1- Ad Hominem Fallacy
This is when someone attacks the person instead of attacking his or her argument and is sometimes called name calling or the personal attack fallacy. The latin Ad hominem means “against the man.”
Example:
Don't listen to Dave's argument on abortion. He's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
Bill: I think that we should increase the federal spending on education. Ted: you’re a fascist, so clearly we shouldn’t listen to what you have to say about education.
2- Bandwagon Fallacy
This fallacy describes believing something is true or acceptable only because it is popular and is also sometimes called the appeal to common belief or appeal to the masses. The latin term is argumentum ad populum, meaning “appeal to the people.”
Example:
Come on. Everyone else's parents let them stay out past midnight.
Allen's conspiracy theory blog has 20,000 followers, therefore it must be coherent.
3- False Dilemma Fallacy
This fallacy presents only two options or sides when there are many options or sides. It basically presents a “black and white” kind of thinking when there are actually many shades of gray. Sometimes called the “either-or” fallacy.
Example:
If you want our country to be safe, we must increase military spending.
Getting the economy up and running is preferable to preventing a new wave of COVID-19 deaths.
4- Hasty Generalization Fallacy
It is basically making a claim based on evidence that it just too small. Essentially, you can’t make a claim and say that something is true if you have only an example or two as evidence. Also known as hasty induction or overextension, a hasty generalization is a form of jumping to a conclusion. It is an informal fallacy that can lead to misinformation and stereotypes.
Example:
Christine has a terrible experience with a boyfriend. She decides that all boys are mean.
Someone who had a rare allergic reaction to a medicine may advise others not to use that medication. In truth, the medicine might only be dangerous to that one person.
Like the name suggests, is a logical fallacy in which someone argues on the basis of a faulty or weak analogy. It’s a common type of error as people frequently use misleading and inaccurate analogies to support their ideas and views. It’s also known by a number of different names, including “weak analogy”, “false metaphor” and “faulty comparison”.
Example:
“Cars cause many more deaths than firearms do, so if we are going to ban firearms, we should also ban cars.”
6- Straw Man Fallacy
A straw man fallacy occurs when someone takes another person’s argument or point, distorts it or exaggerates it in some kind of extreme way, and then attacks the extreme distortion, as if that is really the claim the first person is making.
Example:
Wife: I'd rather have a dog than a cat. Husband: Why do you hate cats?
Alex: I think that a bigger portion of our company’s budget should go to customer support, because we’re currently struggling in that area. Bob: if we spend all of our money on customer support like you’re suggesting, we’ll go bankrupt in a year.
7- Red herring fallacy
Argument that distracts from the original topic. Some may refer to this type of argument as a "smoke screen." The phrase “red herring” refers to a kippered herring used to distract hunting dogs to test their reliability. Also known as: beside the point, misdirection, changing the subject, clouding the issue. In latin, Ignoratio elenchi, which means ignorance of refutation.
Example:
President A in a discussion about the debt ceiling: I am not going to have a monthly conversation about whether or not we pay our bills because that in and of itself does severe damage. Even the threat of default hurts our economy. It's hurting our economy as we speak. We shouldn't be having that debate.
8- Slippery Slope Fallacy
A slippery slope fallacy occurs when someone makes a claim about a series of events that would lead to one major event, usually a bad event. In this fallacy, a person makes a claim that one event leads to another event and so on until we come to some awful conclusion
Example:
If we enact any kind of gun control laws, the next thing you know, we won’t be allowed to have any guns at all. When that happens, we won’t be able to defend ourselves against terrorist attacks, and when that happens terrorists will take over our country. Therefore, gun control laws will cause us to lose our country to terrorists.
Bibliography:
Fallacies – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Types of Logical Fallacies: Recognizing Faulty Reasoning
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-logical-fallacy.html
Logical Fallacies – Excelsior Online Writing Lab
https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/logical-fallacies/
Falikowski, Anthony. Mastering Human Relations. Scarborough. Prentice-Hall, 1996.
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