Logical fallacies

Ad hominem

Attacking the person making an argument instead of the argument itself. "You'd say that — you've never held down a job."

Ambiguity

Using a word or phrase with more than one meaning to mislead, often by shifting the meaning partway through. "I have a right to free speech, so this platform is obliged to publish me" — trades on two senses of "right."

Anecdotal

Using a personal story or single case in place of representative evidence. "My grandfather smoked all his life and lived to 95, so it can't be that harmful."

Appeal to authority

Claiming something is true because an authority endorses it. Only fallacious when the authority is irrelevant to the claim, or the claim is genuinely contested among the relevant experts — citing real experts on their own subject is not a fallacy. "A Nobel laureate in physics backs this diet, so it works."

Appeal to emotion

Substituting an emotional reaction for evidence. "Think of the children" deployed to end a policy debate rather than inform it.

Appeal to nature

Arguing something is good because it is "natural," or bad because it is "unnatural." "It's a natural remedy, so it's safer than the prescription."

Bandwagon

Treating popularity as proof. "Millions of people can't be wrong."

Begging the question

Assuming the conclusion inside the premise, so the argument establishes nothing. "This text is true because it is the word of God, which we know because the text says so." (The phrase means this — not "raising the question.")

Black or white

Presenting two options as the only possibilities when others exist. "You're either with us or against us."

Burden of proof

Asserting a claim and demanding others disprove it, rather than supporting it yourself. "Prove there isn't a teapot orbiting the sun."

Composition/division

Assuming what is true of the parts is true of the whole (composition), or what is true of the whole is true of each part (division). "Every player is excellent, so the team must be."

False cause

Treating correlation or mere sequence as proof of causation. "I wore my lucky socks and we won, so the socks did it."

Gambler's fallacy

Believing independent events influence one another, so a run of one outcome makes the other "due." "Red has come up five times — black is bound to be next."

Loaded question

A question with a contested assumption built in, so any direct answer concedes it. "Have you stopped lying to your colleagues?"

Middle ground

Assuming the compromise between two positions must be the truth. "One side says it's safe, the other says it's lethal, so the truth is in between."

No true Scotsman

Redefining a category to exclude any counterexample. "No real supporter would leave early." "I'm a supporter and I left." "No true supporter would."

Personal incredulity

Treating your own inability to understand or imagine something as evidence it's false. "I can't see how the eye could evolve, so it must have been designed."

Slippery slope

Claiming one step leads inevitably to an extreme outcome, without showing the links between them. "If we allow this exception, soon anything goes."

Special pleading

Inventing an exception to a rule the moment it's turned on your own claim. "The psychic's powers just don't work when sceptics are present."

Strawman

Replacing someone's argument with a weaker, distorted version, then attacking that. "You want better public transport, so you want to ban all cars."

Texas sharpshooter

Selecting data after the fact to fit a pattern while ignoring the rest. Named for firing at a barn, then painting the target around the tightest cluster of holes.

The fallacy fallacy

Concluding a claim is false simply because it was argued for badly. A flawed argument for a true conclusion does not make the conclusion false.

Tu quoque

Deflecting criticism by pointing to the critic's own inconsistency instead of addressing the point. "You're telling me to quit smoking when you smoke yourself?"

(Created using Claude v4.8 2026)