Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fallacy |
FallacyNoun1. A misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fallacy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Etymology: Fallacy \Fal"la*cy\, noun; plural Fallacies. [from Old English expression fallace, fallas, deception, French fallace, from the Latin expression fallacia, from fallax deceitful, deceptive, from fallere to deceive. See Fail.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A logical fallacy is an error of argument; it is a mistake in the way that the propositions (in the argument) are inter-related. When there is a fallacy (i.e. mistake) in the argument, then the argument is said to be invalid. That is, the conclusion does not follow (logically) from the propositions (sentences) advanced to support it. This structural mistake is not the same as the truth or falsity of the statements being made; the conclusion may be true, but it is said to be invalid because it doesn't follow from the arguments (premises) presented.Arguments intended to persuade may be convincing to many listeners despite containing such fallacies. The truth of the premises may even significantly increase the probability of the truth of the conclusion. But they are nonetheless flawed. Recognizing these fallacies is sometimes difficult.
Here is an example of a fallacious argument. James wants to argue that all killing is wrong, so James argues as follows:
James has committed the logical fallacy of begging the question. In the argument, James says that one should not kill and presents the statement with no qualifiers. But to prove that, he would have to prove that all killing is wrong — which is what he is trying to argue for. A supporter of the death penalty might think that some killing is fine, for example, as punishment for the worst murderers. (In fact, some might maintain that in some cases one actually should kill: it is our grim duty, an unfortunate yet necessary part of justice.) The argument presupposes its conclusion: one of the premises assumes that the conclusion is true. An argument that begs the question should not convince anyone.
- If one should not do X, all X is wrong. (X can be any action.)
- One should not kill.
- Therefore, all killing is wrong.
Here is another example of a logical fallacy. Suppose Barbara argues like this:
Here the problem is that the word "good" has different meanings, which is to say that it is an ambiguous word. In the premise, Barbara says that Andre is good at some particular activity, in this case tennis. In the conclusion, she says that Andre is a morally good person. Those are clearly two different senses of the word "good." The premise might be true and the conclusion can still be false: Andre might be the best tennis player in the world but a rotten person morally speaking. Appropriately, since it plays on an ambiguity, this sort of fallacy is called the fallacy of equivocation.
- Andre is a good tennis player.
- Therefore, Andre is good — a morally good person.
Some fallacies are used freely in the media and politics. For example, when one politician says to another, "You don't have moral authority to say X", he is making the argumentum ad hominem or personal attack fallacy — not addressing the argument but attacking the person who made it.
In the opposite direction is the fallacy of argument from authority. A classic example of this is the Ipse dixit — "He himself said it" — used through the Middle Ages in reference to Aristotle. A modern use is "celebrity spokepersons" in advertisements: that product is good because your favorite celebrity endorses it.
- Arguably, the politician is not even attempting to make an argument, but is instead offering a moral rebuke. Identifying logical fallacies as such can be difficult.
By definition, logical fallacies are invalid, but they can often be written or rewritten so that they follow a valid argument form; and in that case, the challenge is to discover the false premise, which makes the argument unsound.
- While an appeal to authority is always a logical fallacy, it can be an appropriate rational argument if, for example, it is an appeal to expert testimony—a type of inductive argument.
