Questions tagged [fallacies]
Concerns formal (syllogistic) fallacies, informal (rhetorical) fallacies, tactical misdirection, and errors in logic or reasoning more broadly put.
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Logical fallacy: X is bad, Y is worse, thus X is not bad
I have heard this type of argument too many times: You are criticising X using well researched facts and arguments. Your interlocutor, states that Y is much worse with equally well researched facts ...
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Why do they say I am committing a fallacy when I am just insulting someone?
On the internet, one is often accused of committing the so-called 'ad hominem'-fallacy, which, according to Sikipedia, is defined as
a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby genuine discussion of ...
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Fallacy by Sherlock Holmes 'Eliminate the impossible, and what remains must be the truth'
In The Sign of Four, Holmes asks Watson: "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"
This may be ...
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Is circular reasoning always a fallacy?
Suppose the following dialogue:
...
"I accept only one notion of land property. Namely, 'I am doing my stuff here, therefore I am here".
"But this means," he responded, "you ...
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Is it a fallacy if someone claims they need an explanation for every word of your argument to the point where they don't understand common terms?
Is it a fallacy if someone claims they need an explanation for every word of your argument to the point where they don't understand common terms?
For example, suppose someone said, "If a dog bites ...
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Isn't the notion that everything will occur in an infinite timeline an example of the gambler's fallacy?
I've seen a few different formulations of this, but the most famous is "monkeys on a typewriter" - that if you put a team of monkeys on a typewriter, given infinite time, they will eventually produce ...
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Is "I cannot imagine a mechanism for X to happen, so X can never happen" a named logical fallacy?
I have encountered this reasoning quite frequently:
Somebody posits the hypothesis that an event X can happpen. A recent example I encountered was "vinegar and salt in the boiling water make eggs ...
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Does the no true Scotsman fallacy apply to anti Stalinist etc. communism?
The internet is awash with claims that anyone arguing that Stalinist Russia / Maoism wasn't communist is committing the no true Scotsman / ad hoc rescue fallacy. However, I suspect that few of its ...
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If the Bible contains circular reasoning, does it discredit it?
If the Bible contains circular reasoning, does it discredit it?
One of the reasons why I wonder about this is because in most academic/professional fields circular reasoning would discredit the ...
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What type of rhetorical device is the offering of a source which is really long and not specifying what part of the source is relevant?
I'm encountering a frequent recurrence of a rhetorical device that seems to me fallacious but I can't figure out what it's called. When making an argument, the person does the following:
Makes a ...
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What fallacy dismisses problems by presenting "bigger" problems?
Wasn't really sure how to phrase this, but I'm thinking of an instance in which someone diminishes a problem by presenting one of larger scope - as a rather shoddy example, "x political problem in ...
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Is Yoda committing a fallacy?
I've been debating with a hard core Star Wars friend who loves repeating Yoda's "Do or do not, there is no try" knowledge.
I tried to explain that the DO (B) and DO NOT (C), are end results, ...
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What's so fallacious about the Slippery Slope Fallacy?
When you look at the world, I think it's a rather non-controversial statement that a good percentage, if not a majority, of social problems are caused by people making choices based solely on short-...
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What is this logical fallacy? (Nothing new under the sun?)
It has been two decades since I took a reason and argument course in college. I am rusty on my command of logical fallacies. With that preface, I have been trying to locate a logical fallacy that ...
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Is it a fallacy to say that a sane person cannot apply rational thought to the motivations of the insane?
A common argument in today's news is that:
Someone commits a heinous crime by shooting a bunch of people.
Anyone who commits a heinous crime must be insane.
Sane people cannot apply rational thought ...
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What do you call the fallacy of thinking that some action A will guarantee some outcome B, when in reality B depends on multiple other conditions?
Example:
Dentist: “You have multiple cavities.”
Patient: “That’s ridiculous! You always told me that brushing my teeth prevents cavities. I brush my teeth every night. Therefore, I can’t possibly ...
