Black .D.
07-20-2009, 01:46 PM
Logical Fallacy
One thing to keep in mind, is that even if someone is using a fallacy, it does not necessarily mean that their argument is not true. It merely means that they are attempting to argue for it improperly.
This page also has some good examples:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouFailLogicForever?from=Main.LogicalFallacy
Anyway, on to the list:
1. Ad Hominem
. This means "argument against the man, not the point". It's when you rebut an opponent's argument by insulting them instead of their argument.
Example:
"Your argument is wrong because you're a troll".
Even if it is true that the person in question is known for trolling, it does not invalidate their argument, the argument must be considered on its own objective merits, no matter who or where it comes from.
NOTE: There is a difference between an ad hominem and a plain insult. Saying "Your arguments are wrong because you're stupid" is an ad hominem, but simply saying "You're stupid" is not a fallacy.
2. Straw Man
. This is when one person corrupts an opponent's argument into something different, a "straw man" that they set up just to knock it down.
Example:
Person A: Luffy is so fast due to Gear 2, he would easily blitz Naruto.
Person B: Luffy isn't light speed! You're wrong.
Person A never said Luffy was light speed, person B is making that up to make Person A's argument look bad.
NOTE: This is a very simple example, usually straw men are much harder to spot than this.
3. Burden of proof fallacy
. This is when someone attempts to make someone else prove a claim when the burden of proof is really on them to prove it. The burden of proof is always on the positive claim, and the person who makes the claim.
Example:
"Goku is faster than light speed because you can't prove he's not!"
In this case, the person in the example makes a claim (Goku is FTL), and without providing evidence for it himself, he asks his opponent to prove him wrong. In reality, the person who made that claim would be the one required to prove it.
4. Appeal to motive
. This is when someone attempts to rebut an argument by speculating on what ulterior motives the person making the argument might have, instead of addressing the argument itself.
Example: "You only think Superman could beat Goku because you hate DBZ!"
In this case, the person is not actually debating the point (Superman vs. Goku) and is only attempting to invalidate his opponent's argument based on a possible motive.
5. Appeal to popularity
. This is when someone claims that if more people think one thing than another thing, then the one supported by the majority is correct.
Example: "The poll in this thread has more votes for character A than character B, so character A wins".
The person in this example is ignoring any actual evidence and facts and just basing his reasoning on what the majority of people said.
6. Appeal to authority
. This is when someone claims that since an authority figure, someone who (apparently) knows a lot about the subject in question, says something, then it must be true.
Example: "Wizard magazine says Goku would beat Superman, so he can".
The person in this example is only basing his argument on what another person or group of people think, other than actually debating the points.
7. Circular reasoning
. This is when someone's conclusion is buried in their premise.
Example: "Luffy is faster than Gai because One Piece characters are faster than Naruto characters".
The premise here (One Piece characters are faster than Naruto characters) is simply stated as if you should be expected to just accept it, and the conclusion is only true if the premise is true.
8. Non - Sequitur
. This is when someone's conclusion is not implied at all by the premise.
Example: "Goku leaves afterimages, therefore Goku is faster than light".
The person in this example starts with a true premise (Goku leaves afterimages), but then jumps to a conclusion which is in no way implied by that premise (Goku is FTL).
9. Red Herring
. This is when someone attempts to rebut an argument by bringing up a completely unrelated point, a "Red herring", to lure his opponent away from the real point of the argument.
Example: "Even though Ichigo deflected over a million of Byakuya's Senbonzakura petals using his Bankai speed, he still couldn't really beat Byakuya."
This argument's claim (Ichigo didn't really defeat Byakuya, it was more like a tie) is true, but that is irrelevant to the point of the opponent's argument (to show Ichigo's speed). Therefore it's not a real refutation of the argument.
10. Association fallacy
. This is when someone claims that since A has certain qualities, and B is in some way associated with A, then B has those qualities as well, without actual proof of this.
