76 Fallacies

by Michael LaBossiere

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 seventy-six common fallacies—the knowledge a person needs to defend herself in a world awash in fallacies. In addition to combining the content of my 42 Fallacies and 30 More Fallacies, this book features some revisions as well as a new section on common formal fallacies. The focus is on providing the reader with definitions and examples of these common fallacies rather than being a handbook on winning arguments or a text on general logic. The book presents the following 73 informal Accent, Fallacy of Accident, Fallacy of Ad Hominem Ad Hominem Tu Quoque Amphiboly, Fallacy of Anecdotal Evidence, Fallacy Of Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief Appeal to Authority, Fallacious Appeal to Belief Appeal to Common Practice 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 Ridicule Appeal to Spite Appeal to Tradition Appeal to Silence Appeal to Vanity Argumentum ad Hitlerum Begging the Question Biased Generalization Burden of Proof Complex Question Composition, Fallacy of Confusing Cause and Effect Confusing Explanations and Excuses Circumstantial Ad Hominem Cum Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc Division, Fallacy of Equivocation, Fallacy of Fallacious Example Fallacy Fallacy False Dilemma Gambler’s Fallacy Genetic Fallacy Guilt by Association Hasty Generalization Historian’s Fallacy Illicit Conversion Ignoring a Common Cause Incomplete Evidence Middle Ground Misleading Vividness Moving the Goal Posts Oversimplified Cause Overconfident Inference from Unknown Statistics Pathetic Fallacy Peer Pressure Personal Attack Poisoning the Well Positive Ad Hominem Post Hoc Proving X, Concluding Y Psychologist's fallacy Questionable Cause Rationalization Red Herring Reification, Fallacy of Relativist Fallacy Slippery Slope Special Pleading Spotlight Straw Man Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy Two Wrongs Make a Right Victim Fallacy Weak Analogy The book contains the following three formal (deductive) Affirming the Consequent Denying the Antecedent Undistributed Middle

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Logic

134 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 17, 2012

Reviews

[György · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dry logic content. From time to time, not because we are losing the faculty of logical thinking with time (indeed, if we stop educating ourselves the decline of the mind is inevitable - SO READ BOOKS) I'm taking some lectures from logic.
With the right book it is enjoyable, refreshing.
The 76 fallacies are written very concisely, and what I like in these books originating from field of logic is that their semantic hygiene is always scoring very, very high. You know when "enter" such book you feel like you have arrived in world'S cleanest room where everything is crystal clear and white without shades.
Enjoy it!

[Armand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for improving your mind and your reasoning. No matter how smart we are, we are all prone to wishful thinking or to any types of fallacies. Taking a step back and analyzing the situation can prevent us from making bad decisions and jumping to wrong conclusions

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to logical fallacies, with sub-variants having important distinctions. Lots of examples of each, but I found some examples to be a little unclear. I did like that each fallacy included at least two examples.

[Diego · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breve pero provechosa lectura. 'Falacia' siempre ha sido una de mis palabras pedantes favoritas, así que me alegra haber aprendido a emplearla como es debido. Por otro lado no deja de sorprenderme la cantidad de razonamientos falaces que empleamos en nuestro día a día... Por suerte ahora podré señalar (con un gesto exageradamente grandilocuente) a cualquier transgresor de la lógica argumental a la vez que grito: "ESO ES UNA FALACIAAAAAA!!!!".

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book again over the last two days. It really does a good job of illustrating errors in reasoning that are so often made these days. I’d made me wish that I could reduce it to a pocket guide to check political commentary and news articles. Both seem rich with fallacies. It was clear that the fallacies described cold be represented symbolically. Makes you think that algorithms could be developed to do quick checks on posted arguments. That would be fun

[António Conceição · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and mandatory guide for anyone wanting to understand any argumentative discourse, including political speech.