1. Logical Fallacies 4 th period

2. Ad Hominem  What it is  Means “against the man”  A logical fallacy that involves attacking an opponent’s character to undermine him instead of his argument  Examples  “Gentlemen of the jury, because I have justice on my side, I am sure you will not be influenced by this gentleman's pretended knowledge of the law. Why. he doesn't even know which side of his shirt ought to be in front!” –Abraham Lincoln  “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” –Donald Trump to Carly Fiorina  “My opponent suggests that lowering taxes will be a good idea -- this is coming from a woman who eats a pint of Ben and Jerry’s each night!” Grace Glidden

3. LOADED QUESTION A question based on falsehoods or unfounded presumptions Examples: “Are you still beating your wife?” This implies that you have a wife and have beaten her before. Answering either “yes” or “no” would confirm the implications of the question, even if they are untrue. “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” Lesley Stahl asked Madeleine Albright (U.S. Ambassador to the UN) regarding UN sanctions against Iraq on 60 Minutes in 1996. Donald Trump responds to a loaded question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64TyWQd06Ps&feature=youtu.be A question is not loaded when what is implied is known to be true. Keitt Trammell

4. Bandwagon A Bandwagon Appeal states that because of something’s growing popularity, it should be accepted. This is different from an appeal to popularity because the Bandwagon is more focused on what is trending now. Examples: – If someone were to state that marijuana should be legalized in Alabama because “32 other states have legalized Marijuana,” that person would be committing a fallacy. – When Bill Clinton asked Mr. Dick Morris to poll the American people on whether Clinton should tell the truth about Monica Lewinsky, Bill was searching for a bandwagon to ride out on. Christian Chapman

5. Weak Analogy -When two things are compared based on their likeness to clarify an argument but the analogy is too dissimilar to be effective 3 Examples: 1. “Guns are like hammers—they’re both tools with metal parts that could be used to kill someone. And yet it would be ridiculous to restrict the purchase of hammers—so restrictions on purchasing guns are equally ridiculous.” 2. "If we can put a man on the moon, then we can certainly fix the problems with society given enough money and power.“ 3. "God is love; love is blind; Stevie Wonder is blind; therefore, Stevie Wonder is God." Bailey Vinson 4 th

6. This fallacy is the belief that an action that is wrong is qualified if the victim of the action would reciprocate the same action back, given the chance. Person 1 believes that Person 2 would do X to Person 1. Therefore, Person 1 believes they are justified to do X to Person 2. Examples: The justification of capital punishment by saying that the criminals on death row have no problem killing others. "How do you [a Democrat] justify Obama taking unilateral action against Libya?" "Bush started two wars on his own?" The operation cost just under $500, and no one was killed, or even hurt. In that same time the Pentagon spent tens of millions of dollars and dropped tens of thousands of pounds of explosives on Vietnam, killing or wounding thousands of human beings, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. Because nothing justified their actions in our calculus, nothing could contradict the merit of ours. Source: Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, from his memoir Fugitive Days, defending a bombing attack by the Weathermen on the Pentagon. Quoted in "Radical Chic Resurgent", by Timothy Noah, Slate, 8/22/2001."Radical Chic Resurgent", by Timothy Noah, Slate, 8/22/2001. Allison Hall

7. Slippery Slope Elina Dawson 4 th A course of action in which little or no evidence is used to suggest a chain reaction resulting in undesirable ends. Restraint is possible however, to do the first thing without going on to any of the others, and conclusions cannot be proven, leading this argument to be false. Today late for ten minutes, tomorrow late for an hour, and then someday you will simply cease to show up! If Texas adopts an income tax, I’m moving away. An income tax at state level is the first step to communism. Earlier this week in New York, a cop killed a pedestrian on the following reason: “Oh! Here is a man who is scratching his head in public. He is so rude! Next he will pick his nose. Then when he gets on the bus, he will put his germs on the handrail. The next moment an inadvertent child’s mouth will touch it. And then the child will get sick, and then his whole family too. There will be an outbreak of disease in the city!” The cop could not bear thinking any further, and fired his gun. (Also known as the Domino Fallacy)