An incomplete list of fallacies
- Ad hominem including:
- ad hominem abusive
- ad hominem circumstantial
- ad hominem tu quoque)
- Appeal to authority
- Appeal to belief
- Appeal to tradition (also called appeal to common practice or argument ad antiquitam)
- Appeal to consequences of a belief
- Appeal to emotion including:
- Appeal to fear (also called argument ad metum or argument in terrorem)
- Appeal to flattery
- Appeal to pity (also called argument ad misericordiam)
- Appeal to ridicule
- Appeal to spite (also called argument ad odium)
- Two wrongs make a right (revenge)
- Appeal to novelty (also called argument ad novitam)
- Argumentum ad baculum (also called appeal to force)
- Argumentum ad nauseam (also called argument from repetition)
- Argument from fallacy
- Argument from ignorance
- Argument from silence (also called argumentum e(x) silentio)
- Bandwagon fallacy (also called appeal to popularity)
- Begging the question (also called circular argument)
- Shifting the Burden of proof
- Correlative based fallacies including:
- False dilemma or Excluded Middle
- Denying the correlative
- Suppressed correlative
- Composition
- Division
- Equivocation (semantic shift)
- Faulty generalization including:
- Biased sample
- Hasty generalization (Leaping to a conclusion, The lonely fact)
- Overwhelming exception
- Statistical special pleading
- Genetic fallacy
- Guilt by association
- Ignoratio elenchi (also called irrelevant conclusion)
- Inappropriate interpretations or applications of statistics including:
- Biased sample
- Correlation implies causation
- Gambler's fallacy
- Prosecutor's fallacy
- Lack of imagination
- Fallacy of many questions
- Meaningless statement
- Middle ground (also called ''argument ad temperantiam)
- Misleading vividness
- Naturalistic fallacy
- Negative proof
- Non sequitur (It does not follow..) including:
- Affirming the consequent
- Denying the antecedent
- Red herring
- No true Scotsman
- Package deal fallacy
- Pathetic fallacy (Thinking of inanimate objects like they were animate)
- Questionable cause including:
- Confusing cause and effect
- Correlation implies causation
- Post hoc
- Reification (also called hypostatization)
- Relativist fallacy (also called subjectivist fallacy)
- Slippery slope
- Special pleading
- Straw man
See also
- Fallacies of definition
- Good argument
- Validity
- Soundness
- Cogency
- College logic
- Informal logic
External links
- The Fallacy Files
- Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies
- Logic & Fallacies, from Atheism Web (no strict relation to Atheism)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Logical fallacy."
Synonym: FallacySynonym: false belief (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Confutation | Verb: confute, refute, disprove; parry, negative, controvert, rebut, confound, disconfirm, redargue, expose, show the fallacy of, defeat; demolish, break; (destroy); overthrow, overturn scatter to the winds, explode, invalidate; silence; put to silence, reduce to silence; clinch an argument, clinch a question; give one a setdown, stop the mouth, shut up; have, have on the hip. |
Error | Noun: error, fallacy; misconception, misapprehension, misstanding, misunderstanding; inexactness; Adjective: laxity; misconstruction; (misinterpretation); miscomputation; (misjudgment); non sequitur; mis-statement, mis-report; mumpsimus. |
Heresy; (heterodoxy); hallucination; (insanity); false light; (fallacy of vision); dream; (fancy); fable; (untruth); bias; (misjudgment); misleading; Verb: | |
Imagination | Illusion; (error); phantom; (fallacy of vision); Fata Morgana; (ignis fatuus); vapor; (cloud); stretch of the imagination; (exaggeration); mythogenesis. |
Information | Show one one's error; point out an error, point out a fallacy; pick out an error, pick out the fallacy; open one's eyes. |
Reasoning, | Sophism, solecism, paralogism; quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet; inconsistency, antilogy; "a delusion, a mockery, and a snare"; claptrap, cant, mere words; "lame and impotent conclusion". |
Unsubstantiality | Shadow; phantom;(fallacy of vision); dream; (imagination); ignis fatuus; (luminary); " such stuff as dreams are made of "; air, thin air, vapor; bubble; " baseless fabric of a vision "; mockery. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Fallacy |
