LOGICAL FALLACIES

EAPP GROUP 3
WHAT ARE LOGICAL FALLACIES? WHY DO
WE HAVE TO BE FAMILIAR WITH THEM?

• LOGICAL FALLACIES are ERRORS IN REASONING that

INVALIDATE AN ARGUMENT.
• As a critical thinker you have to identify and examine
fallacies and manipulative language. It is therefore
important that you know some of the common fallacies.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• False Dilemma
- Occurs when an arguer presents his/her argument as one of
only two options despite the presence of multiple possibilitie s
Example: Either you fully devote yourself to company or
you quit.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Appeal to Ignorance
- Occurs when something is instantly concluded to be true just
because it is not proven to be false, and vice versa
Example: The writer does not talk about the connection between
the victim’s killer and his sister, so there must be none.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Slippery Slope
- Occurs when a series of increasingly superficial and
unacceptable consequences is drawn
Example: If we ban computer shops, then students will not be
able to do research. And if they do not have tools for research,
these students will fail their subjects.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Complex Question
-Occurs when two or more points are rolled into one and the
reader is expected to accept or reject both at the same time, when
one point may be satisfactory while the other is not
Example: “Have you stopped cheating on exams?”
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Appeal to Force
- Occurs when a threat, instead of reasoning is used to
argue
Example: If you do not admit that evolution is not real,
we will isolate you from the group.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Appeal to Pity
- Occurs when the element of pity is used instead of logical
reasoning
Example: Please do not fire me for being absent all
month; I have a sick mother and a special child to support.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Appeal to Consequences
- Occurs when unpleasant consequences of believing
something are pointed out to show that the belief is false
Example: You can’t believe that colonialism is bad,
because if it were, then we would not be civilized.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Bandwagon
- Occurs when an argument is considered to be valid
because it is what the majority thinks
Example: Most Filipinas want to have fair skin because
they think they look beautiful. Therefore, having fair skin
must be the real standard of beauty.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Attacking the Person

- Occurs when someone tries to refute an argument by attacking
the character of a person instead of attacking the ideas of the
argument
Example: I cannot accept your argument because, unlike me,
you were not educated at Harvard University.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Appeal to Authority
- Occurs when the argument quotes an expert who’s not
qualified in the particular subject matter
Example: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft,
recommends the effective fabric softening properties of Downy
fabric softener.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Anonymous Authority
- The authority in question is not mentioned or named
Example: Experts claim that eating peanuts causes
pimples.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Hasty Generalization
- Occurs when a sample is not significant enough to
support a generalization about a population
Example: Martha, the foreigner from France is very
impolite. French people are mean and rude.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• False Analogy
- Occurs when a writer assumes that two concepts that
are similar in some ways are also similar in other ways
Example: Drugs are like massages: they make you feel
good.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Accident
- Occurs when a general rule is applied to a situation, even
when it should be an exception
Example: Jaywalking is not allowed, so you should not have
done that even when you were being chased by terrorists.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Post Hoc
- It is an informal fallacy that states: “Since event A followed
event B, event A must have been caused by event B.”
Example: Dina saw a cat when they went home. Along the way,
they crashed into a tree. The black cat must be the reason why
they met an accident.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Wrong Direction
- Occurs when the direction between cause and effect is
reversed
Example: Liver damage leads to alcoholism.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Complex Cause
- Occurs when the explanation for an event is reduced to one
thing when there are other factors which also contributed to the
event
Example: We were not able to solve the problem because of
limited time, even if all the other groups were able to do so.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Irrelevant Conclusion

- Occurs when an argument which is supposed to prove

something concludes something else instead
Example: We must support the fight for gender equality between
men and women. Women have suffered enough violence at home.
Violence against women must be stopped.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Straw Man
- Occurs when the position of the opposition is twisted so that it
is easier to refute
Example: Opponent: We should relax the law governing the allowed
smoking areas in the city. Fallacy: We should not do so, because the
number of smokers might increase.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Affirming the Consequent

- Any argument of the form: If A is true then B is true; If
B is true therefore A is true
Example: If you are drinking wine, you have a problem.
Therefore, if you have a problem, you are drinking wine.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Denying the Antecedent

- Any argument of the form: If A is true then B id true; If A is not
true then B is not true
Example: If you are drinking wine, you have a problem.
Therefore, if you are not drinking wine, you do not have a
problem.
TYPES OF FALLACIES

• Inconsistency
- Occurs when arguments contradict one another
Example: Frank is older than Jake, Jake is older than
Noli and Noli is older than Frank.
• Warning: Do not use these kinds of logical
fallacies when you defend your stand. It
weakens your arguments.
FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF
EVIDENCES/INFORMATION
• While there is a wealth of information found in various sources electronically
or nonelectronically, you should also keep in mind that not all of these pieces
of information are accurate, relevant, valid or credible. Hence, it is important
to evaluate sources of information that you plan to include in your academic
writing venture.
• Note: There is always a risk that the sources taken from the Internet or
anywhere else have biased or incorrect information, so you have to evaluate
and filter your sources before using them.
FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF
EVIDENCES/INFORMATION

• 1. Relevance of the Source

• ● How well does the source support your stand?
• ● You can check the title, table of contents, summary,
introduction or headings of the text to have a sense of
its content.
FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF
EVIDENCES/INFORMATION
• 2. Authority/Author’s Qualifications
• ● Is the author’s name identified?
• ● Is the author’s background, education or training related to the topic?
• ● If the source does not have an author, think twice before using it.
• ● Legitimate academic texts must include citations. Citations demonstrate that
the writer has thoroughly researched the topic and is not plagiarizing the
material.
FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF
EVIDENCES/INFORMATION

• 3. Currency/Date of Publication
• ● What is the date of the publication?
• ● In most fields, the data from the older publications
may no longer be valid. As much as possible, the date
pf publication should be at most five years earlier.
FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF
EVIDENCES/INFORMATION

• 4. Contents/Accuracy of Information
• ● Does the author have a lot of citations in his or her
text and/or bibliography or works cited section?
• ● You do not want to use source that is disputable, so
make sure to verify your findings with multiple sources.
FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF
EVIDENCES/INFORMATION

• 5. Location of Sources
• ● Where was the source published? Was it published digitally or in print?
• ● Is it a book, an academic journal or a reputable news source as
www.nytimes.com or www.economist.com?
• ● Does it provide complete publication information such as author/s,
editor/s, title, date of publication and publisher?
FACTORS ON AUTHENTICITY AND VALIDITY OF
EVIDENCES/INFORMATION
• 5. Location of Sources
• ● What is the URL of the website?
• ● Avoid using blogs or personal homepage and wiki sites (Wikipedia, Wiktionary,
Wikiquotes)
• ● If the URL includes the top-level domain .edu, then that means that it has been
published by an academic institution such as university
• ● Common URLs include .gov (government), .org (organizations), .com (commercial
sites) and .net (network infrastructures). In academic writing, reputable sites are those with
.edu, .gov, .net and .org in URL.
PRESENTATION OF REASONABLE ARGUMENTS
AND FACTUAL EVIDENCES TO DEFEND A STAND
• Guidelines in presentation of reasonable arguments and factual evidences
to defend a stand:
• ● C - ontains a clear proposition or statement that must be defended
• ● A - ssesses conflicting opinions or opposing views on the issue
• ● T - akes a firm stand on the issue
• ● L - ists arguments in an organized manner to defend the stand
• ● C - onsider your audience/reader