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Learn what logical fallacies are, how to identify and avoid them, and why they matter for critical thinking. Explore a comprehensive list of formal and informal fallacies, with definitions, explanations, and examples, and find books to help you master logical fallacies.
- Strawman
Books About Logical Fallacies. A few books to help you get a...
- Bad Reason Fallacy
Bad Reason Fallacy Extended Explanation. The Bad Reason...
- Texas Sharpshooter
Texas Sharpshooter Extended Explanation. The Texas...
- Ambiguity
Ambiguity Extended Explanation. The Ambiguity Fallacy is a...
- Loaded Question
Loaded Question Extended Explanation. The Loaded Question...
- Appeal to Emotion
Appeal to Emotion Extended Explanation. The Appeal to...
- Personal Incredulity
Personal Incredulity Extended Explanation. The Personal...
- Shotgun Argumentation
Shotgun Argumentation Extended Explanation. The Shotgun...
- Circular Reasoning
Books About Logical Fallacies. A few books to help you get a...
- Begging The Question
Begging the Question Extended Explanation. The Begging the...
- Strawman
- Logical Fallacy List
- What Is A Logical Fallacy?
- Types of Logical Fallacies
- What Are Common Logical Fallacies?
- Logical Fallacy Examples
- Other Interesting Articles
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There are many logical fallacies. You can download an overview of the most common logical fallacies by clicking the blue button. Logical fallacy list (Google Docs)
A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning that occurs when invalid arguments or irrelevant points are introduced without any evidence to support them. People often resort to logical fallacies when their goal is to persuade others. Because fallacies appear to be correct even though they are not, people can be tricked into accepting them. The majori...
There are several ways to label and classify fallacies, such as according to the psychological reasons that lead people to use them or according to similarity in their form. Broadly speaking, there are two main types of logical fallacy, depending on what kind of reasoning error the argument contains: 1. Informal logical fallacies 2. Formal logical ...
A logical fallacy may arise in any form of communication, ranging from debates to writing, but it may also crop up in our own internal reasoning. Here are some examples of common fallacies that you may encounter in the media, in essays, and in everyday discussions.
A false dilemma (or either/or fallacy) is a common persuasion technique in advertising. It presents us with only two possible options without considering the broad range of possible alternatives. People often confuse correlation (i.e., the fact that two things happen one after the other or at the same time) with causation(the fact that one thing ca...
If you want to know more about fallacies, research bias, or AI tools, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
Learn what logical fallacies are, how to spot them, and how to avoid them in your own argumentation. Find out the most common types of fallacies, such as red herring, bandwagon, and straw man, and see examples of each.
- Lindsay Kramer
- Ad hominem. An ad hominem fallacy is one that attempts to invalidate an opponent’s position based on a personal trait or fact about the opponent rather than through logic.
- Red herring. A red herring is an attempt to shift focus from the debate at hand by introducing an irrelevant point. Example: Losing a tooth can be scary, but have you heard about the Tooth Fairy?
- Straw man. A straw man argument is one that argues against a hyperbolic, inaccurate version of the opposition rather than their actual argument. Example: Erin thinks we need to stop using all plastics, right now, to save the planet from climate change.
- Equivocation. An equivocation is a statement crafted to mislead or confuse readers or listeners by using multiple meanings or interpretations of a word or simply through unclear phrasing.
- The Appeal to Authority Fallacy. While appeals to authority are by no means always fallacious, they can quickly become dangerous when you rely too heavily on the opinion of a single person — especially if that person is attempting to validate something outside of their expertise.
- The False Dilemma Fallacy. This common fallacy misleads by presenting complex issues in terms of two inherently opposed sides. Instead of acknowledging that most (if not all) issues can be thought of on a spectrum of possibilities and stances, the false dilemma fallacy asserts that there are only two mutually exclusive outcomes.
- The Hasty Generalization Fallacy. This fallacy occurs when someone draws expansive conclusions based on inadequate or insufficient evidence. In other words, they jump to conclusions about the validity of a proposition with some — but not enough — evidence to back it up, and overlook potential counterarguments.
- The Slothful Induction Fallacy. Slothful induction is the exact inverse of the hasty generalization fallacy above. This fallacy occurs when sufficient logical evidence strongly indicates a particular conclusion is true, but someone fails to acknowledge it, instead attributing the outcome to coincidence or something unrelated entirely.
May 29, 2015 · The logical fallacies divide into the purely logical and the semi-logical fallacies. The purely logical fallacies are plain violations of syllogistic rules like undistributed middle and illicit process.
Logical Fallacies. Fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument. Fallacies can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points, and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim.
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They can be classified by their structure (formal fallacies) or content (informal fallacies). Informal fallacies, the larger group, may then be subdivided into categories such as improper presumption, faulty generalization, error in assigning causation, and relevance, among others.
