Fallacy

How it is used

Used in critical-thinking courses, debates and essay feedback. You commit a fallacy or spot one; a faulty argument is fallacious. Formal fallacies are errors of structure; informal fallacies come from content, ambiguity or irrelevance. Many have Latin names.

Example sentences

1. Your reply commits a fallacy: you attack her motives instead of her reasons.

2. The textbook lists more than thirty informal fallacies with examples.

Common collocations

• commit a fallacy
• logical fallacy
• informal fallacy
• formal fallacy
• fallacious reasoning

Related terms

• ad hominemA fallacy in which someone attacks the person making an argument, such as their character or motives, instead of the argument itself.
• straw manA fallacy in which someone presents an opponent's view as weaker or more extreme than it really is and then attacks that easier version.
• begging the questionA fallacy in which an argument assumes, openly or quietly, the very conclusion it is supposed to prove.
• slippery slopeAn argument claiming that one small step will inevitably lead to a chain of events ending in disaster; it is a fallacy when the chain is not supported.

More terms: Fallacies

• false dilemma
• appeal to authority
• red herring
• post hoc fallacy
• hasty generalization