1. • Two categories of fallacies:
• Category 1—Fallacies that have
irrelevant premises.
• Category 2—Fallacies that have
unacceptable premises.
Chapter 5: Fallacies and Persuaders

2. • genetic fallacy—arguing that a claim is true or false
solely because of its origin.
– Example: We should reject that proposal for solving
the current welfare mess. It comes straight from the
Democratic Party.
• composition—arguing that what is true of the parts
must be true of the whole.
– Example: The atoms that make up the human body
are invisible. Therefore, the human body is invisible.
• division—arguing that what is true of the whole
must be true of the parts.
– Example: This machine is heavy. Therefore, all the
parts of this machine are heavy.

3. • appeal to the person (or ad
hominem, meaning ―to the man‖)—rejecting a
claim by criticizing the person who makes it
rather than the claim itself.
–Example: We should reject Chen’s argument for
life on other planets. He dabbles in the paranormal.
• Types:
 Personal attack
 Accusation of inconsistency
 Tu quoque
 Circumstances
 Poisoning the well

4. • equivocation—the use of a word in two
different senses in an argument.
–Example: Only man is rational. No woman is a
man. Therefore, no woman is rational.
• appeal to the masses—arguing that a claim
must be true merely because a substantial
number of people believe it.
–Example: Of course the war is justified. Everyone
believes that it’s justified.
• appeal to tradition—arguing that a claim must
be true just because it’s part of a tradition.
–Example: Acupuncture has been used for a
thousand years in China. It must work.

5. • appeal to ignorance—arguing that a
lack of evidence proves something.
–Examples:
–No one has shown that ghosts aren’t
real, so they must be real.
–No one has shown that ghosts are real, so
they must not exist.

6. • appeal to emotion—the use of emotions as
premises in an argument.
–Example: You should hire me for this network analyst
position. I’m the best person for the job. If I don’t get a
job soon my wife will leave me, and I won’t have
enough money to pay for my mother’s heart operation.
Come on, give me a break.
–
• red herring—the deliberate raising of an
irrelevant issue during an argument.
–Example: Every woman should have the right to an
abortion on demand. There’s no question about it.
These anti-abortion activists block the entrances to
abortion clinics, threaten abortion doctors, and
intimidate anyone who wants to terminate a pregnancy.

7. • straw man—the distorting, weakening, or
oversimplifying of someone’s position so
it can be more easily attacked or refuted.
–Example: Senator Kennedy is opposed to
the military spending bill, saying that it’s too
costly. Why does he always want to slash
everything to the bone? He wants a pint-
sized military that couldn’t fight off a crazed
band of terrorists, let alone a rogue nation.

8. • begging the question (or arguing in a
circle)—the attempt to establish the
conclusion of an argument by using that
conclusion as a premise.
–Example: God exists. We know that God
exists because the Bible says so, and we
should believe what the Bible says because
God wrote it.

9. • false dilemma—asserting that there are only
two alternatives to consider when there are
actually more than two.
–Example: Look, either you support the war or you
are a traitor to your country. You don’t support the
war. So you’re a traitor.
–
• slippery slope—arguing, without good
reasons, that taking a particular step will
inevitably lead to a further, undesirable step (or
steps).
–Example: We absolutely must not lose the war in
Vietnam. If South Vietnam falls to the
communists, then Thailand will fall to them. If
Thailand falls to them, then South Korea will fall to
them. And before you know it, all of Southeast Asia
will be under communist control.

10. • two wrongs make a right—arguing that your doing
something morally wrong is justified because someone
else has done the same (or similar) thing.
–Example: I have a clear conscience. I stole his laptop
because he took mine a month ago.
• decision-point fallacy—arguing that because a line or
distinction cannot be drawn at any point in a
process, there are no differences or gradations in that
process.
–Example: As Joe loses his hair, there is no point at which we
can definitely say that Joe became bald precisely here.
Therefore, Joe is not going bald.

11. • hasty generalization—drawing a conclusion
about a whole group based on an inadequate
sample of the group.
–Example: The only male professor I’ve had this
year was a chauvinist pig. All the male professors at
this school must be chauvinist pigs.
• faulty analogy—an argument in which the
things being compared are not sufficiently
similar in relevant ways.
–Example: Dogs are warm-blooded, nurse their
young, and give birth to puppies. Humans are warm-
blooded and nurse their young. Therefore, humans
give birth to puppies too.