part0005

Contents

Truth and Deception in the Human Mind

Uncritical Persons (intellectually unskilled thinkers)

Skilled Manipulators (weak-sense critical thinkers)

Critical Persons (strong-sense critical thinkers)

The Concept of Fallacies of Thought

Naming Fallacies

Mistakes Versus Fallacies

There is No Exhaustive List of Fallacies

Faulty Generalizations

Analyzing Generalizations

Post Hoc Generalizations

Analogies and Metaphors

44 Foul Ways to Win an Argument

Accuse Your Opponent of Doing What He is Accusing You of or worse

Accuse Him of Sliding Down A Slippery Slope (that leads to disaster)

Appeal to Authority

Appeal to Experience

Appeal to Pity (or sympathy)

Appeal to Popular Passions

Appeal to Tradition or Faith (“the tried and true”)

Assume a Posture of Righteousness

Attack the person (and not the argument)

Beg the Question

Call For Perfection (Demand impossible conditions)

Create a False Dilemma (the Great Either/Or)

Devise Analogies (and Metaphors) That Support Your View (even if they are misleading or “false”)

Question Your Opponent’s Conclusions

Create Misgivings: Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

Create A Straw Man

Deny or Defend Your Inconsistencies

Demonize His Side Sanitize Yours

Evade Questions, Gracefully

Flatter Your Audience

Hedge What You Say

Ignore the Evidence

Ignore the Main Point

Attack Evidence (That Undermines Your Case)

Insist Loudly on a Minor Point

Use the Hard-Cruel-World Argument (to justify doing what is usually considered unethical)

Make (Sweeping) Glittering Generalizations

Make Much of Any Inconsistencies in Your Opponent’s Position

Make Your Opponent Look Ridiculous (“Lost in the Laugh”)

Oversimplify the Issue

Raise Nothing But Objections

Rewrite History (Have It Your Way)

Seek Your Vested Interests

Shift the Ground

Shift the Burden of Proof

Spin, Spin, Spin

Talk in Vague Generalities

Talk Double Talk

Treat Abstract Words and Symbols As If They Were Real Things

Throw In A Red Herring (or two)

Throw in Some Statistics

Use Double Standards (whenever you can)

44 Foul Ways to Win an Argument (Chart)

Fallacy Detection: Analyzing a Speech from the Past

Fallacy Detection: Analyzing a Current Presidential Speech

Fallacy Detection: Analyzing a Speech from a Presidential Candidate

Avoid Two Extremes:

1)	Finding Fallacies Only in the Thinking of Others (None in Yourself), and

2)	Finding an Equal Number of Fallacies in Everything you Read.

Conclusion: Fallacies in An Ideal (And in a Real) Worl d