Example: "Many Naruto ninjas use genjutsu. Therefore Gai knows genjutsu as well."
While this could be possible, there is no confirmation, and merely because other ninjas know it doesn't mean he does.
11. Argument from ignorance
. This is when someone states that since there is insufficient evidence of something, it cannot possibly be true.
Example: "I've never heard of an anime with stronger characters than DBZ, so therefore DBZ characters must be the strongest in all of anime."
The person in this example states that since they do not know of something personally, it cannot exist.
NOTE: This fallacy is often invoked improperly, because there's a big difference between stating "There is no evidence of A, so A cannot possibly be true" (which would be a fallacy) and "There is no evidence of A, so we cannot assume A to be true" (which is correct logic).
12. Argument from incredulity
. This is similar to the argument from ignorance, except it is based on the fact that the person in question cannot personally believe something.
Example: "DBZ characters are so powerful, I find it hard to believe that there are characters stronger than them."
The person in this example asserts that since he personally does not believe something, then it cannot be true.
13. Argument from belief
. This is when someone states that they personally believe something to be true, without providing any actual evidence.
Example: "It's my opinion that DBZ characters are faster than light, so they are."
The person in this example states that because he believes something, it should be assumed to be true, without any actual evidence.
14. Appeal to emotion.
This type of argument takes many forms, but the general idea is that it works on a person's feelings to try to make them see one choice as preferable over another.
Example: "You shouldn't keep making those kinds of posts, or you'll get banned".
This is an appeal to fear, the person tries to discourage his opponent from making certain arguments or else something negative will happen to him. Also known as an appeal to consequence.
NOTE: If it was a mod that said this, it would be valid. Although it could also be construed as an appeal to force.
Another example: "You're a very smart person, surely you can see that I'm right about this?"
This is an appeal to flattery, the person complements his opponent in order to get him to concede.
Another example: "Naruto ninjas can obviously dodge bullets, what kind of fantasy shounen characters would they be if they couldn't?"
This is an appeal to wishful thinking. The person says a claim must be true because it's what he wants to be true.
There are more forms of this argument, but that's all I'll cover for now.
15. Appeal to tradition.
This is when someone claims that an argument must be true because it's the way things have always been done previously, or the thing that people always believed before.
Example: "There can't be a Naruto character that can beat Luffy, because it's always been known in the OBD that Naruto characters are no match for him."
The person in this example doesn't actually try debating the Naruto character vs. Luffy, he just says that Luffy wins because he's always won previously against Naruto characters.
16. Equivocation
. This is when someone uses two different meanings of a word to imply something that isn't necessarily true.
Example: "In Bleach, Arrancars use the 'Sonido' speed technique. 'Sonido' means sound in Spanish, therefore Arrancars move at the speed of sound."
This argument assumes that the word sound in this context means the same as the speed of sound, when that is not necessarily true.
17. No - limits fallacy
. This is when someone states that because something has not demonstrated any limits (or only certain limits) then it has none (or only the ones demonstrated).
Example: "Itachi said that no one without a Mangekyou Sharingan can defeat him. Therefore he can beat all of DC, Marvel, DBZ, and Tenchi Muyo."
The person in this argument holds Itachi's statement to be absolute truth, ignoring the possibility that Itachi has no knowledge of certain enemies, or never expected to encounter them. The same can be said of Kishimoto: He never intended for his characters to be pitted in battle against characters from other works of fiction, so therefore statements like this do not hold true to other works of fiction necessarily. Furthermore, there is the possibility that in - universe, Itachi was lying, bluffing, misinformed, or deluded.
18. Undistributed middle
. This is a fallacy where someone makes an argument of the following form: "All contents of set A are also contents of set B. X is in set B. Therefore X is in set A." The opposite would be true, though.
Example: "All omnipotent beings are gods. Enel from One Piece is a god. Therefore, Enel is omnipotent."
This argument ignores the critical factor of whether all gods are omnipotent.