8.  When a person simply ignores a person’s actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that position. By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone's argument, it's much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine honest rational debate.  “For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias.” –Obama's 2 nd inaugural speech  Bill and Jill are arguing about cleaning out their closets: Jill: "We should clean out the closets. They are getting a bit messy." Bill: "Why, we just went through those closets last year. Do we have to clean them out everyday?" Jill: "I never said anything about cleaning them out every day. You just want too keep all your junk forever, which is just ridiculous.“  Person 1 makes claim Y. Person 2 restates person 1’s claim (in a distorted way). Person 2 attacks the distorted version of the claim. Therefore, claim Y is false.  Son: “Can we get a pet dog?” Mother: “No” Son: “Why not? It will protect us as well.” Mother: “Still, No” Son: “Why are you leaving us and the home unprotected? Mackenzie Martin

9. Red Herring Device to divert attention away from the original subject 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…? Reporter: "Mr. President, your opponent, Walter Mondale is considerably younger than you. Do you think that with the threat of nuclear war, age should be an issue in this campaign?" President Reagan: "Not at all. I am not going to exploit my opponent's youth and inexperience." Caitlyn Morris

10. Weak Analogy A weak analogy occurs when a person draws a comparison between two concepts, situations, or things to link them together in an argument, even though the connection between the two is not strong enough to make the case. Examples:  Donald Trump made an analogy, comparing NFL to America in order to portray that America, like NFL, was weak. “Football has become soft like our country has become soft.” He said it after talking about Iraq  William Paley’s argument from design aka Watchmaker Analogy: a watch and the universe are similar  "There are seven windows given to animals in the domicile of the head: two nostrils, two eyes, two ears, and a mouth. From this, and many other similarities in Nature, too tedious to enumerate, we gather that the number of planets must necessarily be seven." - Francesco Sizzi, 17th century Italian astronomer Elli Raczkowski

11. Inconsistency – more than one proposition is stated that, in conjunction, cannot possibly be true; contradictory claims Examples Current (Donald Trump’s political party) In the early 2000s, Trump identified as Democratic. In 2011 and 2012, Trump identified as Independent. Donald Trump currently identifies as a Republican. Literature (Animal Farm) “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Historical (U.S. proceedings concerning annexation of the Philippines) President McKinley: “we could not leave [the Filipinos] to themselves – they were unfit for self-rule.” U.S. Constitution: “no power is given to the Federal Government to acquire territory to be held and governed permanently as colonies.” Madeline Ward

12.  Argument that includes a contradiction ◦ Opposing ideas are presented  Yogi Berra (Professional baseball player) ◦ “I never said most of the things I said.” ◦ “Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.” ◦ “I never had sexual relations with that woman -- but it sure was nice!” Deland Saville

13. Inappropriate Appeal to Authority Definition : Using an expert as evidence in your argument when he or she is not really an authority on the facts relevant to the argument. It allows an irrelevant authority to add credibility to the claim being made. Examples:  My 5th grade teacher once told me that girls will go crazy for boys if they learn how to dance. Therefore, if you want to make the ladies go crazy for you, learn to dance.  Noted psychologist Dr. Frasier Crane recommends that you buy the EZ-Rest Hot Tub  I have a book at home that says that Stalin was acting in the best interest of the people. This book lays it all out, so it has to be true. Hannah Edwards

14.  Using authority as evidence in your argument in an attempt to add trustworthiness to the argument.  Basic Structure:  Bill believes X.  Therefore, X is true.  Examples:  “Well, Isaac Newton trusted in Alchemy, do you suppose you know more than Isaac Newton?”  Linus Pauling as the only person ever to win two unshared Nobel prizes, one for chemistry, another for peace, stated his daily medication of Vitamin C might have delayed the onset of cancer by twenty years. Therefore Vitamin C is effective in the treatment of cancer.  Economist John Kenneth Galbraith argues that tight money policy is the best cure for a recession. (Although Galbraith is an expert, not all economists agree on this point.) Todd Sheridan

