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AF Hall of Fallacies
#1
AF Hall of Fallacies
We have a Hall of Shame thread and a Hall of Wit and Epicness thread in the Off-topic. Now, I thought to myself, well, why not a fallacy thread. So, here it is.

The purpose of this thread is to mainly better understand and be able to spot common logical fallacies that people make during discussions. Having this skill, I believe, can somewhat improve our own logical reasoning abilities and thereby make us better debaters as well. Recently, I've been looking at some of these fallacies and I'm interested to learn more about them as the days go by.

We don't necessarily have to learn all these fallacies in order to refute arguments, of course. And, surely, there are other important elements of having a good discussion/debate with someone aside from just knowing a bunch of fallacies. Nonetheless, I think that it's a good thing to have these little mental tools in our bags, especially for those of us who frequently participate in the myriad of discussions in this forum or anywhere else, for that matter.

Basically, in this thread, you just have to post a member's quote that you came across in a different thread which you think is a logical fallacy, and then write the name of that fallacy. You may also give a short description of that particular fallacy as well as why you think that the comment that you quoted in your post falls under that fallacy, if you wish.

Also, be aware that the member that you quoted might get into a small argument with you about it, but that's okay. You just explain to him calmly why that was a fallacy.

Don't get too fallacy happy, though, because sometimes you may not realize that you misused a fallacy, which happens quite often - so try to be careful. Some of the fallacies are trickier than others. And if anyone does misuse a fallacy, then that person will be sent a private message where I will post a short fallacy quiz which he then has to complete and get a score of 100 before he is allowed to post in my thread again. I'm not kidding! Well, yes, I am.

Anyways, here are two links that have a list of many logical fallacies along with explanations and examples for each of them:

http://www.fallacyfiles.org/taxonomy.html
http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/

There was another thread - Logic 101 - that was created for the purpose of dealing with certain aspects of logic including logical fallacies.


Hopefully this thread will include more than just ad hominems and straw mans. Tongue
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#2
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
Ooh! I think this is brilliant! Can't wait to see how the thread develops Big Grin
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#3
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
This thread is going to be insane, but I love the idea Rayaan. Worship
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#4
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
(May 22, 2013 at 7:57 pm)Rayaan Wrote: Hopefully this thread will include more than just ad hominems and straw mans. Tongue

That's part of the fun, isn't it? To see just how many fallacies we slip into the thread proper!

So when did you stop beating your wife, Ray? *raises eyebrow*
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
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#5
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
(May 22, 2013 at 9:03 pm)Tonus Wrote: That's part of the fun, isn't it? To see just how many fallacies we slip into the thread proper!

That's a part of the fun indeed, certainly, but not if like 90 percent of this thread is filled with the same two or three fallacies over and over again. Tongue

Don't let it stop you, though.

(May 22, 2013 at 9:03 pm)Tonus Wrote: So when did you stop beating your wife, Ray? *raises eyebrow*

Straw man.
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#6
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
(May 22, 2013 at 9:42 pm)Rayaan Wrote:
(May 22, 2013 at 9:03 pm)Tonus Wrote: So when did you stop beating your wife, Ray? *raises eyebrow*

Straw man.

Loaded question fallacy as well
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#7
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
Here's a free pdf book which explains 42 fallacies, written by a professor of philosophy so you know it's excellent and correct.

http://aphilosopher.files.wordpress.com/...lacies.pdf
Nemo me impune lacessit.
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#8
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
(May 22, 2013 at 11:32 pm)Stue Denim Wrote: Here's a free pdf book which explains 42 fallacies, written by a professor of philosophy so you know it's excellent and correct.

Argument from authority.
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#9
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
(May 22, 2013 at 9:42 pm)Rayaan Wrote:
(May 22, 2013 at 9:03 pm)Tonus Wrote: So when did you stop beating your wife, Ray? *raises eyebrow*

Straw man.

I think that I need to send you an email now 0.o

A very angrily worded email.

(May 22, 2013 at 10:14 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote:
(May 22, 2013 at 9:42 pm)Rayaan Wrote: Straw man.

Loaded question fallacy as well

But but... angrily... worded... email.
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
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#10
RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
(May 22, 2013 at 11:53 pm)Rayaan Wrote: Argument from authority.

Dang! You beat me to it! Tongue Although an argument from authority is not always fallacious, depending on the credentials of the authorty.
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