Logical Fallacies

Person 1: Bicycle infrastructure should be expanded because cycling is a sustainable mode of transportation.

Person 2: We should not build bike lanes because cyclists run red lights and endanger pedestrians.

• Band Wagon

• Either/Or

• Hasty Generalization

• Straw Man

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RI.4.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RL.6.1

People either like coffee or hate it.

• Ad Hominem

• Either/Or

• Red herring

• Band Wagon

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RI.4.8

CCSS.RI.4.5

CCSS.RI.5.5

CCSS.RI.6.5

I am voting for Smith for President because the rest of my family is voting for him. 

• Hasty Generalization
• Straw Man
• Bandwagon Appeal
• Appeal to False Authority

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RI.4.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.8

CCSS.RI.6.1

Smoking cigarettes is just like ingesting arsenic into your system; both have been shown to be causally related to death. If you wouldn't want to take a spoonful of arsenic, I would think that you wouldn't want to continue smoking.

• Hasty Generalization

• Faulty Analogy

• Straw Man

• Red herring

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.8

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RL.6.1

You should never gamble. Once you start gambling you find it hard to stop. Soon you are spending all your money on gambling, and eventually you will turn to crime to support your earnings.

• Non Sequitur

• Slippery Slope

• Red herring

• Faulty analogy

All men are mortal, and Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates likes dogs.

• Ad Hominem

• Hasty Generalization

• Non Sequitur

• Straw Man

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RI.4.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.8

CCSS.RI.6.1

I saw Ashton Kutcher in a prescription drug commercial, therefore it has to be an effective drug.

• Ad hominem

• Hasty Generalization

• Either/Or

• Appeal to False Authority

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.8

CCSS.RI.6.1

CCSS.RL.6.1

Mike: It is morally wrong to cheat on your spouse, why on earth would you have done that?

Ken: But what is morality exactly?

Mike: It’s a code of conduct shared by cultures.

Ken: But who creates this code?...

• ad hominem

• red herring

• band wagon

• faulty analogy

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RI.4.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.8

CCSS.RL.6.1

Charlie: I think we should put more money into schools. Quality public education is so important.

Bob: So you’re saying we should cut military spending and spend it instead on more spiral notebooks and crayons? I guess you want our country to be a weak, defenseless target for terrorists.

• Ad Hominem

• Hasty Generalization

• Faulty Causality

• Straw Man

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RI.4.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.8

CCSS.RI.6.1

I guess I should buy my 12-year-old daughter an iPhone. Everyone at her new school has one and I want her to fit in with the other kids.

• Appeal to False Authority

• Either/ Or

• Bandwagon

• Slippery Slope

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.8

CCSS.RI.4.8

CCSS.RL.4.5

CCSS.RI.6.8

CCSS.RL.6.1