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Which fallacy: "If white privilege exists, why did Elizabeth Warren pretend to be an Indian?"
I recently came across this meme. It's clearly a logical fallacy (the existence of one use of a socioeconomic tool other than white privilege does not preclude the existence of white privilege), but I'...
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What is this fallacy: Perfection is impossible, therefore imperfection should be overlooked
This is a pretty common fallacious statement that people make every now and then.
Point me to any software that has been released without bugs? I
think your expectations might be a tad high.
It's ...
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What fallacy is this? “This happened, therefore there must be good reasons for it”
What fallacy is it when someone says "this is true/it happened, therefore there are good reasons for it"?
For example:
We drive on the left (or right, depending on country) side of the
road, ...
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What is the name of this fallacy: 101 is either binary or decimal?
A similar example would be of binary and decimal number where we are not sure about the number system.
For example, The person who proposed a number is not remotely available to disclose about number ...
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What kind of fallacy is it to say if abolition of something isn't possible, we shouldn't attempt to address it at all?
I'm trying to figure out the exact fallacy (or if it even is one) that takes the form:
If abolition of x isn't possible, we shouldn't attempt to address x.
I see this quite often from radical second ...
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What is the name of the fallacy where people assume that complex ideas are automatically better?
I often hear variations of the following premise in people's discussions:
Your argument is too simplistic
Which means that this simplicity is undesirable for some reason not present in the argument. ...
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Is it fallacious to argue that something is correct, of good quality, or acceptable because a community of experts has established it as such?
Earlier today, I asked a programming question on a forum. I phrased the question as "What is the best way to do x?" Someone responded with something to the effect of, "the best way is ...
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What type of fallacy is it when people in undeveloped countries claim something it's true, because developed countries do it?
A fallacy that we hear a lot here in undeveloped countries, and which is so deeply annoying, it's that something is true because the developed countries do it. It's particularly annoying because many ...
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What fallacy dismisses criticism of a bad law with "just don't break it"?
Let's say someone is criticizing the government for instituting some draconian policy, and/or for persecuting people for doing something minor. And the response is:"Just don't do it and you'll be fine"...
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What's the name of the logical fallacy where a debater extends a statement far beyond the original statement to make it true?
Suppose that someone initially states that "fossil fuel consumption due to mobile phone usage is similar to that of private transportation, so if you think we should switch to electric/bike to fight ...
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Do "if everybody did it" arguments commit a fallacy?
Who is committing a fallacy in this discussion, and what kind of fallacy is it?
A: There's nothing wrong with killing people at random
B: If everybody did it, you would too most likely be a random ...
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Is reductio ad absurdum a fallacy?
If Miles told Frank: “Copying a DVD is stealing”
And Frank's response to Miles: “if copying a DVD is stealing, then, by that logic, taking a photo of someone is kidnapping”
And Miles Response is: “...
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What fallacy is assuming something is the case because of past events
I'm sure this is a simple question. What I am referring to is disbelieving someone on Day 20 because they have lied every day previous to Day 20.
Another example is the boy who cried wolf. The 50th ...
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Is there a name for this fallacy when someone says something is good by only pointing out the good things?
A person says that a politician "Jane Doe" is good because he increased the education budget.
(but in reality, Jane doe is also corrupt & racist, whose bad policies lead to the downfall ...
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Name of the fallacy that "you don't know" implies "the media is hiding it from you"
A very common fallacy used by propagandists has the structure:
Person A presents fact X as support for a theory T that person A tries to prove, adding continuous suggestions about a conspiracy, but
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Was Plato using strawmen in his dialogues?
In Plato's Dialogues, he often would put words into the mouths of two opposing points-of-view, while inserting a third voice, often initially presented as taking a position between the two viewpoints, ...
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I have trouble understanding this fallacy: "If A, then B. Therefore if not-B, then not-A."
About "If A, then B. Therefore, if not-B, then not-A":
From what I understand the conclusion is wrong, because it is not said that A is a sufficient condition for B, (and there may be other ...
