AP Language: Logical Fallacies Flashcards

3386250801	Non Sequitur	A conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement. e.g: All girls have blue eyes; Jill is a girl; therefore, Jill is going to wear a blue dress to the ball.	0
3386250802	Begging the Question	A fallacy in which the premises include the claim that the conclusion is true or (directly or indirectly) assume that the conclusion is true. e.g: God exists because the bible says so because the Bible was written by God.	1
3386250938	Circular Resoning	A logical fallacy in which the reasoner begins with what they are trying to end with. e.g: Paranormal activity is real because I experienced it therefore it must be real because it felt like paranormal activity.	2
3386250939	Straw Man Argument	A person simply ignores a person's actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position. e.g: Senator Jones says that we should not fund the attack submarine program. I disagree entirely. I can't understand why he wants to leave us defenseless like that.	3
3386251082	Ad Hominen	A claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. It is usually an attack against the character of person making the claim, or her circumstances. e.g: Your argument is wrong because you are ugly and poor.	4
3386251415	Hasty Generalisation	Informal fallacy of faulty generalisation by reaching an inductive generalisation based on insufficient evidence—essentially making a hasty conclusion without considering all of the variables. e.g: My father smoked four packs of cigarettes a day since age fourteen and lived until age sixty-nine. Therefore, smoking really can't be that bad for you.	5
3386251416	Overgeneralisation	Claims which use words like all, never, most, and seldom not as figures of speech but as ways of avoiding assessing or questioning the likeliness of an event which is part of the claim. e.g: Hondas never get better gas mileage than Volkswagens.	6
3386251562	Post Hoc Argument	The implication that because something came before it was the cause of what came after. e.g: If I had not stopped to talk to Nancy, I would not have accidentally unplugged the computer when I leaned back in my chair.	7
3386251563	False Dilemma	When only two choices are presented yet more exist, or a spectrum of possible choices exists between two extremes. e.g: I thought you were a good person, but you weren't at church today.	8
3386251658	Slippery Slope	A fallacy in which a person asserts that some event must inevitably follow from another without any argument for the inevitability of the event in question. e.g: We've got to stop them from banning pornography. Once they start banning one form of literature, they will never stop. Next thing you know, they will be burning all the books!	9
3386251659	Red Herring	An irrelevant topic introduced in an argument to divert the attention of listeners or readers from the original issue. e.g: Mike: It is morally wrong to cheat on your spouse, why on earth would you have done that? Ken: But what is morality exactly? Mike: It's a code of conduct shared by cultures. Ken: But who creates this code?...	10