19. The Fallacy Fallacy
. This is when people assume that because their opponent has commited a logical fallacy, their argument must therefore be wrong.
Example:
Person 1: Barry Allen is faster than Sonic the Hedgehog because you're stupid.
Person 2: That's Ad Hominem, therefore Barry Allen is not faster than Sonic.
20. Argument from anecdotal evidence
. This is when someone tells a story of something that happened to them or another person, and it cannot be confirmed, but they expect it to prove something.
Example: "I once watched a nature show where a lion killed a pack of hyenas, therefore a lion could beat a pack of hyenas in a fight".
This argument simply recounts a story that may or may not be true, and the person in question expects it to count as evidence of their point of view. Even if the story was true, it does not necessarily mean that that is the way it will always happen, it could have been a statistical anomaly. In addition, there may have been other factors in play that the person neglected to mention (for example, the Hyenas may have been sick or injured before the fight started).
21. Proof by example
. This type of fallacy involves someone citing one example of something as proof of a general rule.
Example: "Superman was tagged by Solomon Grundy, who is slow, therefore Superman can be tagged by anyone as fast or faster than Grundy."
The person ignores the fact that this could have been a statistical anomaly, and that it doesn't necessarily hold true all the time.
Another example: "Deidara defeated the Sanbi Bijuu, therefore he will always win a fight against a Bijuu, even the full nine - tails Kyuubi."
22. Affirming the consequent
. This fallacy takes the form of presenting a conclusion that would logically follow from a premise, and then asserting that since the conclusion is true, the premise must be true also.
Example: "If One Piece characters could move faster than sound, then it would be difficult for people to see them move. Since fast One Piece characters seem to disappear, then they move faster than sound."
This argument ignores the possibility that characters could be difficult to track even if they moved below sound speed.
23. Denying the antecedent
. The opposite of the previous fallacy, this is when someone presents a conclusion that logically follows from a premise, and then asserts that since the premise is false, the conclusion must also be false.
Example: "If Luffy could beat Aokiji, that would mean he is strong. He couldn't beat Aokiji, therefore he's not strong".
This argument ignores the fact that while Luffy is strong, Aokiji is simply stronger. Also, Luffy's powers have no effective counter to those of Aokiji.
Another, more common way this could be phrased is:
"Are you kidding? Luffy's not strong, he couldn't even beat Aokiji."
24. Biased sample
. This is when a statistical survey only takes into consideration a sample of people or entities that are biased towards the conclusion. This only applies to matters of opinion and subjectivity, because even if the sample wasn't biased, this would not be an effective argument for an objective claim due to the appeal to popularity fallacy.
Example: "Everyone on that forum says that the PS3 is way better than the Wii."
What the person in the example is neglecting to mention is that the forum he's referring to is a Sony - centric forum populated mainly by Sony fans.
25. Half - truth
. This is when someone presents a piece of evidence, but only presents some of it, ignoring critical factors that would cast the evidence in a whole different light, and would not necessarily support the person's conclusion.
Example: "Galactus was beaten by Thor, therefore he can be easily beaten by anyone around or above Thor's level".
What the person in this example fails to mention is that Galactus was starving and severely weakened in this instance, and also that Thor was drawing extra power from Odin to attack him.
26. Hasty generalization
. This is an argument where someone takes an insufficient amount of evidence and attempts to form a conclusion from it, while ignoring or not being aware of contradictory evidence.
Example: "Flash has been tagged by people without super - speed in the past. Therefore, anyone, even if they don't have super speed, can tag him."
This person ignores all the times people both with and without superspeed were unable to tag the Flash, or were defeated by him.
27. Misleading vividness
. This argument is similar to proof by example, but instead of simply citing an example, it describes the example in vivid detail, which makes people more likely to pay attention to it and think it is significant.
Example: "Flash isn't fast! He was tagged by Grodd, who grabbed his leg from behind, pulled him away, and bit into his leg!"
All of those details weren't necessary, and they don't do anything to logically advance the argument, but they do play on people's emotions to make them think this is a more significant occurence.
