Informal Fallacies in Logic

Fallacy
In everyday speech fallacy is referred to a commonly accepted belief. What is usually meant is
that the belief is false, although widely accepted. In logic, a fallacy refers to logically weak
argument appeal that is widely used and successful. A logical fallacy is an argument that is
usually psychologically persuasive but logically weak. The fallacious arguments work in getting
many people to accept conclusions, that they make bad arguments appear good even though a
little commonsense reflection will reveal that people ought not to accept the conclusions of these
arguments as strongly supported.

Formal and Informal Fallacies

Formal fallacies are deductive arguments whose invalidity can be detected immediately by mere
inspection of the argument form. Informal fallacies are said to depend more on the content. The
formal fallacies of include:
1. Generalizing from insufficient data.
2. Using data that is biased.
3. Failing to support a claim with evidence.
4. Omitting a necessary part of the argument.

Informal Fallacy
The informal fallacy is committed when the contents of an argument's stated premises fail to
adequately support its proposed conclusion. The most common informal fallacies are explained below.

Faulty analogy
An analogy is a comparison of a subject with something more familiar to the reader; its purpose is to
clarify an idea. While it may clarify or rein-force a part of the argument, it cannot be used to prove a
point. Faulty analogy is one in which the two subjects that are compared have more differences than
similarities. Comparing the primary school to an aircraft carrier (because both help you to "take off") is
indulging in a faulty analogy. If you use an analogy, ask your-self if the comparison is natural and if the
things compared share enough similarities to be able to support each other. If the analogy is faulty or
trivial, dont use it.

Non-Sequitur
"It does not follow." Your conclusion does not follow from the evidence presented. Consider the
argument: "Ali is certainly sincere then he must be right." Sincere people have been wrong many times in
history; it does not follow that he is right because he is sincere.

Post Hoc
This is also known as ergo propter hoc or false cause. This is a simplistic cause-and-effect
argument: because that is true, so is this, as in "bathing with cold water makes you sick." There
is no logical connection between getting cold and getting flu, logically flu is caused by virus).
Red herring
Within an argument some irrelevant issue is raised which diverts attention from the main subject.
The function of the red herring is sometimes to help express a strong, biased opinion. The red
herring serves to increase the force of the argument in a very misleading manner. For example a
teacher catches a student cheating during a test. The student in response says, I know Ive made
a mistake. But think of my parents. Theyre going to kill me. The student uses a red herring in
his response.

Begging the Question

This argument assumes in its premises the things you should be establishing by proof. It is also
known as "loading the assertion," and perhaps it most commonly appears as labelling. When
someone argues that "these filthy books should not be allowed in our library" without defining
what "filth" is and demonstrating how these books are "filthy," he or she is evading the burden of
proof by begging the question.

Ad Hominem
This fallacy occurs when, instead of addressing someone's argument or position, you irrelevantly
attack the person or some aspect of the person who is making the argument. The fallacious attack
can also be direct to membership in a group or institution. For example, A lawyer who argues
that his client should not be held responsible for theft because he is poor.

Irrelevant Authority
The fallacy of irrelevant authority is committed when you accept without proper support for his
or her alleged authority, a person's claim or proposition as true. Alleged authorities should only
be used when the authority is reporting on his or her field of expertise, the authority is reporting
on facts about which there is some agreement in his or her field, and you have reason to believe
he or she can be trusted. Alleged authorities can be individuals or groups. The attempt to appeal
to the majority or the masses is a form of irrelevant authority. The attempt to appeal to an elite or
select group is a form of irrelevant authority. For example, Shahid Afridi used XYZs bat, so this
must be the bat to play with.

Either-Or
This is an attempt to force one's opponent to choose between two conflicting options, assuming
one is either for one or the other, when in fact there may be a whole variety of options available.
For example, the shirt is either black or white in color.

Inconsistency
A person commits the fallacy of inconsistency when he or she makes contradictory claims. For
example, There is no evil in this world. Though evil exists in some parts of the world, we will
overcome it sooner or later.

Slippery Slope
In a slippery slope argument, a course of action is rejected because, with little or no evidence,
one insists that it will lead to a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end or ends. The
slippery slope involves an acceptance of a succession of events without direct evidence that this
course of events will happen. For example, Today late for ten minutes, tomorrow late for an
hour, and then someday you will simply stop to show up.

Unwarranted Generalization
This fallacy occurs when we make a generalization on the basis of insufficient evidence. This
may occur when we rely on too small of a sample or an unrepresentative sample to support the
generalization. For example, I know this will be a terrible class. They tell me the professor is
old. Old professors are unable to talk with today's students.

The genetic fallacy

This is an assertion that we can predict the nature and character of something or someone by
knowing its/his or her origins. Its most common form is seen in racial or ethnic prejudice, and in
stereotypes of all kinds.

Appeal to ignorance
This is the assertion that one's conclusion must be right because no one has proven it wrong. The
burden of proof is on the one who makes the claim, and the appeal to ignorance is really an
attempt to evade the responsibility to present supporting evidence for one's contentions.

Questionable Clause
The fallacy is committed when the cause for an occurrence is identified on insufficient evidence.
For example, the master paint advertisement concludes that one can tell what paint is used inside,
based on the exterior of the house. Therefore, it raises the fallacy of questionable clause as one
cannot predict the inside scenario based on the external look.

False Dilemma
This fallacy assumes that we must choose one of the two alternatives instead of allowing for
other possibilities. For example, this MasterCard advertisement There are something money
cant buy. For everything else there is MasterCard. The punch line of the advertisement is
creating fallacy as the punch line states that MasterCard exists for everything that can be bought.

Appeal to Authority
This fallacy tries to convince the listener by appealing to the reputation of a famous or respected
personality. An advertisement of Q-Mobile features Mahira Khan using their phone. She may not
know anything about the vehicle. But the company is using her superstardom for promoting the
vehicle. Hence, this is a fallacy of appeal to authority.

Bandwagon
Bandwagon creates the impression that everybody is doing it and so should you. If we suggest
that someones claim is correct simply because its what most everyone is coming to believe,
then we are committing the bandwagon fallacy. For example, in a commercial of Sensodyne,
Trust the brand more dentist and hygienists use Sensodyne
Appeal to the people
Appeal to the people uses the views of the majority as a persuasive device. If we suggest too
strongly that someones claim or argument is correct simply because its what most everyone
believes, then we have committed the fallacy of appeal to the people. Similarly, if we suggest too
strongly that someones claim or argument is mistaken simply because its not what most
everyone believes, then we have also committed the fallacy.