| English words defined with "fallacy": Fallacies, fallacious, fallaciousness ♦ hysteron proteron ♦ ignoratio elenchi ♦ logical fallacy ♦ pathetic fallacy, petitio, petitio principii, post hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc ♦ unsound ♦ Writ of error. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "fallacy": Ousterhout's fallacy ♦ ridicule. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "fallacy": Fallax. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Thomas H. Huxley | Science is simply common sense at its best--that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded | Carroll, Lewis | Nothing illustrates a fallacy so well as an extreme case, which fairly comes under it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them. It may be graphic, mimetic or merely rident. Shaftesbury is quoted as having pronounced it the test of truth -- a ridiculous assertion, for many a solemn fallacy has undergone centuries of ridicule with no abatement of its popular acceptance. What, for example, has been more valorously derided than the doctrine of Infant Respectability? |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | In yielding themselves to this fallacy they overlook the great considerations in which the Federal Constitution was founded. |
Warren G. Harding | 1921-1923 | There is a luring fallacy in the theory of banished barriers of trade, but preserved American standards require our higher production costs to be reflected in our tariffs on imports. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Fallacy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Fallacy" is used about 195 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 195 | 21,939 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "fallacy": fallacy of vision ♦ logical fallacy ♦ naive fallacy ♦ Ousterhout's fallacy ♦ pathetic fallacy ♦ pick out the fallacy. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "fallacy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | falsitet (falsehood, falseness, falsity), ide e gabuar (falsehood, misconception), gabim (balk, baulk, boob, delinquency, delusion, error, false step, fault, flub, frailty, gaffe, lapse, Lapsus, misdoing, Miss, misstep, mistake, slip, slip up, trip). (various references) | |
Arabic | فكرة خاطئة (misconception), مغالطة (paralogism, sophism, sophistry), مظهر خادع (show, veneer). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | софизъм (sophism), самоизмама (self-deceit, self-delusion), заблуда (deception, errancy, misbelief, mistake, phantom, reverie, swiz), погрешен извод. (various references) | |
Chinese | 谬论 (Fallacies, Quibble). (various references) | |
Czech | klam (bluff, cheating, deceit, deception, fallaciousness, sham). (various references) | |
Dutch | ecologische valkuil (ecological fallacy). (various references) | |
Finnish | virhepäätelmä, harhapäätelmä. (various references) | |
French | fausseté (fallaciousness, falseness, falsity), illusion, erreur (fault). (various references) | |
German | fehlschluss (wrong conclusion), trugschluss (misapprehension), Trugschluß (false conclusion), irrtum (aberrant, aberration, error, falsity, mistake, pitfall), irrige ansicht. (various references) | |
Greek | σόφισμα (quibble, sophism), σφαλερότησ (fallibility, wrongness), σφαλερότητα (fallibility, wrongness), πλάνη (delusion, errancy, error, plane, smoothing plane), απάτη (beguilement, bilk, cheat, circumvention, con, deceit, deception, delusion, fake, fraud, gammon, guile, gyp, hoax, humbug, humbuggery, imposition, imposture, jiggery pokery, scam, sham, spoof, swindle, swindling, trick, trickery). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מ"ח" (mistake, obstacle), "סקת שוא, סבר" מוטעת. (various references) | |
Hungarian | téves következtetés (paralogism), tévedés (blue, bobble, deception, delusion, error, failure, fault, flaw, inaccuracy, lapse, misapprehension, miscalculation, misprision, miss, mistake, oversight, wrong), csalás (a plant, bubble, cheat, cheating, chisel, chouse, collusion, cozenage, deceit, deceitfulness, deception, delusion, fake, falsehood, foul play, fraud, fraudulence, fraudulency, gouge, gyp, hocus pocus, humbug, imposition, imposture, let in, racket, roguery, scam, sell, snide, swindle, swizzle, trickery). (various references) | |
Italian | fallacia, sofisma (sophism, sophistry), errore (aberrant, aberration, bug, error, falsity, fault, lapse, mistake, oversight, slip), credenza (belief, buffet, credence, credit, dresser, sideboard, trust). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 迷妄 (delusion, illusion). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | びゅうせつ (fallacious argument), びゅうろ" (mistaken opinion), びゅうけ", ぼうせつ (anti-snow, false report), "し" (misjudgment, self-protection, wrong diagnosis), めいろ" (absurd opinion, excellent opinion, fallacious argument, sound argument), めいむ (delusion, illusion), めいもう (delusion, illusion), もうせつ (false report). (various references) | |
