Fun With Fallacies
Michael Jordan wears Hanes Tee Shirts
The art and science of reasoning.
Logic
A subtopic of Testimony where one looks to the past to figure out what to do.
Example
The guy who came up with the method called the 4 Idols to help overcome flawed thinking.
Francis Bacon
One of the methods used to define words that looks to the history or origin of the word.
Etymology
All's well that ends well
Cliched Thinking
Commonly recognized bad arguments.
Fallacy
A subtopic of Comparison that draws a conclusion based on relevant similarities between two examples.
Analogy
Errors in thinking common to all humanity...aka wishful thinking.
Idols of the Tribe
A sample where all possible participants in the study have an equal chance of being selected.
Random Sample
A driver with a New York license plate cuts you off in traffic. You decide that all New York drivers are terrible drivers.
Hasty Generalization
A declarative statement of opinion that can be proven true or false.
Thesis Statement
A subtopic of Testimony that uses numbers to organize and summarize data into meaningful patterns.
Statistics
Faulty thinking that comes from specific backgrounds and social groups.
Idols of the Cave
The evidence or proof supporting the conclusion.
Premise
I made all right turns, therefore I was right.
Equivocation
The art of effective public speaking.
Rhetoric
A subtopic of testimony that gives firsthand accounts of people's experiences.
Testimonials
The way that words can be deceiving...using imprecise words.
Idols of the Marketplace
Overuse of words; fuzzy, imprecise words that can have a wide range of meanings
Vague
For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
Amphiboly
These guys like to speak based on the sound and style of their speech rather than on content.
Sophists
Subtopic of Comparison that draws a conclusion from the ways examples are different.
Difference
The tendency to prefer older, widely accepted ideas over minority opinions.
Idols of the Theatre
Logic that means "to lead to."
Inductive Logic