One thing to keep in mind, is that even if someone is using a fallacy, it does not necessarily mean that their argument is not true. It merely means that they are attempting to argue for it improperly.
This page also has some good examples:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouFailLogicForever?from=Main.LogicalFallacy
Anyway, on to the list:
1. Ad Hominem
. This means "argument against the man, not the point". It's when you rebut an opponent's argument by insulting them instead of their argument.
Example:
"Your argument is wrong because you're a troll".
Even if it is true that the person in question is known for trolling, it does not invalidate their argument, the argument must be considered on its own objective merits, no matter who or where it comes from.
NOTE: There is a difference between an ad hominem and a plain insult. Saying "Your arguments are wrong because you're stupid" is an ad hominem, but simply saying "You're stupid" is not a fallacy.
2. Straw Man
. This is when one person corrupts an opponent's argument into something different, a "straw man" that they set up just to knock it down.
Example:
Person A: Luffy is so fast due to Gear 2, he would easily blitz Naruto.
Person B: Luffy isn't light speed! You're wrong.
Person A never said Luffy was light speed, person B is making that up to make Person A's argument look bad.
NOTE: This is a very simple example, usually straw men are much harder to spot than this.
3. Burden of proof fallacy
. This is when someone attempts to make someone else prove a claim when the burden of proof is really on them to prove it. The burden of proof is always on the positive claim, and the person who makes the claim.
Example:
"Goku is faster than light speed because you can't prove he's not!"
In this case, the person in the example makes a claim (Goku is FTL), and without providing evidence for it himself, he asks his opponent to prove him wrong. In reality, the person who made that claim would be the one required to prove it.
4. Appeal to motive
. This is when someone attempts to rebut an argument by speculating on what ulterior motives the person making the argument might have, instead of addressing the argument itself.
Example: "You only think Superman could beat Goku because you hate DBZ!"
In this case, the person is not actually debating the point (Superman vs. Goku) and is only attempting to invalidate his opponent's argument based on a possible motive.
5. Appeal to popularity
. This is when someone claims that if more people think one thing than another thing, then the one supported by the majority is correct.
Example: "The poll in this thread has more votes for character A than character B, so character A wins".
The person in this example is ignoring any actual evidence and facts and just basing his reasoning on what the majority of people said.
6. Appeal to authority
. This is when someone claims that since an authority figure, someone who (apparently) knows a lot about the subject in question, says something, then it must be true.
Example: "Wizard magazine says Goku would beat Superman, so he can".
The person in this example is only basing his argument on what another person or group of people think, other than actually debating the points.
7. Circular reasoning
. This is when someone's conclusion is buried in their premise.
Example: "Luffy is faster than Gai because One Piece characters are faster than Naruto characters".
The premise here (One Piece characters are faster than Naruto characters) is simply stated as if you should be expected to just accept it, and the conclusion is only true if the premise is true.
8. Non - Sequitur
. This is when someone's conclusion is not implied at all by the premise.
Example: "Goku leaves afterimages, therefore Goku is faster than light".
The person in this example starts with a true premise (Goku leaves afterimages), but then jumps to a conclusion which is in no way implied by that premise (Goku is FTL).
9. Red Herring
. This is when someone attempts to rebut an argument by bringing up a completely unrelated point, a "Red herring", to lure his opponent away from the real point of the argument.
Example: "Even though Ichigo deflected over a million of Byakuya's Senbonzakura petals using his Bankai speed, he still couldn't really beat Byakuya."
This argument's claim (Ichigo didn't really defeat Byakuya, it was more like a tie) is true, but that is irrelevant to the point of the opponent's argument (to show Ichigo's speed). Therefore it's not a real refutation of the argument.
10. Association fallacy
. This is when someone claims that since A has certain qualities, and B is in some way associated with A, then B has those qualities as well, without actual proof of this.
Example: "Many Naruto ninjas use genjutsu. Therefore Gai knows genjutsu as well."
