8.11: Glossary

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Bradley H. Dowden
California State University Sacramento

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ad hominem fallacy Attacking an argument by pointing out some irrelevant characteristic of the reasoner rather than by pointing out some error in the reasoning itself.

black-white fallacy A false dilemma fallacy that limits you to only two choices.

escape between the horns of a dilemma Rightly complaining that the dilemma you face is unfair and that there is another choice that you should be offered.

fallacy A kind of error in reasoning.

fallacious appeal to authority An appeal to authority in which the authority is not really an expert in this subject or cannot be trusted to tell the truth, or in which authorities disagree on this subject (except for the occasional lone wolf), or in which the reasoner misquotes the authority.

fallacy of faulty comparison Arguing by comparison but comparing the wrong things.

false dilemma fallacy Unfairly presenting too few choices and implying that a choice must be made only between the offered choices.

genetic fallacy Attempting to discredit a claim because of its origin (genesis) when such a criticism is irrelevant to the claim.

non sequitur "Does not follow"; an argument in which the reasons given are irrelevant or very weak. All fallacies of argumentation are non sequiturs.

refutation A disproof. A refutation of another person's position is an argument that successfully shows the other person's position to be false. You don’t refute someone merely by contradicting them.

straw man fallacy Falsely attributing an easily refuted position to one's opponent that the opponent wouldn't have proposed himself and then proceeding to attack the easily refuted position. The opponent is a real man (or woman) with a real argument; the easily refuted position is an artificial position held by an artificial person—the "straw man." It's easier to attack a straw man; nevertheless, the attack is irrelevant. It is a diversion from the main issue.