Logical Fallacies
Common errors in reasoning.
A reference list of common logical fallacies, from ad hominem and straw man to false dilemma and circular reasoning, plus red herring, appeal to emotion, bandwagon, post hoc reasoning, hasty generalization, equivocation, tu quoque, no true Scotsman, appeal to nature, the genetic fallacy and more. Each entry names the error and describes the move.
Use it when
- You are reviewing an argument and need a precise name for a reasoning error.
- You are building a critical-thinking exercise.
Watch out for
- A fallacy is an error of reasoning, not proof that the conclusion is false; a conclusion can be true even when argued badly.
- Some fallacies depend on context, and appeals to authority or to emotion can be reasonable in some settings.
The data
20 rows
| Fallacy | Description |
|---|---|
| Ad Hominem | Attacking the person rather than the argument. |
| Straw Man | Misrepresenting an opponent's argument. |
| False Dilemma | Presenting only two options when more exist. |
| Appeal to Authority | Citing authority as sole evidence. |
| Slippery Slope | Claiming one event will inevitably lead to others. |
| Circular Reasoning | Restating the claim as proof. |
| Red Herring | Introducing an irrelevant topic to divert attention from the original issue. |
| Appeal to Emotion | Using feelings in place of reasons to persuade. |
| Bandwagon (Ad Populum) | Claiming something is true or right because many people believe or do it. |
| Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc | Assuming that because B followed A, A caused B. |
| Hasty Generalization | Drawing a broad conclusion from too few or unrepresentative cases. |
| Equivocation | Using a word in two different senses within one argument. |
| Tu Quoque | Dismissing a criticism by pointing out that the critic does the same thing. |
| No True Scotsman | Protecting a generalization by redefining the group to exclude a counterexample. |
| Appeal to Nature | Arguing that something is good because it is natural, or bad because it is not. |
| Genetic Fallacy | Judging a claim by its origin instead of by its merits. |
| Middle Ground | Assuming the truth lies between two positions simply because they are opposed. |
| Appeal to Ignorance | Claiming something is true because it has not been proved false, or the reverse. |
| Texas Sharpshooter | Cherry-picking data clusters after the fact to fit a pattern. |
| Loaded Question | Asking a question that presupposes something not yet agreed. |
Fields
The shape of this dataset, read from the data itself: every column, its type and a real value. Agents can use this to plan a query without fetching the whole document.
| Section | Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| data | fallacy | string | Ad Hominem |
| data | description | string | Attacking the person rather than the argument. |
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