110 Fallacies

By: Michael LaBossiere

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

For philosophers, a fallacy is an error in reasoning: a piece of bad logic. Just as it is a good idea to avoid eating bad food, it is a good idea to avoid bad reasoning. Unfortunately, bad reasoning is all too common—it pours out of social media and infests the web like a swarm of venomous spiders. Perhaps even worse than the fallacies imposed on people are the self-inflicted fallacies. These can lead people to make poor decisions about matters great and small.

Fortunately, there is a defense against bad reasoning, namely knowledge. This concise book provides the reader with definitions, defenses, and examples of one hundred and seven common fallacies. This is the knowledge a person needs to defend themselves in this, the most fallacious of timelines.

In addition to including the content of my 76 Fallacies, this book features major revisions as well as a new sections on such topics as bad faith reasoning and what it means to win an argument. The focus is on providing the reader with definitions and examples of these common fallacies rather than being a handbook on how to win arguments or a text on general logic.

Accent, Fallacy of
Accident, Fallacy of
Ad Hominem
Ad Hominem: Accusation of Bigotry
Ad Hominem: Accusation of Hate
Ad Hominem, Circumstantial
Ad Hominem, Demonic
Ad Hominem: Leave It
Ad Hominem: Poisoning the Well
Ad Hominem, Positive
Ad Hominem: Refutation by Envy
Ad Hominem Tu Quoque
Amphiboly, Fallacy of
Anecdotal Evidence, Fallacy Of
Anecdotal Evidence: Absence of Anecdote
Appeal to Authority, Fallacious
Appeal to Authoritarian
Appeal to Belief
Appeal to Common Practice
Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief
Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief: Wishful Thinking
Appeal to Emotion
Appeal to Envy
Appeal to Fear
Appeal to Flattery
Appeal to Group Identity
Appeal to Guilt
Appeal to Novelty
Appeal to Pity
Appeal to Popularity
Appeal to Purity
Appeal to Ridicule
Appeal to Spite
Appeal to Silence
Appeal to Silence: Gish Gallop & Fire Hose of Falsehood
Appeal to Tradition
Appeal to Vanity
Argument Against Authority
Bad Faith Fallacy
Begging the Question
Biased Generalization
Burden of Proof
Complex Question
Composition, Fallacy of
Confusing Cause and Effect
Confusing Explanations and Excuses
Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc
Demonic Justification
Division, Fallacy of
Equivocation, Fallacy of
Fallacious Analogy
Fallacious Analogy: Psychologist's Fallacy
Fallacious Example
Fallacy Fallacy
False Allegiance
False Dilemma
False Dilemma: Line Drawing Fallacy
False Dilemma: Perfectionist Fallacy
False Equivalency
Gambler’s Fallacy
Genetic Fallacy
Genetic Fallacy, Demonic
Guilt by Association
Guilt by Association: Argumentum ad Hitlerum
Hasty Generalization
Hijacking
Historian’s Fallacy
Illicit Conversion
Ignoring a Common Cause
Incomplete Evidence
Incomplete Evidence: Incomplete Comparison
It Could Be Worse
Middle Ground
Misleading Vividness
Moving the Goal Posts
No Angel
Noble Motive
Oversimplified Cause
Overconfident Inference from Unknown Statistics
Pathetic Fallacy
Peer Pressure
Perfect Analogy Fallacy
Post Hoc
Prediction Fallacy
Proving X, Concluding Y
Rationalization
Red Herring
Red Herring: Now is Not the Time
Refusal to Generalize
Reification, Fallacy of
Relativist Fallacy
Slippery Slope
Some of My Best Friends Are
Special Pleading
Spotlight
Straw Man
Straw Man: Balloon Man
Straw Man: Nut Picking
Straw Man: Weak Man & Hollow Man
Steel Person
Sunk Cost Fallacy
Suppressed Correlative
Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
Two Wrongs Make a Right
Victim Fallacy
Whataboutism
Wicked Motive