Rhetorical/Logical Fallacies

Match the definition with the fallacy:

"Stating that because event A happened before event B, then event A caused event B."

• Begging the question

• Faulty Causality

• Either-or

• Ad hominem

Match the definition with the fallacy:

"Attacking the opposition personally rather than the argument or evidence itself."

• bandwagon

• Begging the question

• Hasty generalization

• Ad hominem

Match the definition with the fallacy:

Misrepresenting, exaggerating, or falsifying an opposing argument to make it seem ridiculous and weaker than it actually is.

• Straw man

• Ad hominem

• Being the question

• Bandwagon

Match the definition with the fallacy:

"Circular reasoning where the conclusion is the evidence and the evidence is the conclusion."

• Ad hominem

• Hasty generalization

• Begging the question

• Slippery slope

Match the fallacy with the definition:

"Insinuating that one step or action will absolutely lead to the next, culminating in an inevitable, often horrible, conclusion."

• Straw man

• Hasty generalization

• Slippery slope

• Bandwagon

Match the definition with the fallacy:

"Making a sweeping, broad conclusion on the basis of very little evidence."

• Either-or

• Hasty generalization

• Slippery slope

• Bandwagon

Match the definition with the fallacy:

"Posing only two choices, overlooking other possibilities, and implying there are no other options."

• Hasty generalization

• Begging the question

• Slippery slope

• Either-or

Determine which fallacy the following argument contains. List the fallacy AND explain your answer.

“Senator Walker has come out in favor of privatizing Social Security, which will be a strike against the poorest senior citizens. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at that. He doesn’t have to worry about his income when he retires, with or without Social Security. His grandfather made the family fortune sixty years ago in frozen foods, and the Senator’s inheritance has put him on Easy Street his whole life.”

Determine which fallacy the following argument contains. List the fallacy AND explain your answer.

"Steroid testing for high school sports eligibility is unfair. It’s just another invasion of privacy. They say they are testing for steroids, but they will really look for anything they can find – drugs, alcohol, nicotine. Next it will be caffeine, then they will start cutting people from teams because their cholesterol is too high – The Big Mac Attack – then people with allergies, asthma, and athlete’s foot will get the ax. Only the ‘perfect people’ will be left!”

Determine which fallacy the following argument contains. List the fallacy AND explain your answer.

“I have the research paper due in two weeks. But the beach party is scheduled for the weekend before it’s due, and I’m not going to miss that. I only have two choices, so I just won’t do the paper, and I’ll take the zero.”