While this could be possible, there is no confirmation, and merely because other ninjas know it doesn't mean he does.
11. Argument from ignorance
. This is when someone states that since there is insufficient evidence of something, it cannot possibly be true.
Example: "I've never heard of an anime with stronger characters than DBZ, so therefore DBZ characters must be the strongest in all of anime."
The person in this example states that since they do not know of something personally, it cannot exist.
NOTE: This fallacy is often invoked improperly, because there's a big difference between stating "There is no evidence of A, so A cannot possibly be true" (which would be a fallacy) and "There is no evidence of A, so we cannot assume A to be true" (which is correct logic).
12. Argument from incredulity
. This is similar to the argument from ignorance, except it is based on the fact that the person in question cannot personally believe something.
Example: "DBZ characters are so powerful, I find it hard to believe that there are characters stronger than them."
The person in this example asserts that since he personally does not believe something, then it cannot be true.
13. Argument from belief
. This is when someone states that they personally believe something to be true, without providing any actual evidence.
Example: "It's my opinion that DBZ characters are faster than light, so they are."
The person in this example states that because he believes something, it should be assumed to be true, without any actual evidence.
14. Appeal to emotion.
This type of argument takes many forms, but the general idea is that it works on a person's feelings to try to make them see one choice as preferable over another.
Example: "You shouldn't keep making those kinds of posts, or you'll get banned".
This is an appeal to fear, the person tries to discourage his opponent from making certain arguments or else something negative will happen to him. Also known as an appeal to consequence.
NOTE: If it was a mod that said this, it would be valid. Although it could also be construed as an appeal to force.
Another example: "You're a very smart person, surely you can see that I'm right about this?"
This is an appeal to flattery, the person complements his opponent in order to get him to concede.
Another example: "Naruto ninjas can obviously dodge bullets, what kind of fantasy shounen characters would they be if they couldn't?"
This is an appeal to wishful thinking. The person says a claim must be true because it's what he wants to be true.
There are more forms of this argument, but that's all I'll cover for now.
15. Appeal to tradition.
This is when someone claims that an argument must be true because it's the way things have always been done previously, or the thing that people always believed before.
Example: "There can't be a Naruto character that can beat Luffy, because it's always been known in the OBD that Naruto characters are no match for him."
The person in this example doesn't actually try debating the Naruto character vs. Luffy, he just says that Luffy wins because he's always won previously against Naruto characters.
16. Equivocation
. This is when someone uses two different meanings of a word to imply something that isn't necessarily true.
Example: "In Bleach, Arrancars use the 'Sonido' speed technique. 'Sonido' means sound in Spanish, therefore Arrancars move at the speed of sound."
This argument assumes that the word sound in this context means the same as the speed of sound, when that is not necessarily true.
17. No - limits fallacy
. This is when someone states that because something has not demonstrated any limits (or only certain limits) then it has none (or only the ones demonstrated).
Example: "Itachi said that no one without a Mangekyou Sharingan can defeat him. Therefore he can beat all of DC, Marvel, DBZ, and Tenchi Muyo."
The person in this argument holds Itachi's statement to be absolute truth, ignoring the possibility that Itachi has no knowledge of certain enemies, or never expected to encounter them. The same can be said of Kishimoto: He never intended for his characters to be pitted in battle against characters from other works of fiction, so therefore statements like this do not hold true to other works of fiction necessarily. Furthermore, there is the possibility that in - universe, Itachi was lying, bluffing, misinformed, or deluded.
18. Undistributed middle
. This is a fallacy where someone makes an argument of the following form: "All contents of set A are also contents of set B. X is in set B. Therefore X is in set A." The opposite would be true, though.
Example: "All omnipotent beings are gods. Enel from One Piece is a god. Therefore, Enel is omnipotent."
This argument ignores the critical factor of whether all gods are omnipotent.
19. The Fallacy Fallacy
. This is when people assume that because their opponent has commited a logical fallacy, their argument must therefore be wrong.
