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Logical Fallacy Summary

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Logical Fallacy Summary
Stephen’s Guide to the Logical Fallacies by Stephen Downes states, “the point of an argument is to give reasons in support of some conclusion”. An argument commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not, in fact, support the conclusion. Logical fallacies are common errors in reasoning that will undermine the logic of your argument and do not support the conclusion. Fallacies are described with a names, definitions, examples, and proofs. The first main fallacy mentioned is a ‘Fallacy of Distraction’. These types of fallacies occur when there are false dilemmas, ignorance, slippery slopes, or complex questions. Each of these fallacies are characterized by the illegitimate use of a logical reasoning to distract the reader from the false reasoning of …show more content…

Examples of using logical fallacies to appeal to motives rather than support are, appealing to force, appealing to pity, prejudicial language, consequences, and popularity. The fallacies mentioned in this section have the practice of appealing to emotions or other psychological factors to attract the reader, rather than providing true facts and statements. Thirdly, ‘Changing the Subject’ is another chief fallacy mechanism. Attacking the person, appealing to authority, anonymous authority, and style over substance are all examples to changing the topic being talked about. The fallacies in this section occur when the subject is changed by discussing the person making the argument instead of discussing reasons as to whether one should believe the conclusion or not. The fourth type of fallacy discussed in this article are ‘Inductive Fallacies’. These fallacies include hasty generalizations, unrepresentative samples, false analogies, slothful inductions, and excluded information. Inductive reasons have inferences from parts of a sample to parts of a whole population. Next, there are ‘Fallacies Involving Statistical Syllogisms’. Generalizations of this type can either be

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