Why learn logical fallacies?
Have you ever had an argument with someone and felt like they said something wrong but couldn’t explain it? I am here to help you.
NOTE: I wrote this Friday Blog post on Sunday not Friday. Sorry, life got in the way.
Backstory
During my grade 12 finals at STEM October, my friends and I would sit together in a school classroom. The initial reason was that the weather was HOT and the dorm (including all rooms) had no ACs and minimal fans. But, later on, my main reason for coming by “Room 1” (as we called it) became… philosophical discussions.
Nearly every single day, we would have diverse discussions. And in every discussion, I would point out multiple fallacies. You might ask, “Are fallacies committed that much?” The answer is yes. In fact, sometimes, they were made faster than I could point out.
I “won” many arguments, but by the end of the month, I cut down on coming by Room 1 because I wanted to lock in for exams instead of discussing a random topic like if psychology can fully explain spirit possession.
What Are Fallacies?
So what are these fallacies, anyway? Simply put, fallacies (Arabic: مغالطات) are the errors in arguments. That error may be in the argument’s logical form/structure (formal fallacies) or content/premise (informal fallacies). For example, mistaking correlation with causation is an informal fallacy, and it’s called the “post hoc” fallacy. Get used to Latin because many of them have Latin names.
Why Learn Fallacies?
Before we get into common fallacies, why even learn about fallacies? I mean, we can surely figure them out on our own, right? Yes, we can! That’s actually (in my opinion) what is beautiful about reasoning. We all have it, and, therefore, anyone with enough time can figure out a certain truth given some initial information about the particular matter.
But notice how I said “with enough time.” That’s because, when arguing with people who have a high fallacy-per-sentence ratio (spoiler alert: there are many!), our brains may be unable to keep up. Committing a fallacy takes minimal thought, but pointing it out and explaining how/why it’s wrong takes more brain power.
So we learn about the common fallacies to be keep up, basically. (Also because it’s cool!)
The Most Common Fallacies
These are the 10 most common fallacies I noticed during my month of discussions with friends:
1. Sunk Cost
It is a formal fallacy that goes, “I’ve invested X resources (time, money, effort) in Y. Therefore, I should continue with Y to not ‘waste’ the X resources.”
Y can be anything from a company to your marriage. Notice how I put waste in quotes. What you have invested is already spent — and perhaps wasted. If Y is harmful/failing, then you are only deciding if you want to waste future resources. Continuing with Y won’t un-waste X.
Sadly, we humans often commit this fallacy, continuing to invest time in a harmful relationship or money in a failing project just because we fear losing X — which we already lost! The question of whether to continue or not shouldn’t depend on how much you already invested.
2. Ad Hominem
Oh, I love this pointing out this one — mainly because it can “win” arguments without ever winning them. It is the informal fallacy of attacking the person instead of their argument. You may be surprised, but anyone, regardless of their gender, color, religion, or character, can make a great argument.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should give your full attention to everyone’s arguments. That would be incredibely tiring. BUT don’t attack the arguer. That is just wrong. For example, if your friend Muhammad told you smoking is bad for you because X, Y, and Z, even though he’s an addicted smoker. You can (A) “own him” by attacking him (committing ad hominem) or (B) think about X, Y, Z and see if they’re valid. Muhammad is obviously not listening to his own advice, but that doesn’t mean his argument is wrong.
3. Begging the Question
This one is so common, you might even see it in textbooks! Remember those early days in Egyptian elementary and middle school, where you were asked to give reasons for certain scientific facts? Sometimes, they would ask, “Why is this thing [an adjective that means ‘does X’]?” and want you to answer, “Because it does X.” (If you haven’t noticed, this is circular reasoning.)
This is the informal fallacy of assuming the conclusion to be true as a premise to then arrive at it. It sounds crazy because it is! But people do it all the time. For example, some parents would say, “Go to bed,” and when questioned why, answer, “Because it’s bedtime.”
