Critical Thinking

1. What fallacy occurs when someone argues that a claim must be true because a lot of people believe it?

• Appeal to authority

• Appeal to popularity

• Circular reasoning

• ad hominem

“Please don’t break up with me, my dog just died, and my best friend moved to Tennessee. I don’t want to be alone!”

• strawman

• appeal to emotion

• buzzword

• hyperbole

“If he was a bad politician, he wouldn’t be supported by some many, would he?”

• hyperbole

• litotes

• appeal to popularity

• appeal to emotion

“Congress still hasn’t passed a bill on immigration reform. I just don’t understand why they want all of our jobs to be taken away.”

• slippery slope

• strawman

• buzzword

• appeal to ignorance

“When we lowered the price of our car wash in June, our sales increased by 20%. Our new business strategy was a success.”

• hasty generalization

• appeal to popularity

• hyperbole

• mistaken correlation and causation

“The Minnesota Vikings are the best football team because they are better than all the other teams in the NFL.”

• appeal to popularity

• red herring

• circular reasoning

• hasty generalization

“Clearly Mary should not be a spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association. Her views can’t be trusted — she’s extremely overweight!”

• litotes

• equivocation

• ad hominem

• slippery slope

“Sure, philosophy helps you argue better, but do we really need to encourage people to argue? There's enough hostility in this world.”

• loaded question

• equivocation

• tu quoque

• euphemism

What logical fallacy is present in the following statement: "If we allow this small tax increase, it won't be long before the government takes all our money."

• Appeal to tradition

• Begging the question

• Slippery slope

• False dilemma

In the following dialogue, what rhetorical device does Person A use?

Person A: "I'm not saying we should implement this new policy, but think about all the chaos and confusion it might cause if we don't."

Person B: "So, you are suggesting we implement it?"

• Loaded question

• Red herring

• Slippery slope

• Euphemism