10 logical fallacies
There are more, of course. But what if all of us had learned at least these in school? The internet would be a better place. This is not original writing, just a note to myself.
Apr 20, 20261 min read
- You shall not attack the person's character, but rather their argument. (Ad hominem)
- You shall not misrepresent or exaggerate a person's arguments to make them easier to attack. (Straw man argument)
- You shall not use small numbers to represent the whole. (Premature generalization)
- You shall not argue your position under the assumption that one of its premises is true. (Begging the question)
- You shall not claim that something that has already happened must be the cause of this. (Post-hoc/false cause)
- You shall not reduce the argument to two possibilities. (False dichotomy)
- You shall not argue that a claim must be true or false due to our ignorance. (Ad ignorantum)
- You shall not place the burden of proof on the person challenging the claim. (Reversal of the burden of proof)
- You shall not assume that "this" follows from "that" if there is no logical connection. (non sequitur)
- You shall not argue that a premise must be true because it is popular. (Bandwagon fallacy)
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