Manx | foalsaght [f] (deceit, deceitfulness, falseness, hollowness, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, spuriousness), foalsaght (deceit, deceitfulness, falseness, hollowness, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, spuriousness), breag [f] (fiction, invention, leg-pull, lie, sham), breag (fiction, invention, leg-pull, lie, sham). (various references) | |
Norwegian | feilslutning. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | allacyfay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | falácia, sofisma (cavil, chicanery, fetch, quibble, quiddity, quip, quirk, sophism, sophistry), ilusão (delusion, error, illusion, lie, maya, phantasm, semblance, unreality). (various references) | |
Romanian | falsitate (artfulness, cunning, deceitfulness, depth, double dealing, duplicity, falsehood, falseness, falsity, hollowness, insincerity, mendacity, untruth), sofism (sophism, sophistry), eroare (aberration, error, fault, miscarriage, mistake, slip, wrong), erezie (heresy), concluzie greşitã, absurditate (absurdity, blue dahlia, foolishness, ineptitude, irrationality, nonsense, stupidity, unreason, unreasonableness), aberaţie (aberration, absurdity, phantasmagoria). (various references) | |
Russian | ошибка (aberration, bungle, bust, error, failing, fault, faux pas, gaffe, inaccuracy, lapse, misdeed, misstep, mistake, muff, slip, slip up, slipup, slip-up, stumble, trip). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zabluda (error, misapprehension, mistake), greška (blooper, bungle, error, foult, goof, lapse, lapsus, miscarriage, mistake, slip up, slipup, trip, wrong). (various references) | |
Spanish | falacia (wore), error (aberrancy, aberration, bug, error, fault, foozle, inadvertence, inadvertency, lapse, misapprehension, miscalculation, misdeed, misdoing, Miss, mistake, misunderstanding, wrong), cosa de dudar. (various references) | |
Swedish | villfarelse (aberration, deception, delusion, error, illusion), bedräglighet (deceit, fraudulence, fraudulency). (various references) | |
Thai | ความคิ"ที่ไม่ถูกต้อง. (various references) | |
Turkish | yanlış inanış, yanlış (Amiss, corrigendum, errant, erroneous, error, false, fault, improper, inaccuracy, inaccurate, inadvisable, incorrect, inexact, lapse, mis-, miscue, mistake, mistaken, untrue, wrong, wrongly, wry), safsata (casuistry, fallacious, flubdub, jesuitry, nonsense, quiddity, sophism, sophistry), mantıksızlık (absurdity, illogicality, inconsequence, irrationality, opacity, paralogism, the irrational, unreason). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | обманливість (deceitfulness), помилка (aberration, balk, bloomer, bungle, delusion, error, failing, fault, inaccuracy, lapsus, misdeed, mistake, sin, slip, solecism, stumble, trip). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | thuyết nguỵ biện tính chất dối trá, tính chất trá nguỵ sự nhân cách hoá thiên nhiên, tính chất lừa dối (delusiveness, fallaciousness), sự sai lầm (errancy, error, falsehood, stumble), sự nhân cách hoá các vật vô tri, ảo tưởng (chimerical, ignis fatuus, phantasm, visional), ý kiến sai lầm nguỵ biện. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | fallacia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Fallacy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Dallachy, failacy, falacy, falaka, Falakiko, Falcao, falecy, falicy, falla, fallac, Fallacci, Fallaci, fallacie, fallacyt, Fallas, fallec, fallic, fallicy, falloc, filleca, Gallacio. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fallacy" (pronounced fa"lusē) |
| 4 | -l u s ē | jealousy, policy. |
| 3 | -u s ē | accuracy, adequacy, advocacy, Argosy, aristocracy, autocracy, bureaucracy, candidacy, celibacy, confederacy, conspiracy, courtesy, degeneracy, delicacy, democracy, diplomacy, legacy, ecstasy, embassy, fantasy, Geodesy, heresy, hypocrisy, idiocy, illegitimacy, illiteracy, immediacy, inaccuracy, inadequacy, intimacy, intricacy, legitimacy, leprosy, literacy, lunacy, meritocracy, obstinacy, Odyssey, papacy, pharmacy, piracy, pleurisy, primacy, privacy, prophecy, secrecy, supremacy, surrogacy, theocracy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-f-l-l-y" | |
-2 letters: allay, calla. | |
-3 letters: acyl, alfa, ally, calf, call, clay, fall, flay, lacy. | |
-4 letters: aal, ala, all, cay, fay, fly, lac, lay. | |
-5 letters: aa, al, ay, fa, la, ya. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-f-l-l-y" | |
+1 letter: facially. | |
+2 letters: factually. | |
+3 letters: bifacially, farcically. | |
+4 letters: factionally, fanatically, financially, frantically, pacifically. | |
+5 letters: artificially, beatifically, fallaciously, fascicularly, fractionally, magnifically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Quotations: Speeches | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
