AES43 Knowing Logical Fallacies

One of the most important things to know about both in general and in academia, is the concept of logical fallacies. In short, they are common errors in reasoning that anyone can make without knowing. Learning about them, or at least being aware of them, will save you a lot of time, energy and headaches. Here are some of the more popular ones we should know about;

• Attacking a person’s character, not their arguments (Ad Hominem)
• Misrepresenting or exaggerating a person’s argument in order to make it easier to attack (Straw Man Fallacy)
• Moving from a seemingly benign premise and assuming what will happen until it reaches an improbable extreme (Slippery Slope Fallacy)
• Using small numbers to represent the all (Hasty Generalisation)
• Arguing your position by assuming one of its premises is already true (Begging the Question)
• Claiming that because something occurred before, it must be the cause (Post Hoc/False Cause)
• Reducing an argument down to two possibilities, limiting available options (False Dichotomy)
• A distraction from the argument typically with an addition that seems to be relevant but is actually off-topic (Red Herring Fallacy)
• Argue that because someone is ignorant of something, a claim must be true or false (Ad Ignorantum)
• Laying the burden of proof onto the person that is questioning your claim (Burden of Proof Reversal)
• You should not assume “this” follows “that” when there is no logical connection between them (Non-Sequitur)
• Arguing that because a premise or belief is popular, it must be true (Bandwagon Fallacy)
• When someone’s argument or justification is just repeating what they already assumed beforehand (Circular Reasoning)
• Arguing that a premise or belief is true or false because a figure of authority says they are (Appeal to Authority Fallacy)

I hope these can be of some use, and you can start noticing logical fallacies in arguments, debates and discussions. In others, and possibly in ourselves as well.