15. Hasty Generalization  Hasty generalization: drawing a conclusion without sufficient evidence  Examples:  That teenager is speeding. Therefore, all teens are bad drivers.  The two weightlifters I’ve met both took steroids. Therefore all weightlifters take steroids.  The three people I met in Florida were nice. Therefore everyone is Florida is nice. McKenzie Harlow

16. False Alternative (either- or) Definition: when only two choices are presented yet more exist, or a spectrum of possible choices exists between to extremes. Examples America, love it or leave it. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. –George W. Bush You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. –Harvey Dent Savannah Cowart

17. Faulty Causal Generalization Logical Fallacy- a flaw in the structure of a deductive argument which renders the argument invalid. Faulty Casual Generalization- mistakes correlation or association for causation, by assuming that because one thing follows another it was caused by the other. Ex: Drinkers are more likely than non-drinkers to get lung cancer, suggesting drinking causes lung cancer. (There is a strong correlation between consuming alcohol and developing lung cancer. The fallacy would be asserting that alcohol intake causes lung cancer; the actual reason is that people who drink more also tend to smoke more than non drinkers.) Ex: Many claim that marijuana is a “gateway drug” because those who have smoked marijuana are more likely than those who haven’t to go on to try other drugs. (The fallacy would be stating that marijuana use leads to increased use of other drugs; the more logical explanation is that those who are willing to try one drug are obviously also willing to try other drugs. Ex: "Now we have more chronic long-term unemployment than this country has ever seen before, twenty million people out of work, stopped looking for work, or in part-time jobs that need full-time jobs, we've got housing prices continuing to decline, and we have foreclosures at record levels. This president has failed." – Mitt Romney (His argument is that Obama has been in office since 2008, and the economy has been failing since 2008, thus the horrible economy is Obama’s fault. Emma Holleman

18. False Alternative A limited number of options are present, where in reality there are more options. Typically characterized by “this or that”, but can also be characterized by an omission of choices. (Dichotomy and Trilemma) Examples: “You are either with us or against us” -George W. Bush “I thought you were a good person, but you didn’t go to church today.” (Omission) “ There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard” -MasterCard Connor Settle

19. Equivocation (also known as: doublespeak) Def: The use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself; prevarication. A fallacy by which a key word or phrase in an argument is used with more than one meaning. Literary: Macbeth, in Act IV, Scene I, the witches tell Macbeth, "none of woman born/Shall harm Macbeth." So Macbeth believes no man will kill him. But, his murderer has been born by being cut from his dead mother's womb. Generic example: The sign said "fine for parking here", and since it was fine, I parked there. Generic example two: All banks are beside rivers. Therefore, the financial institution where I deposit my money is beside a river.

20. Equivocation the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself Laura Vickrey – 4 th period “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” -JFK

21. Card stacking A fallacy in which only certain information is given to the audience in order to get them to agree with a position, and any contradictory evidence is withheld. Employer: It says here on your resume that you are a hard worker, you pay attention to detail, and you don’t mind working long hours. Andy: Yes sir. Employer: I spoke to your previous employer. He says that you constantly change things that should not be changed, you could care less about other people’s privacy, and you had the lowest score in customer relations. Andy: Yes, that is all true, as well. Employer: Great then. Welcome to our social media team! Jennifer Go

22. BEGGING THE QUESTION The fallacy of begging the question occurs when an argument's premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it. Erica: "How do you know that the bible is divinely inspired?" Pedro: "Because is says right in the third chapter of II Timothy that 'all scripture is given by divine inspiration of God.'" “ Batman is great because he has awesome gadgetry, and his awesome gadgetry is great because he's Batman, and Batman is great.” Paranormal activity is real because I have experienced what can only be described as paranormal activity. Donovan Suggs 4 th period 2/6/15

23. Begging The Question  Also known as assuming the initial point and circular reasoning  Form of circular reasoning in which the conclusion is assumed to be true, either directly or indirectly, based off of the claim rather than including supporting evidence Assuming the conclusion you are trying to prove  The claim is the only support for the argument it makes  Also known as assuming the initial point and circular reasoning  Form of circular reasoning in which the conclusion is assumed to be true, either directly or indirectly, based off of the claim rather than including supporting evidence Assuming the conclusion you are trying to prove  The claim is the only support for the argument it makes  Examples: Bill: "God must exist." Jill: "How do you know." Bill: "Because the Bible says so." Jill: "Why should I believe the Bible?" Bill: "Because the Bible was written by God.“ Freedom of speech is important because people should be able to speak freely. Stealing is illegal because it is against the law. Katie Holtzscher

