Have you ever heard of Aristotle's Fallacies? It is part of Aristotelian Logic. Just watch TV commercials or read / listen to speeches by politicians and bosses and see if you can pick out the fallacies they use to convince us of their point of view.

It's a lot of fun. Watch TV and write down all the ones you pick up on. It will improve your critical thinking skills. Don't accept everything you hear as truth. Analyze it and see if any fallacies are included.


Argumetum ad baculum - Appeal to force or a threat in order to convince one of their point of view.

Ad hominem - Attacking the messenger when you don't like the content of what they say.

Affirming the consequent - Assuming opposite of a statement to be true. If P then Q, therefore P. Just because Q may be true it doesn't mean that P is also true.

Appeal to Authority - Argumentum ad verecundiam - truth depends on credibility of whoever says it.

Appeal to fear - Argumentum ad metam or terrorem - used much in politics and sales. If you don't follow me & do as I say then something bad will happen to you.

Appeal to pity - Argumentum ad misericordiam - Believe me because I am the underdog - regardless of my positions - It took me 10 years to do this so you must believe that it is right.

Appeal to tradition - Argumentum ad antiquitatem - It's always been done this way so it must be right.

Appeal to probability - Just because something can happen means it WILL happen.

Argument from Ignorance - Argumentum ad ignorantiam - only true because it has not been proven false - this argument is used by most ditto heads ad naseum.

Begging the question - petito principii - circular argument or reasoning

Biased sample - A survey of OUR delegates says our guy is most popular in country

Correlation implies causation - cum hoc ergo propter hoc - just because two events occur together they are claimed to be cause and effect. It may be just coincidental.

Equivocation - using same word in different meanings (figure of speech) Do women need to worry about man eating sharks?

Hasty Generalization - Leaping to conclusion without listening to whole appeal

Post hoc ergo propter hoc - ( After this therefore because of this) (post hoc) coincidental correlation - The rooster always crows before sunrise therefore the rooster causes the sun to rise.

Straw man argument - Misrepresentation of opponents' position - (argument is easy to refute but your opponent doesn't argue that position) This fallacy is used continuously by the bush administration. In a debate bush will say, "some people say we should ignore the terrorists but I say we must hunt them down" The inference is that his oppenent takes the straw man position when in reality it is completely untrue.
Ex: Some people say these children are just embryo spare parts and not worthy of our protection but I say they are wonderful children and we should veto this bill in order to protect them. When in reality no one takes the position that these children are not worthy of protection.

False dilemma - black and white thinking - false dichotomy - Only two opposing points of views with nothing in between. You're either for us or against us.