How will you avoid using fallacious reasoning in your essay?

Fallacy Study Guide (Flash Cards)

Using the Logical Fallacies Media piece (located in “Topic 3 Study Materials” tab) create flash cards to help you study for the fallacy quiz in Topic 4. To do so, fill in a definition and an example on each fallacy card below. After you have submitted this completed document to your instructor for a grade, you can print it out, cut out each fallacy card, and fold them in half to study with.

Reference for Logical Fallacies Media Piece: Grand Canyon University (2012). Logical Fallacies. Retrieved from: https://lc.gcumedia.com/phi105/fallacies-website/fallacies-website-v1.1.html

 

 

 

 

Hasty Generalization

 

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Enter definition here: A conclusion that is reached but not logically justified by sufficient unbiased evidence

Enter example here: “There is no good Hotels in Australia; I visited two and they were not good”

 

 

 

 

 

Appeal to Ignorance

 

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Enter definition here: Fallacy that argues something is not true but does not have the evidence.

Enter example here: You cannot prove that God does not exist, therefore He exists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Either/Or

 

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Enter definition here: Presentation of opposing options in situations where only one is true while the other might be false.

Enter example here: Sun rises from the East. Either true or false

 

 

 

 

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

 

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Enter definition here: Fallacy that assumes something have been caused by something else which happened earlier.

Enter example here: I had a black top, and my team won the match

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extravagant Hypothesis

 

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Enter definition here: The tendency to look only for evidence in favor of one’s controversial hypothesis and not to look for disconfirming evidence, or to pay insufficient attention to it.

Enter example here: The nature decides which living things will die and which ones will live.

 

 

 

 

Composition

 

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Enter definition here: Logical fallacy in which the properties of groups or wholes and their members or parts are thought to be transferable from one to the other.

Enter example here: The tire is made of rubber.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slippery Slope

 

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Enter definition here: A fallacy in which a course of action is objected to on the grounds that once taken it will lead to additional actions until some undesirable consequence results.

Enter example here: If we allow the children to choose the movie this time, they are going to expect to be able to choose the school they go to or the doctors they visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appeal to Authority

 

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Enter definition here:

The fallacy of appeal to authority makes the argument that if one credible source believes something that it must be true

Enter example here: The majority of what the Pope says should be added to the creed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Circular Reasoning

 

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Enter definition here: The 2nd grade in Jefferson elementary eats a lot of ice cream. Carlos is a 2nd grader in Jefferson elementary.

Enter example here: When a person uses a word to define the same word. E.g. Happiness is a state of being happy

 

 

 

Division

 

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Enter definition here: A fallacy of division is the error in logic that occurs when one reasons that something that is true for a whole must also be true of all or some of its parts

Enter example here: The 2nd grade in Jefferson elementary eats a lot of ice cream. Carlos is a 2nd grader in Jefferson elementary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appeal to Tradition

 

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Enter definition here: The appeal to tradition fallacy occurs when someone claims that because an action or belief is traditional, it must be good or true

Enter example here:  someone says that “in our family, we’ve always been smoking, therefore I have to smoke too”.

 

 

 

 

Is/Ought

 

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Enter definition here: occurs when the assumption is made that because things are a certain way, they should be that way

Enter example here:  Abortion is legal, so everyone ought to have an abortion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bandwagon Appeal

 

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Enter definition here: The argument that since something is popular or everybody is doing it, so should you. Think of peer pressure or popularity as being the basis of the argument.

Enter example here: The “Rachel” haircut that was wildly popular in the late nineties

 

 

 

 

False Analogy

 

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Enter definition here: Refers to a claim that makes an inference based on an analogy, or comparison, between two situations or objects

Enter example here: “Failing to tip a waitress is like stealing money out of somebody’s wallet