Rhetoric and Fallacy: A Game For Debaters

Formal fallacies are arguments that are fallacious due to an error in their form or technical structure. All formal fallacies are specific types of non sequiturs.

* Appeal to probability: because something could happen, it is inevitable that it will happen. This is the premise on which Murphy's Law is based.
* Argument from fallacy: if an argument for some conclusion is fallacious, then the conclusion must necessarily be false.
* Bare assertion fallacy: premise in an argument is assumed to be true purely because it says that it is true.
* Base rate fallacy: using weak evidence to make a probability judgment without taking into account known empirical statistics about the probability.
* Conjunction fallacy: assumption that specific conditions are more probable than a single general one.
* Correlative based fallacies
o Denying the correlative: where attempts are made at introducing alternatives where there are none
o Suppressed correlative: where a correlative is redefined so that one alternative is made impossible
* Fallacy of necessity: a degree of unwarranted necessity is placed in the conclusion based on the necessity of one or more of its premises
* False dilemma (false dichotomy): where two alternative statements are held to be the only possible options, when in reality there are several
* If-by-whiskey: An answer that takes side of the questioner's suggestive question
* Ignoratio elenchi (irrelevant conclusion or irrelevant thesis)
* Homunculus fallacy: where a "middle-man" is used for explanation, this usually leads to regressive middle-man explanations without actually explaining the real nature of a function or a process
* Masked man fallacy: the substitution of identical designators in a true statement can lead to a false one
* Naturalistic fallacy: a fallacy that claims that if something is natural, then it is "good" or "right"
* Nirvana fallacy: when solutions to problems are said not to be right because they are not perfect
* Negative Proof fallacy: that, because a premise cannot be proven false, the premise must be true; or that, because a premise cannot be proven true, the premise must be false
* Package-deal fallacy: when two or more things have been linked together by tradition or culture are said to stay that way forever

Propositional fallacies:

* Affirming a disjunct: concluded that one logical disjunction must be false because the other disjunct is true.
* Affirming the consequent: the antecedent in an indicative conditional is claimed to be true because the consequent is true. Has the form if A, then B; B, therefore A
* Denying the antecedent: the consequent in an indicative conditional is claimed to be false because the antecedent is false; if A, then B; not A, therefore not B

Quantificational fallacies:

* Existential fallacy: an argument has two universal premises and a particular conclusion, but the premises do not establish the truth of the conclusion
* Illicit conversion: the invalid conclusion that because a statement is true, the inverse must be as well
* Proof by example: where things are proven by giving an example

Syllogistic fallacies are logical fallacies that occur in syllogisms.

* Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise
* Fallacy of exclusive premises: a categorical syllogism that is invalid because both of its premises are negative
* Fallacy of four terms: a categorical syllogism has four terms
* Illicit major: a categorical syllogism that is invalid because its major term is undistributed in the major premise but distributed in the conclusion
* Illicit minor: a categorical syllogism that is invalid because its minor term is undistributed in the minor premise but distributed in the conclusion.
* Fallacy of the undistributed middle: the middle term in a categorical syllogism is not distributed
* Categorical syllogism: an argument with a positive conclusion, but one or two negative premises

Informal fallacies are arguments that are fallacious for reasons other than structural ("formal") flaws.

