Fallacies of Ambiguity
An ambiguous word or phrase changes the meaning over the course of an argument.
Equivocation
A threat to use force - whether it be physical, psychological, or legal - in an attempt to get another person to back down on his or her position and accept the conclusion as correct.
Appeal to Force
A conclusion based on atypical cases.
Hasty Generalization
An appeal based on the testimony of an authority in a field other than that under investigation.
Inappropriate Appeal to Authority
The assumption that because something is natural it is good or acceptable.
An argument contains a grammatical mistake that allows more than one conclusion to be drawn.
Amphiboly
An attempt to gain support for a conclusion by evoking a feeling of pity, when pity is irrelevant to the conclusion.
Appeal to Pity
The distortion of misrepresentation of an opponent's argument to make it easier to knock down or refute.
Straw Man
A question that assumes a particular answer to another unasked question.
Loaded Question
An argument that assumes without sufficient evidence that one thing is the cause of another.
Questionable Cause
The meaning of an argument changes depending on which word or phrase is emphasized.
Fallacy of Accent
An appeal made to the opinion of the majority to gain support for the conclusion.
Popular Appeal
An argument directed toward a conclusion that is different from that posed by the original argument.
Red Herring
An argument unwarrantedly reduces the number of alternatives to two.
False Dilemma
An erroneous inference from the characteristics of an entire set or group about a member of that group or set.
Fallacy of Division
An argument that something is true simply because no one has proved it false, or that something is false because no one has proved it true.
Appeal to Ignorance
An assumption that if some actions are permitted, all actions of that type will soon be permissible.
Slippery Slope
A characteristic of a member of a group is erroneously assumed to be characteristic of the whole group.
Fallacy of Composition
Ad Hominem Fallacy
A conclusion is simply a rewording of a premise.
Begging the Question