Logic and Science
Fallacies
"Isms"
100
An argument where the conclusion is claimed to follow necessarily from the premises.
What is deductive?
100
Attacking the arguer's character.
What is the ad hominem fallacy?
100
A philosophical system which asserts that there are two kinds of something.
What is dualism?
200
An argument where the conclusion is claimed to follow from the premises with some probability.
What is inductive?
200
Asking a question which gets the other person into trouble however he answers.
What is a complex question?
200
The belief that everything consists only of matter and energy.
What is materialism?
300
A proposed solution to a scientific problem.
What is a hypothesis?
300
Assuming what you are trying to prove.
What is begging the question?
300
The belief that everything consists only of minds and ideas.
What is idealism?
400
Proving that a hypothesis is wrong.
What is falsification?
400
Claiming that there are only two options, when in fact there may be more.
What is the "black and white" fallacy (or "false dichotomy")?
400
The belief that we can reach some knowledge by reason alone, without sense perception.
What is rationalism?
500
The belief that one kind of phenomenon can be explained fully in terms of another kind of phenomenon.
What is reductionism?
500
Claiming that something is true because a movie star says it's so.
What is appeal to unqualified/unsuitable authority?
500
The belief that all our knowledge is based on sense-experience.
What is empiricism?
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