24. Attacking the Motive – Occurs when an individual attacks the reasoning behind another person's argument – Examples: A man suggests a new school campus be constructed. The man is the owner of a construction company so he would directly benefit from the building. Therefore, the argument is worth examining or is invalid – A is arguing for B. A benefits from B. Therefore, A's argument is invalid. – A professor has argued in favor of a tenure. Of course he does, because he is a tenured professor Lauren Hales 4th Period

25. ATTACKING THE MOTIVE Definition: Occurs when one person argues that another person’s position is invalid solely due to motives that could affect the claim. (A is for B. A benefits from B. Therefore A’s arguments are invalid.) Examples: 1. “Those scientists are only promoting global warming because they want more funding.” 2. “Donald Trump has argued that we need to build a new campus. Trump is the owner of his own construction company. He’ll make a fortune if his company is picked to build the new campus. Obviously Trump’s argument is a lot of self-serving nonsense.” 3. “Kamal claims that LUMS is the best Business school in Pakistan. But why should we listen to him? Being a LUMS student, of course he would say that!” Chappell Studdard AP Lang&Comp. 2/8/16 4 th Period

26. APPEAL TO PITY Ex1: Boss: 'You're late for work. I'm going to have to write you up.' Employee: 'Please don't write me up. If I get fired I'll lose my house and not have any way to feed my family.‘ Ex 2: “ ’You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?’ the grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it.” –Flannery O’Conner A Good Man is Hard to Find Ex 3: Hillary Clinton’s statement on how she wanted to “break into the boy’s club” in order to take the lead. Kayleigh Duprel occurs when an arguer tries to influence it’s audience to accept a conclusion by making them feel sorry for someone or themselves. In return, the arguer earns the audience's sympathy and obtains favorable response - sometimes used to avoid the truth of a subject

27.  Definition: a proposition is true simply on the basis that it has not been proved false or that it is false simply because it has not been proved true.  Examples  No one can prove that God exists, therefore God does not exist  “We do not know that the swine flu isn't coming; therefore, it is coming.”- 1976 Flu Propaganda  There is no proof aliens are not real, so they must be real Appeal to Ignorance -Molly Kopf

28. Definition: An Ad Hominem argument is one that is used to counter another argument; but, it is based on feelings, rather than facts, reason or logic. It is often a personal attack on one’s character rather than an attempt to address the issue at hand. Translated from Latin to English, "Ad Hominem" means "against the man" or "against the person." As the name suggests, it is a fallacy that involves commenting on or against an opponent to undermine the person instead of the argument.   EXAMPLE 1. Obama’s reaction to Palin’s comment on his nuclear defense policy Sarah Palin: “It’s unbelievable, no other administration would do it. You’re like a kid who says punch me in the face, and I’m not going to retaliate” Barack Obama: “I really have no response to that. The last time I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues.”   EXAMPLE 2. Donald Trump was asked about Megyn Kelly’s questions for him in a presidential debate: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.” - - In a sup-category of Ad Hominem - Ad feminam: This particular type of argument targets women and invalidates something a woman says by using stereotypes about women to discredit a statement.  In tDebate:  EXAMPLE 3. In the 2008 Democratic Presidential Debate: Hilary Clinton: “Senator Obama, it is very difficult having a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote, and that has been a pattern.” Ad Hominem Zoe Sparks

29. Appeal to Force (Scare Tactics) Using a threat (physical, emotional, or financial) that is unrelated to an argument to frighten another into accepting the argument, without providing any genuine reasoning Manipulating one’s opinion by creating a sense of fear or alarm Examples: President Obama on climate change- “we will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair: Submerged countries. Abandoned cities.” Donald Trump- “We don’t have that level of respect that we need. And if we don’t get it back fast, we’re going to just go weaker, weaker and just disintegrate.” “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards- “men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it” Lauren Chambliss