Logically Fallacious Resources
Types of fallacies and how they differ
Fallacies can be grouped by the kind of reasoning problem they contain: a broken logical form, a weak premise, a distraction, an emotional appeal, or a misleading use of language.
Formal versus informal
Formal fallacies fail because the structure of the argument is invalid. Informal fallacies fail because the content, context, evidence, or rhetorical move does not support the conclusion.
Practical categories
For everyday reasoning, it often helps to think in practical groups: relevance fallacies, ambiguity fallacies, presumption fallacies, causal fallacies, and weak-induction fallacies.
Related fallacies
See all fallaciesFalse Conversion
The formal fallacy where the subject and the predicate terms of the proposition are switched (conversion) in the conclusion, in a proposition that uses “all” in its premise (type “A” forms), or “some/not” (type “O” forms).
Affirming the Consequent
An error in formal logic where if the consequent is said to be true, the antecedent is said to be true, as a result.
Equivocation
Using an ambiguous term in more than one sense, thus making an argument misleading.
Begging the Question
Any form of argument where the conclusion is assumed in one of the premises. Many people use the phrase “begging the question” incorrectly when they use it to mean, “prompts one to ask the question”. That is NOT the correct usage. Begging the question is a form of circular reasoning.
Post Hoc
Claiming that because event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X, without properly establishing causality.
Hasty Generalization
Drawing a conclusion based on a small sample size, rather than looking at statistics that are much more in line with the typical or average situation.