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Phil 201 - List of informal logical fallacies of
relevance from Dr. Jones' phil 201-008
Philosophy and Contemporary Ideas (Liberty University)
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Informal Logical Fallacies of Relevance Phil 201-008 Dr.
Jones 2019-2020
Fallacies of “Relevance” (resulting from inattention to some aspect of the
argument)
1. Appeal to Force: solving an argument by appeaing to force rather
than logic
-fallacy because it focuses on winning rather than the truth
-Machiavelli’s “might makes right” – the bully on the playground
2. Argumentum Ad hominem (appeal to the man): attacks the
person rather than the argument
- Abusive: attacks the opponent in a way that they look bad
- Circumstantial: argues that a position is false by pointing
out irrelevant details about its proponent
- Circumstantial acts almost as a red herring to take attention
away form the argument
3. Argument From Silence: argues this is true because it cannot
be proven false
- Just because you cannot personally prove something false does
not mean it’s true. Someone else could always prove it false.
- “you can’t prove that there isn’t really a waffle house on the
dark side of the moon so it must actually be there!”
4. Appeal to The Crowd: convincing by a populist and often
emotional appeal
-starting with something that the crowd agrees with before
controversy
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5. Appeal to Pity: tries to convince by arousing sympathy in the listener
6. Appeal to Authority: citing the support of an unqualified expert
-“well my dad says……”
7. Begging The Question: assuming in your answer the very thing
the question asks you to prove
-how do you know God exists?
-because the Bible told me so!
-AKA circular reasoning
8. False Cause (post hoc, ergo protor hoc): mistakenly
attributing causality to something
-“don’t wash your car, it’ll rain”
9. Complex Question: asking a question that presumes an answer
to another, unexpressed question
-“are you still beating your husband?”
10. False Dilemma: posing a question so that your options are
fewer than are really possible
-“are you a Democrat or a Republican?” -well you could be neither
11. Genetic Fallacy: argues that a position is false because of
some detail about its origin (its genesis)
-Example: Christian rock can’t be good because the origins of rock
music are bad
-Christians cannot do yoga because it started as a Hindu practice
12.
Straw Man: giving the impression of refuting an
opponent's argument, while actually refuting an
argument that was not presented by that opponent.
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13. Red Herring: something that misleads or distracts from
the important issue of the argument. Can be intentional or
not.
14. Self-Referential Incoherence: the statement does not live up
to its own standard
- Example: “only scientific statements are true” is not itself
a scientific statement
15. Non-Sequitor: the conclusion does not logically flow from
the evidence/argument
- Example: this is my body, and I have the right to do what I
want with it, therefore I have the right to an abortion
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