AP Language and Composition Fallacies Flashcards

5270119798	Scare Tactics	When fear, not based on evidence or reason, is being used as the primary motivator to get others to accept an idea, proposition, or conclusion.	0
5270157530	Either-or	A type of informal fallacy that involves a situation in which only limited alternatives are considered, when in fact there is at least one additional option	1
5270182661	Slippery Slope	A person asserts that some event must inevitably follow from another without any argument for the inevitability of the event in question.	2
5270186655	Sentimental Appeals	A logical fallacy characterized by the manipulation of the recipient's emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence.	3
5270192427	Bandwagon	The belief that an argument is valid because a majority of people accept it.	4
5270202395	Appeals to False Authority	Using an authority as evidence in your argument when the authority is not really an authority on the facts relevant to the argument.	5
5270208217	Dogmatism	When we assume or assert that a particular position is the only possible acceptable one.	6
5270216396	Moral Equivalence	A term used in political debate, usually to criticize any denial that a moral hierarchy can be assessed of two sides in a conflict, or in the actions or tactics of two sides.	7
5270223627	Ad Hominem	An argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the persons argument.	8
5270237877	Hasty Generalization	a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. Jumping to a conclusion, and neglect of qualifications.	9
5270250020	Faulty Causality	Is arguing that the cause of something is that which preceded it, and which does not take into account any other possible causes. Ignores the possibility of coincidence.	10
5270264167	Straw Man	Committed when a person simply ignores a person's actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position.	11
5270273161	Faulty Analogy	Assuming that because two things are alike in one or more respects, they are necessarily alike in some other respect.	12
5270280143	Begging the Question	A logical fallacy in which the writer or speaker assumes the statement under examination to be true. In other words, using a premise to support itself.	13
5270289974	Equivocation	When a key term or phrase in an argument is used in an ambiguous way, with one meaning in one portion of the argument and then another meaning in another portion of the argument.	14
5270297788	Non Sequitur	When the conclusion does not follow from the premises. In more informal reasoning, it can be when what is presented as evidence or reason is irrelevant or adds very little to support to the conclusion	15