Articles Index

Fallacies of Relevance: Appeal to Authority
Appeal to Authority: A fundamental reason why the Appeal to Authority can be a fallacy is that a proposition can be well supported only by facts and logically valid inferences. But by using an authority, the argument is relying upon testimony, not facts. A testimony is not an argument and it is not a fact.

The No True Scotsman Fallacy
What is 'The 'No True Scotsman...' Fallacy and how is this fallacy committed? This is actually a combination of several fallacies, but since it rests ultimately on shifting the meaning of terms - a form of equivocation - and begging the question, it receives special attention.

Argumentum ad Populum (Appeal to Numbers)
Appeal to Numbers This fallacy occurs any time the sheer numbers of people who agree to something is used as a reason to get you to agree to it and takes the general form: When most people agree on a claim about subject S, the claim is true (normally an unstated premise). Claim X is one which most people agree on. Therefore, X is true.

Appeal to Tradition
Appeal to Tradition: This form of the Appeal to Authority is slightly different from the others in that it does not directly make an appeal to the authority of any particular people. Instead, it makes its appeal to the authority of the collective interests and habits of people, as expressed in tradition or culture.

Begging the Question (Petitio Principii)
This is the most basic and classic example of a Fallacy of Presumption, because it directly presumes the conclusion which is at question in the first place. This can also be known as a "Circular Argument" - because the conclusion essentially appears both at the beginning and the end of the argument, it creates an endless circle, never accomplishing anything of substance.

What is a Fallacy?
Fallacies are defects in an argument that cause an argument to be invalid, unsound or weak. Fallacies can be separated into two general groups: formal and informal. A formal fallacy is a defect which can be identified merely be looking at the logical structure of an argument. Informal fallacies are defects which can be identified only through an analysis of the actual content of the argument.

False Dilemma Fallacy
The False Dilemma fallacy occurs when an argument offers a false range of choices and requires that you pick one of them. The range is false because there may be other, unstated choices which would only serve to undermine the original argument. If you concede to pick one of those choices, you accept the premise that those choices are indeed the only ones possible.