Fallacies of ethos (ethics) and pathos (emotions):

Ad Hominem Argument:  attack the person rather than his or her ideas; attack someone

personally  -  ex.  Smith’s ideas are wrong because he is stupid.

Ad Misericordiam Argument:  appeal to pity  -  ex. Feed the Children commercials; they

show you poor, starving children, appealing to pity instead of appealing to your

logic.

Guilt by Association:  someone is accused of wrong or his or her ideas are wrong because

of an association  - ex. Because President Kennedy is Catholic, he is held

responsible for all Catholics.

Straw Man:  It’s easier to attack a man of straw than a man of flesh; in other words, you

simplify your opponent’s argument too much in order to easily attack it  -  ex.

People who are for the choice of abortion believe in murder.  Thus, they do not

value human life.

Red Herring:  deliberately addressing an unrelated or irrelevant point to throw audience

off your argument  -  ex.  A question exists whether or not America should fund

continuing air strikes in Bosnia.  The bravery of our pilots should be commented.

Appeal to common practice:  since everyone else does it, it is all right to do  - 

      ex.  I borrowed money from the company because everyone else has done it.

Appeal to traditional wisdom:  since we have always done it, it is right to do  -  ex.  Because the Constitution declares a separation of church and state, no religion should be allowed in public schools.

Complex Question:  two unrelated points are conjoined and treated as a single proposition.  Reader has to reject or accept both – ex. Do you support freedom and the right to bear arms?

Prejudicial Language – using loaded or emotional terms to attach value to proposition – ex. A reasonable person would believe me.

Fallacies of logos (logic) or logical fallacies:

Argument by Analogy:  you make a comparison that doesn’t fit; in order to compare to

usually unlike things, their comparisons and contrasts must fit several times, not

just one thing is alike or unlike  -  ex. Politics is like Basketball.  They both

depend on teamwork.

Begging the Question:  argument that goes around in a circle; you start with one claim

and support it with the same claim; one has to accept the first claim in order to

accept the second  -  ex. Freshman English is a waste of time.  Thus, freshman

English should not be a required course.

Equivocation:  using vague or ambiguous language to mislead an audience  -  ex.  the use

of “justice,” “real,” “society,” or “freedom”  - you need to define the use, make

your meaning clear, and not shift the meaning of the word within your argument once defined

False Dilemma:  you only give a choice of two alternatives while overlooking other

possibilities (and implying these other choices do not exist)  -  ex. Freshmen

receive low scores because they’re lazy or they don’t cheat.

Ignoring the Question:  you ask a question or make a claim and then ignore it (don’t

analyze it)  -  ex.  The budget is a very important issue.  But what I propose about

fixing the streets is also important.

Hasty Generalization or Jumping to Conclusions:  the conclusion does not follow an

ample amount of evidence  -  ex. Because one apple is sour, all apples are sour.

Slippery Slope fallacy – fallacy that one step will inevitably lead to an unother undesirable second step and so forth – es.

Legalizing abortion will lead to the legalization of euthanasia.

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc:  assuming that the event is a result of something because of

what occurred immediately before it  -  ex. The economy is in trouble because of

the full moon last night.

Circular Definition – The definition uses the term being defined as part of the definition – ex. A animal is human if and only if it has human parents.