WHAT IS A FAULTY LOGIC?
- I know a Christian and she doesnt know
- A kind of reasoning based on false cause and
inaccurate inferences.
FAULTY LOGIC IN ARGUMENTS
1. CIRCULAR REASONING
- LATIN: Circulus in Probando (Circle in Proving)
- Supports an argument by restating the same
argument over and over.
- Instead of offering proof, it simply asserts the
conclusion in another form.
- EX: The new law is very helpful because it
gives the poor a helping hand.
I deserve to have a later curfew, so you should
let me stay out until 10pm.
2. EITHER - OR FALLACY
- False Dilemma/False Dichotomy/False
Binary/Black-and-White Thinking
- Imposes only two options for a situation.
- It is characterized by omission of choices.
- EX: You are either with God, or against him.
I thought you were a good person but you
werent at church today.
3. OVERSIMPLIFICATION
- Fallacy of Reduction or Fallacy of Multiplication
- Reducing a complex idea to a simpler one as if
it were much simpler than it is.
- EX: People end up in jail because they are lazy
and have no morals.
4. OVERGENERALIZATION
- Commonly known as Hasty Generalization.
- Makes an unfair assumption about a group of
people/things.
- Usually uses words such as all, every, no one,
always, and none.
- EX: Everyone is afraid of the dark.
Three congressional representatives have had
affairs. Therefore, members of the congress are
adulterers.
5. STEREOTYPING
- Categorizing people based on gender, ethnicity,
race, or group.
- It occurs when an assumption is made that
what is considered is true of a larger class is
true for ALL the members.
- Politicians are corrupt.
anything about Science. Christians dont know
anything about Science.
6. NAME-CALLING
- LATIN: Argumentum Ad Hominem (Attacking
the person)
- Attacking the person making the argument,
rather than the argument itself, when the
attack on the person is completely irrelevant to
the argument the person is making.
- Attaching to a person, group, institution, or
concept a heavily derogatory connotation.
- EX: The plan wont work because it was
suggested by a traitor.
Well, its not like you graduated from the best
school, so I can see why you wouldnt know
how to properly grade a writing assignment.
Her argument is invalid since she is black.
7. EVADING THE ISSUE
- It answers an argument with ideas that are far
or not related from the issue.
- RED HERRING FALLACY.
- EX: I have worked hard to help eliminate
criminal activity. What we need is economic
growth that can only come from the hands of
leadership.
8. NON SEQUITUR
- It means it does not follow.
- Ex: The school in which my child goes to school
is big. The classroom must be big.
Guns have been used to attack and kill people.
All guns are used as weapons against innocent
individuals.
9. FALSE CAUSALITY
- LATIN: Non Causa Pro Causa (Non-cause for
cause).
- An assumption that an event happened because
of another event that occurred before it.
- It is summarized and presented under the
slogan correlation is not causation, and
sequence is not causation.
- EX: It rained yesterday. So the ground today is
wet.
Watching TV that close will make you go blind,
so move back!