Theoretical collection
Finding logical fallacies
Choose from the table below which example sentence is correct for the logical fallacy.
| The name of logical fallacy. | Example | |
| Appeal to authority | Sara, an 8A student, pays attention to recycling. Her school is clearly committed to environmental protection. | |
| x | This movie might be terrible; even my best friend had a low opinion on it. | |
| Your dislike of chess is purely because you can’t play it. | ||
| Hasty generalisa-tion | The esoteric guru said that I don’t need to take headaches seriously, so I don’t deal with them, even though my head hurts frequently. | |
| Since you don’t have any experience as a teacher, your opinion on how to improve the education system isn’t relevant. | ||
| x | I just saw a young person fare dodging on the bus. It’s terrible that nowadays young people don’t take paying for their fare seriously. | |
| „Ad Hominem” (Getting personal) | x | As you are an ardent meat eater, it is challenging for me to take in your views on animal welfare issues.” |
| Widespread looting during riots and protests is acceptable simply because many people do it. | ||
| There was a rainbow in the sky on my way to school this morning, and then I didn’t have to answer in math class. It must have been because of the rainbow. | ||
| False cause | Students would be more motivated if secondary grammar schools allowed them to choose their own subjects, as they can do in the university system. | |
| If you don’t clean your own room, the dirt will spread throughout the house, bacteria will grow, and all of us will get sick.” | ||
| x | I saw a black cat yesterday evening, and then this morning the bookshelf fell on me. It is an obvious sign that black cats bring bad luck.” | |
| Slippery slope | I ate carrots every day when I was young, and now I’m over six feet tall. I guess carrots helped me grow so tall. | |
| x | If you don’t go to Peter’s house party, he’ll be mad at you, find a new best friend, cut you off, and won’t invite you to his wedding. | |
| The internet hides many dangers for young people. Although a bus can hit you on the street at any time, we don’t lock ourselves up at home | ||
| Straw Man | Neither Anna nor Eszter performed well on the math test, which is not surprising – they are hopeless at Maths. | |
| x | While selective waste collection has become common practice, it seems that the issue of stray animals has been largely overlooked. | |
| Individual contributions are also important in environmental protection, as selectively collected waste provides a huge help in modern waste management. | ||
| Well developed argument | x | 9 órára kellene tenni az iskolakezdést: egy felmérés szerint 75 perccel több alvás javít a fiatalok életminőségén, és ha később kezdődik az iskola, tovább alhatnak. |
| Nem szeretem a kakaós palacsintát, erre azt mondta a barátom, hogy ettől még nem kellene elítélnem azokat, akik a lekvárost szeretik. | ||
| Szerintem, ha most nem kéred fel azt a lányt táncolni, nem fogsz soha barátnőt találni, ebből kifolyólag örökre magányos leszel. |
| The name of logical fallacy. | The explanation for the logical fallacy. | An example for the logical fallacy. |
| Appeal to authority | This fallacy tries to support an argument by citing a person whose expertise is irrelevant | Dr. Smith, a renowned physicist, says that climate change is a hoax. Therefore, climate change must not be real.” |
| Hasty generalisation | This fallacy draws a conclusion based on a small sample size or insufficient evidence. | The European Union should not accept refugees because refugees are terrorists and pose a threat to EU citizens |
| Getting personal/ „ad hominem” | Instead of the actual argument, the opponent is being discredited by the debater. | You are saying this because you are a woman! |
| False Cause | questionable relatedness, the correlation doesn’t equal causation | The boiler was fine until you moved in. Since you’ve been here, there’s been no hot water. So you must have broken the boiler.” |
| Slippery Slope | a small action will lead to a chain of events resulting in a significant negative consequence. | “If we allow same-sex marriage, the next thing you know, people will be marrying their pets.” |
| Straw Man | misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack. | “You think we should help the poor? So you want to give away all our money?” |
| False Dilemma | that presents only two options or choices as if they were the only possibilities, | “You either go to college or you’ll never succeed.” |
| Appeal to Emotion | This fallacy uses emotional manipulation rather than logical reasoning to persuade. | “If you don’t donate to this charity, you don’t have a heart.” |
| Bandvagon Fallacy / Appeal to the Masses | It claims that something is true because everyone believes it or everyone does it. | Running a red light is fine since people do it all the time. |
| Red Herring Fallacy | It’s a misleading statement, question, or argument meant to redirect a conversation away from its original topic. | I have a multistep plan for combating corruption, and I also have a ten-point plan for reducing emissions. The first step in that ten-point environmental plan is . . . |