Terms : Hide Images
| 6855092954 | strawman | Misrepresenting someone's argument to make it easier to attack. | 0 | |
| 6855092955 | strawman example | After Will said that we should put more money into health and education, Warren responded by saying he was surprised that Will hated the country so much that he wants to leave it defenseless by cutting military spending | 1 | |
| 6855092956 | slippery slope | Asserting that if A will happen, Z will happen too, therefore A should not happen | 2 | |
| 6855092957 | slippery slope example | If we let same-sex couples marry, then next thing you know we will let monkeys get married and then insects. | 3 | |
| 6855092958 | special pleading | Moving the goalposts to create exceptions when a claim is shown to be false | 4 | |
| 6855092959 | special pleading example | Edward claimed that he was a psychic. When his "powers" were disproven by science, Edward said that one has to have faith in his ability in order for it to work | 5 | |
| 6855092962 | black-or-white | When two alternative states are presented as the only possibilities, when other possibilities exist. | 6 | |
| 6855092963 | black-or-white example | The supreme leader told his citizens that they were either on his side or on the side of the enemy. | 7 | |
| 6855092964 | false cause | presuming that the real or perceived relationship between things means that one is a cause of the other | 8 | |
| 6855092965 | false cause example | Roger showed a chart that showed that temperatures were rising. He also showed a chart that showed that piracy was increasing. He then concluded that the rising temperature is causing piracy to rise. | 9 | |
| 6855092966 | ad hominem | Attacking your opponent's character or personal traits to undermine their argument. | 10 | |
| 6855092967 | ad hominem example | Sally gave a presentation about how to be more involved in school. Sam, her opponent, asked the school if they should believe her since she gets bad grades and has problems at home. | 11 | |
| 6855092968 | loaded question | asking a question that has an assumption built into it so that it can't be answered without appearing guilty. | 12 | |
| 6855092969 | loaded question example | Grace and Helen were dating Brad. One day Grace asked Helen if she was having a foot infection while Brad was nearby. | 13 | |
| 6855092970 | bandwagon | appealing to popularity or the fact that many people do something as an act of validation. | 14 | |
| 6855092971 | bandwagon example | It's okay to smoke since everyone does it | 15 | |
| 6855092972 | begging the question | a circular argument in which the conclusion is included in the premise. | 16 | |
| 6855092973 | begging the question example | Bill: "X must exist." Jill: "How do you know?" Bill: "Because this book says so." Jill: "Why should I believe that book?" Bill: "Because the book was written by X." | 17 | |
| 6855092974 | appeal to authority | using the opinion or position of an authority figure in place of an actual argument. | 18 | |
| 6855092975 | appeal to authority example | Bob said that evolution might not be true because this one scientist said that it's not. | 19 | |
| 6855092976 | appeal to nature | making the argument that because something is "natural" it is therefore valid, justifiable, good, or ideal. | 20 | |
| 6855092977 | appeal to nature example | Bob said that it is only natural that people be wary of artificial medicine. | 21 | |
| 6855092978 | composition/division | Assuming that what's true about one part of something has to be applied to all, or other parts of it. | 22 | |
| 6855092979 | composition/division example | Bob said that atoms are invisible, he is made up of atoms, so therefore he is invisible too. | 23 | |
| 6855092980 | anecdotal | using personal experience or an isolated example instead of a valid argument, especially to dismiss statistics. | 24 | |
| 6855092981 | anecdotal example | Bob said that statistics about smoking are wrong since his grandpa lived until 97 and smoked 30 cigs a day. | 25 | |
| 6855092982 | appeal to emotion | Manipulating an emotional response in place of a valid argument. | 26 | |
| 6855092983 | appeal to emotion example | Bob did not want to eat the sheep brains, but his dad told him to think of all those poor, starving, kids in Africa. | 27 | |
| 6855092984 | tu quoque | Avoiding having to engage with criticism by turning it back to the criticizer. Fighting criticism with criticism. | 28 | |
| 6855092985 | tu quoque example | Bob accused Agnes of lying about her statistics. Then, Agnes accused Bob of making up his graphs. | 29 | |
| 6855092986 | burden of proof | saying that the burden of proof lies not with the person making the claim, but with someone else to disprove | 30 | |
| 6855092987 | burden of proof example | Bob said that there is a teapot orbiting the earth right now, and that since no one can prove him wrong that it is valid. | 31 | |
| 6855092990 | the texas sharpshooter | cherry-picking data clusters to suit and argument, or finding a pattern to fit the presumption. | 32 | |
| 6855092991 | the texas sharpshooter example | The makers of Hershey chocolate pointed to research showing that of the 5 countries where Hershey sold the most chocolate, 3 of them were in the top ten healthiest countries on earth, therefore Hershey's chocolate is healthy | 33 | |
| 6855092996 | ambiguity | using double meanings or ambiguities of language to mislead or misrepresent the truth. | 34 | |
| 6855092997 | ambiguity example | The defendant said he parked his car in the illegal parking space because the sign said "fine for parking here." | 35 | |
| 6855092998 | genetic | judging something good or bad on the basis of where or who it comes from. | 36 | |
| 6855092999 | genetic example | Accused on the news of taking bribes, the Senator said that we should all be wary of the media, since we know how unreliable it can be. | 37 |
