Sunday, 29 August 2010

The Top Ten Fallacies of All Time


  1. Ad Hominem / Genetic Fallacy: Disputing a position or argument by criticizing its source. Universally esteemed by talk radio hosts as the highest form of reasoning.
  2. Straw Man: Disputing a position by exaggerating it, misrepresenting it, or otherwise distorting it. Putting negative spin on an opponent's ideas.
  3. "Argument" from Outrage: Self-explanatory, Political talk shows are often reduced to shouting matches where guests compete for the loudest volume and sharpest insults.
  4. Scare Tactic: Try to prove a point by scaring the reader or listener.
  5. Hasty Generalizing: Having more confidence in a conclusion than you should, based on a small sample. For example, thinking that all baseball players use steriods simply because a few have developed bulging neck muscles.
  6. Groupthink: Allowing loyalty to one's group to cloud one's judgment.
  7. Red Herring: This attention-span fallacy works best on people who are unable to stay focused long enough to notice that the question answered was not the question asked.
  8. Wishful Thinking: A refusal to acknowledge the truth. You might call it the Ostrich Fallacy.
  9. Argument from Popularity: Believing that if "everybody" believes it, it must be true.
  10. Post Hoc, ergo Propter Hoc: Just because two things happened around the same time doesn't mean one caused the other.

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