Example:
Person 1: Barry Allen is faster than Sonic the Hedgehog because you're stupid.
Person 2: That's Ad Hominem, therefore Barry Allen is not faster than Sonic.
20. Argument from anecdotal evidence
. This is when someone tells a story of something that happened to them or another person, and it cannot be confirmed, but they expect it to prove something.
Example: "I once watched a nature show where a lion killed a pack of hyenas, therefore a lion could beat a pack of hyenas in a fight".
This argument simply recounts a story that may or may not be true, and the person in question expects it to count as evidence of their point of view. Even if the story was true, it does not necessarily mean that that is the way it will always happen, it could have been a statistical anomaly. In addition, there may have been other factors in play that the person neglected to mention (for example, the Hyenas may have been sick or injured before the fight started).
21. Proof by example
. This type of fallacy involves someone citing one example of something as proof of a general rule.
Example: "Superman was tagged by Solomon Grundy, who is slow, therefore Superman can be tagged by anyone as fast or faster than Grundy."
The person ignores the fact that this could have been a statistical anomaly, and that it doesn't necessarily hold true all the time.
Another example: "Deidara defeated the Sanbi Bijuu, therefore he will always win a fight against a Bijuu, even the full nine - tails Kyuubi."
22. Affirming the consequent
. This fallacy takes the form of presenting a conclusion that would logically follow from a premise, and then asserting that since the conclusion is true, the premise must be true also.
Example: "If One Piece characters could move faster than sound, then it would be difficult for people to see them move. Since fast One Piece characters seem to disappear, then they move faster than sound."
This argument ignores the possibility that characters could be difficult to track even if they moved below sound speed.
23. Denying the antecedent
. The opposite of the previous fallacy, this is when someone presents a conclusion that logically follows from a premise, and then asserts that since the premise is false, the conclusion must also be false.
Example: "If Luffy could beat Aokiji, that would mean he is strong. He couldn't beat Aokiji, therefore he's not strong".
This argument ignores the fact that while Luffy is strong, Aokiji is simply stronger. Also, Luffy's powers have no effective counter to those of Aokiji.
Another, more common way this could be phrased is:
"Are you kidding? Luffy's not strong, he couldn't even beat Aokiji."
24. Biased sample
. This is when a statistical survey only takes into consideration a sample of people or entities that are biased towards the conclusion. This only applies to matters of opinion and subjectivity, because even if the sample wasn't biased, this would not be an effective argument for an objective claim due to the appeal to popularity fallacy.
Example: "Everyone on that forum says that the PS3 is way better than the Wii."
What the person in the example is neglecting to mention is that the forum he's referring to is a Sony - centric forum populated mainly by Sony fans.
25. Half - truth
. This is when someone presents a piece of evidence, but only presents some of it, ignoring critical factors that would cast the evidence in a whole different light, and would not necessarily support the person's conclusion.
Example: "Galactus was beaten by Thor, therefore he can be easily beaten by anyone around or above Thor's level".
What the person in this example fails to mention is that Galactus was starving and severely weakened in this instance, and also that Thor was drawing extra power from Odin to attack him.
26. Hasty generalization
. This is an argument where someone takes an insufficient amount of evidence and attempts to form a conclusion from it, while ignoring or not being aware of contradictory evidence.
Example: "Flash has been tagged by people without super - speed in the past. Therefore, anyone, even if they don't have super speed, can tag him."
This person ignores all the times people both with and without superspeed were unable to tag the Flash, or were defeated by him.
27. Misleading vividness
. This argument is similar to proof by example, but instead of simply citing an example, it describes the example in vivid detail, which makes people more likely to pay attention to it and think it is significant.
Example: "Flash isn't fast! He was tagged by Grodd, who grabbed his leg from behind, pulled him away, and bit into his leg!"
All of those details weren't necessary, and they don't do anything to logically advance the argument, but they do play on people's emotions to make them think this is a more significant occurence.