emotions in order to get their attention away from an important issue

Bandwagon/Ad Populum

creates the impression that everybody is doing it and so should you

The straw man

occurs when someone takes another person's argument or point, distorts it or exaggerates it in some kind of extreme way, and then attacks the extreme distortion, as if that is really the claim the first person is making

False dilemma

limits the possible choices to avoid consideration of another choice

Scare tactic

creates fear in people as evidence to support a claim

Red herring

presents an irrelevant topic to divert attention away from the original issue

Traditional wisdom

uses the logic that the way things used to be is better than they are now, ignoring any problems of the past

False Cause

assumes that one event causes another

Hasty generalization 

jumping to conclusions/draws a conclusion about a population based on a small sample

Slippery Slope

shifts attention from the issue at hand to a hypothetical outcome, offering little or no proof that outcome is likely

Appeal to False Authority

a persuasive technique in which it is assumed that the opinions of a recognized expert in one area should be heeded in another area

Appeal to Ignorance

occurs when you argue that your conclusion must be true, because there is no evidence against it