42 Fallacies

By: Michael LaBossiere

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

A fallacy is an error in reasoning. That is, it is a piece of bad logic. Just as it is a good idea to avoid eating bad food, it is also a rather good idea to avoid bad reasoning. Unfortunately, bad reasoning is all too common—it pours out of the television and infests the web like an army of venomous spiders. Perhaps even worse than the fallacies inflicted from the outside are 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 and examples of forty-two common fallacies—the knowledge a person needs to defend herself in a world awash in fallacies. This short book is not intended to be a handbook on winning arguments or a text on general logic. The book contains the following fallacies: Ad Hominem Ad Hominem Tu Quoque Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief Appeal to Authority Appeal to Belief Appeal to Common Practice Appeal to Emotion Appeal to Popularity Appeal to Fear Appeal to Flattery Appeal to Novelty Appeal to Pity Appeal to Popularity Appeal to Ridicule Appeal to Spite Appeal to Tradition Begging the Question Biased Generalization Burden of Proof Circumstantial Ad Hominem Fallacy of Composition Confusing Cause and Effect Fallacy of Division False Dilemma Gambler’s Fallacy Genetic Fallacy Guilt by Association Hasty Generalization Ignoring a Common Cause Middle Ground Misleading Vividness Peer Pressure Personal Attack Poisoning the Well Post Hoc Questionable Cause Red Herring Relativist Fallacy Slippery Slope Special Pleading Spotlight Straw Man Two Wrongs Make a Right Two Wrongs Make a Right