Learn Fallacies

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Card 1:

Ad Hominem

When someone attempts to discredit someone's argument with personal attacks instead of attacking the argument itself.

Card 2:

Hasty Generalization

Making a claim based on evidence that is too small.

Card 3:

Red Herring Fallacy

Something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question.

Card 4:

Tu Quoque fallacy

Attempts to discredit the opponent by attacking the personal beliefs or actions as being inconsistent with their argument.

Card 5:

Slippery Slope

A course of action is rejected because with little or no evidence it is suggesting that is will lead to a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end.

Card 6:

Special Pleading Fallacy

Applying standards, principles, or rules to other people while making oneself exempt from the standards, rules or principles without evidence based justification.

Card 7:

Loaded Question

A question that already contains an assumption

Card 8:

False dilemma

When someone misrepresents an argument by offering only two options when more exist. Or be presenting the options as mutually exclusive when they are not.

Card 9:

Strawman Fallacy

Attacking an argument by misconstruing the argument.

Card 10:

Circular Reasoning

Assuming the very thing they are trying to prove is true. Instead of offering evidence it simply repeats the conclusion.

Card 11:

Appeal to authority.

The mere fact that an influential figure holds an opinion, therefore their opinion is true.

Card 12:

Appeal to nature fallacy

That a thing is good because it is natural or bad because it is unnatural.

Card 13:

Composition fallacy

Arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that is true of some part of the whole.

Card 14:

Affirming the consequent

Taking a true conditional statement under certain circumstances and making a presumption that something will be true based on the original true statement. Example: The dog barks because it saw an intruder. Therefore, every time the dog barks, it is barking at an intruder.

Card 15:

Anecdotal Analogy

When someone takes a limited personal example and makes sweeping conclusions about circumstances. For example, "My uncle is a millionaire and he didn't go to college" This statement assumes that you don't need to go to college to get rich based on a limited personal example.

Card 16:

Appeal to emotion

Technique characterized by the manipulation of another persons emotions especially in the absence of evidence.

Card 17:

Burden of proof

Whenever the person making a claim tries to remove the responsibility of providing evidence. Most commonly played out like this: Perry makes a claim, "The world is actually flat". Calvin says, "Hey your claim isn't true", Perry attacks Calvin and says, "You cannot prove that the world is round so therefore the world is flat"

Card 18:

No true Scotsman

Protecting a group by assuming that all counter examples are not true enough. "Rabbits actually hate music" "I'm not sure if that is true" "You don't really know rabbits like I do, therefore rabbits hate music!"

Card 19:

Texas sharpshooter OR Moving the goal post

Metaphor of a gunman shooting and then drawing targets around the bullet hole clusters making it appear that he hit the targets.

Card 20:

Personal incredulity

When someone assumes that something true must be easy to understand or imagine.

Card 21:

Middle ground fallacy

Assuming that the truth is always somewhere between two options.

Card 22:

Affirming a disjunct

When presenting two or more options. You find that one option is true. Therefore you assume all other options are false.

Card 23:

Appeal to tradition

Ignoring evidence because we have done something a certain way for a long time.

Card 24:

Sunk cost fallacy

Continuing something because we have invested time or money too because we have invested time or money to it. Joe bought 500 dogecoin. Joe continues investing more money into dogecoin and believes dogecoin will rise in value because he personally owns 500 dogecoin.

Card 25:

Appeal to ignorance

Assuming something is true because it has not yet been proven false. Or assuming something is false because it has not yet been proven true.

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