* Argument from repetition (argumentum ad nauseam)
* Appeal to ridicule: a specific type of appeal to emotion where an argument is made by presenting the opponent's argument in a way that makes it appear ridiculous
* Argument from ignorance ("appeal to ignorance"): The fallacy of assuming that something is true/false because it has not been proven false/true. For example: "The student has failed to prove that he didn't cheat on the test, therefore he must have cheated on the test."
* Begging the question ("petitio principii"): where the conclusion of an argument is implicitly or explicitly assumed in one of the premises
* Burden of proof
* Circular cause and consequence
* Continuum fallacy (fallacy of the beard)
* Correlation does not imply causation (cum hoc ergo propter hoc)
* Equivocation
* Fallacies of distribution
o Division: where one reasons logically that something true of a thing must also be true of all or some of its parts
o Ecological fallacy
* Fallacy of many questions (complex question, fallacy of presupposition, loaded question, plurium interrogationum)
* Fallacy of the single cause
* Historian's fallacy
* False attribution
o Fallacy of quoting out of context
* False compromise/middle ground
* Gambler's fallacy: the incorrect belief that the likelihood of a random event can be affected by or predicted from other, independent events
* Incomplete comparison
* Inconsistent comparison
* Intentional fallacy
* Loki's Wager
* Moving the goalpost
* No true Scotsman
* Perfect solution fallacy: where an argument assumes that a perfect solution exists and/or that a solution should be rejected because some part of the problem would still exist after it was implemented
* Post hoc ergo propter hoc: also known as false cause, coincidental correlation or correlation not causation.
* Proof by verbosity (argumentum verbosium)
* Psychologist's fallacy
* Regression fallacy
* Reification (hypostatization)
* Retrospective determinism (it happened so it was bound to)
* Special pleading: where a proponent of a position attempts to cite something as an exemption to a generally accepted rule or principle without justifying the exemption
* Suppressed correlative: an argument which tries to redefine a correlative (two mutually exclusive options) so that one alternative encompasses the other, thus making one alternative impossible
* Wrong direction

Faulty generalizations:

* Accident (fallacy): when an exception to the generalization is ignored
* Cherry picking
* Composition: where one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some (or even every) part of the whole
* Dicto simpliciter
o Converse accident (a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter): when an exception to a generalization is wrongly called for
* False analogy
* Hasty generalization (fallacy of insufficient statistics, fallacy of insufficient sample, fallacy of the lonely fact, leaping to a conclusion, hasty induction, secundum quid)
* Loki's Wager: insistence that because a concept cannot be clearly defined, it cannot be discussed
* Misleading vividness
* Overwhelming exception
* Spotlight fallacy
* Thought-terminating cliché: a commonly used phrase, sometimes passing as folk wisdom, used to quell cognitive dissonance.

A red herring is an argument, given in response to another argument, which does not address the original issue. See also irrelevant conclusion

* Ad hominem: attacking the personal instead of the argument. A form of this is reductio ad Hitlerum.
* Argumentum ad baculum ("appeal to force", "appeal to the stick"): where an argument is made through coercion or threats of force towards an opposing party
* Argumentum ad populum ("appeal to belief", "appeal to the majority", "appeal to the people"): where a proposition is claimed to be true solely because many people believe it to be true
* Association fallacy & Guilt by association
* Appeal to authority: where an assertion is deemed true because of the position or authority of the person asserting it
* Appeal to consequences: a specific type of appeal to emotion where an argument concludes a premise is either true or false based on whether the premise leads to desirable or undesirable consequences for a particular party
* Appeal to emotion: where an argument is made due to the manipulation of emotions, rather than the use of valid reasoning
o Appeal to fear: a specific type of appeal to emotion where an argument is made by increasing fear and prejudice towards the opposing side
o Wishful thinking: a specific type of appeal to emotion where a decision is made according to what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than according to evidence or reason
o Appeal to spite: a specific type of appeal to emotion where an argument is made through exploiting people's bitterness or spite towards an opposing party
o Appeal to flattery: a specific type of appeal to emotion where an argument is made due to the use of flattery to gather support
* Appeal to motive: where a premise is dismissed, by calling into question the motives of its proposer
* Appeal to novelty: where a proposal is claimed to be superior or better solely because it is new or modern
* Appeal to poverty (argumentum ad lazarum)
* Appeal to wealth (argumentum ad crumenam)
* Argument from silence (argumentum ex silentio)
* Appeal to tradition: where a thesis is deemed correct on the basis that it has a long-standing tradition behind it
* Chronological snobbery: where a thesis is deemed incorrect because it was commonly held when something else, clearly false, was also commonly held
* Genetic fallacy
* Judgmental language
* Poisoning the well
* Sentimental fallacy: it would be more pleasant if; therefore it ought to be; therefore it is
* Straw man argument
* Style over substance fallacy
* Texas sharpshooter fallacy
* Two wrongs make a right
* Tu quoque

* Definist fallacy
* Slippery slope