4. Appeal to Authority
On the topic of parents awfully explaining obvious things to their children, the Appeal to Authority is the “Because I said so” informal fallacy, where you say something is true because of who said it. Obviously, the status of the arguer doesn’t make their argument correct, just like how the status of the arguer doesn’t make their argument wrong (see ad hominem above).
However, it’s important to point out that, just as Wikipedia says, we can treat the information of certain authorities as generally likely (not necessarily 100% true, of course) given they are universally accepted as trusted. For example, the WHO about health matters and NASA about space matters.
5. Argument from Fallacy
After I taught some friends what fallacies are and how to notice them, some started pointing out fallacies and treating fallacious arguments as having wrong conclusions. So I’m here to save you before you do the same mistake. Having a fallacious argument doesn’t make the conclusion false; in fact, you can generate a fallacious argument to any true conclusion. For example, I can say, “Since the sea is blue, the sky is blue.” This is a fallacious argument (the sky isn’t blue because the sea is blue), but the conclusion (the sky is blue) remains true.
BONUS IDEA: Try to think about things you believe in. Analyze the famous arguments for them. Are they fallacious? You may realize that you built a lot of beliefs on wrong arguments. This doesn’t necessarily mean your beliefs are wrong, though (but it’s possible). Try to see other sound arguments for your beliefs.
6. Strawman
You will see this one a lot on Twitter. It is the informal fallacy in which you refute a different made-up weaker argument as if you’re refuting the main argument. For example, someone may say, “School days should be shorter,” and be met with, “You want to sleep all day and not learn anything.” In this case, they exaggerate your argument from “shortening school days” to abolishing them completely and then assume your want for their made-up argument. I passionately hate when people commit this fallacy.
7. False Dichotomy
This is similar to strawman in the sense that someone may be attacking a strawman (superficially similar argument) while committing the false dichotomy informal fallacy. False dichotomy is treating two options as if they are the only two when, in reality, there are more. False dichotomy is often black-and-white, where something gets to be all or nothing. For example, someone would commit this informal fallacy by saying, “You either work and be successful or enjoy your life,” when in reality, you can (and should!) do a little bit of both.
8. Red Herring
Red herring (an informal fallacy) is when you introduce irrelevant information and distract from the original question/issue. For example, “Why care about education when people are starving?” Obviously, you can care about both issues at the same time.
9. False Analogy
Have you ever seen someone compare two things to reach a conclusion when, in fact, the analogy is just wrong? That’s the false analogy informal fallacy. Because I will get backlash for saying this example, I need to point out that you should refer to the argument from fallacy (where being fallacious doesn’t necessarily make the conclusion false): I often see this argument that goes, “Women are like candy; when uncovered (e.g., not wearing a hijab), they rot. Therefore, women should cover.” (I am not saying this means women shouldn’t cover, only that the analogy used to reach the conclusion is false.)
10. Hasty Generalization
This is an informal fallacy that reaches a not necessarily true (hasty) generalization based on a small amount of data. Racism often uses this one; for example, “I only met two people from that race, and both of them were rude! It’s in their blood, man!” People that depend on personal anecdotes for generalizations also often commit this fallacy.
Overlapping of Fallacies
Keep in mind that an argument may commit more than one fallacy at the same time. For example, ad hominem is actually a type of red herring because it brings irrelevant information (in this case, attacking the arguer) to distract from the original issue (whatever the arguer’s argument is). The names of the fallacies don’t matter as much as noticing that something is wrong, whether it’s in the structure (formal) or content (informal).
Conclusion
There are still a lot of other fallacies like slippery slope, post hoc, and the bandwagon that may lead people to make irrational decisions, have superstitious beliefs, and be mindless sheep, respectively. But I think these are among the weaker (easier to notice) common fallacies, hence why they didn’t make my top 10. You should refer to Wikipedia’s awesome fallacy list (which I used while writing this blog post).
If you master noticing fallacies as they occur, you can (hopefully) steer all your arguments away from becoming unproductive ego battles. Remember, we argue to to know more and better, not to “win” arguments or “own” anyone.