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If a person claims to know anything could it be disproven by saying 'prove that we are not in a simulation'?
Everyone starts out at 0 and if anyone wants to say that they know something they have to prove that claim. Is the counter to this person claiming that they know something logically correct?
Person 1:...
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Is the burden of proof a fallacy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)
When two parties are in a discussion and one makes a claim that the
other disputes, the one who makes the claim typically has a burden of
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Are all fallacies created equal?
That is, are some fallacies considered worse than others, or does each fallacy have the same weight? For example, are formal fallacies considered "worse" than informal fallacies or vice versa? For ...
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Name for reverse Ad Hominem, (i.e. praising the defense)?
Is there a standard name for a fallacy of the same form as an ad hominem, except that instead of denouncing the opposition, it praises the defense?
Typically an ad hominem ("against the man") fallacy ...
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Is there a fallacy about "appeal to 'big words'"?
Is there a fallacy about "appeal to 'big words'"?
What I refer to are statements often encountered in political or economic rhetoric. An argument would go like this:
Because of New Keynesianism, ...
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Is there a name for the fallacy whereby the other party to the debate only suggests, does not articulate, what their point is?
Often, in a dispute, people only suggest their point without ever articulating it.
An awful lot of people actually do that. This makes any rational debate impossible (if you second guess, they can ...
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When is pointing out a person's hypocrisy not considered to be a logical fallacy?
People keep using the word "whataboutism" and it seems people don't really know what it means, and I don't see how it's a logical fallacy if it's a very good argument. For instance, if the U....
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What fallacy excludes "outsiders" from discussing "insider" issue?
I see this a lot on the internet, especially as of late with what's trending in the news:
You're a man, so you're not allowed to comment on women's issues.
You're a woman, so you're not allowed to ...
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Alice has made some anecdotal observations. Through a process of elimination, she proposes a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon, as well as an experiment to validate (or otherwise) her hypothesis. ...
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What fallacy is it to say all teenagers are bad, therefore all non-teenagers are not bad?
Suppose there is a non-empty subset A of U. Let A' denote the complement of A in U.
What is the name of this logical fallacy?
X is true for A
therefore
not X is true for A'
For ...
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Are "if smoke then fire" arguments deductive or inductive?
I'm new to philosophy and have a question regarding deductive vs. inductive reasoning:
I'm told that "John ate a strange plant in the forest and got sick. Clearly, the plant made John sick."
I ...
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What is the fallacy in comparing evolution to a fairy tale?
I found the following statement on this Creationist site.
If a fair maiden kisses a frog which instantly changes into a handsome
prince we would call it a fairy tale. But if the frog takes 40 ...
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What is the fallacy: "Nothing bad has happened, so nothing bad will happen"
I was talking to a small business owner the other day. When asked why they never incorporated in order to limit their liability, their explanation was, to paraphrase, "nothing bad has happened to us ...
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Is it a fallacy to argue "Once a thief, always a thief"?
I was looking online to see if this argument was a fallacy, but I couldn't find anything. It reminds me of the problem of induction, whereby one cannot predict what the future holds based on past ...
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Is one commiting the "argument from authority" fallacy and/or the "consensus fallacy" when one refers to a scientific consensus when asserting truth?
Bob and Alice disagree regarding subject X.
Alice holds view A regarding subject X.
Bob holds view B regarding subject X.
View A and view B are quite contradictory views. Both can not be true at ...
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Is there a name for the fallacy that refuting the argument refutes the conclusion?
Is there a name for the fallacy that refuting an argument refutes the proposition?
e.g. there is a belief in X..
somebody provides an argument for X.. or even a bunch of arguments for X.
Somebody ...
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Is attacking an argument because it's machine generated an ad hominem fallacy?
I really want to say rejecting a line of reasoning because ChatGPT created it would be an ad machina argument.
(Note, I'm interested in the case where the rejection is made without any consideration ...
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