If you are part of debate and speech at your school, you might have heard of a few of these. Basically, a fallacy is a mistaken belief, or a failure in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. For instance, if you’re arguing with someone and they go “Well yea? You’re just dumb.” that’s a fallacy. This particular type of fallacy is referred to as Ad Hominem. Here is a list of the top 10 fallacies you see every day. Someone fax this to Fox News.
1. Ad Hominem
When someone attacks the person instead of the argument.
“Bob cheated on the last test, you shouldn’t trust him to answer any of your questions “
2. Appeal to Authority
When a statement is considered true because it is verified by someone who is an “authority” on the subject.
Source A says that “X” is true
Source A is authoritative
Therefore, “X” is true
“The policeman said it’s legal for him to search my home, he’s a police officer so he must be right!”
3. Appeal to Ignorance
When a claim is considered true because it hasn’t been disproven or vice versa. This happens a lot in any debate involving religion.
“I don’t see any proof that Aliens don’t exist, therefore they must exist!”
4. Bandwagon Fallacy
When a concept is considered true because a lot of people accept it as true.
“The Sun goes around the Earth”
5. Begging the Question
When the statement is assumed true based on the statement itself.
“Marijuana wouldn’t be illegal if it wasn’t seriously harmful to your health.”
6. Loaded Question
When a question contains the presumption of guilt.
“When did you stop hitting your wife?”
7. Non Sequitur
When a statement’s conclusion does not follow its original premise.
“If you don’t buy this type of food, then you are neglecting your children’s health.”
8. Red Herring
When someone diverts attention from the original topic to a new topic and uses it to throw you off.
Topic A is being debated.
Topic B is introduced as being related to Topic A.
Topic A is abandoned.
Now Topic B is being used to discredit you.
“So you think abortion results in lower crime rates. Well, we’ve all see what happened in Nevada with that abortion doctor who killed his patients with dirty equipment. You want that? You want to see patients killed in dirty clinics? Then go ahead and support abortion.”
9. Slippery Slope
When it assumed that small steps cause a chain reaction leading to bigger events.
“If you legalize Marijuana where do you stop?! You’ll legalize Cocaine, Heroin, and Opium too!”
10. Straw Man
When someone ignores the argument and replaces it with a distorted or exaggerated version of it.
Person A: “Evolution states that humans developed over a long time from the same common ancestor as the gorilla.”
Person B: “Everyone listen to Person A. He’s saying that we decended from baboons!”
