There is No Exhaustive List of Fallacies

It is not possible to create an exclusive and exhaustive list of fallacies. The intellectual tricks, traps, and snares humans so commonly engage in (or fall prey to) can be described from many differing standpoints and in a variety of differing terms. In this guide, we deal only with those most common or most easily recognized. There is nothing sacred about our list or our analysis. Here is a list of common problems in human thinking. See if you can add to this list. It is common for people (in their thinking) to:

▪ be unclear, muddled, or confused

▪ jump to conclusions

▪ fail to think-through implications

▪ lose track of their goal

▪ be unrealistic

▪ focus on the trivial

▪ fail to notice contradictions

▪ use inaccurate information in their thinking

▪ ask vague questions

▪ give vague answers

▪ ask loaded questions

▪ ask irrelevant questions

▪ confuse questions of different types

▪ answer questions they are not competent to answer

▪ come to conclusions based on inaccurate or irrelevant information

▪ use only the information that supports their view

▪ make inferences not justified by their experience

▪ distort data and represent it inaccurately

▪ fail to notice the inferences they make

▪ come to unreasonable conclusions

▪ fail to notice their assumptions

▪ make unjustified assumptions

▪ miss key ideas

▪ use irrelevant ideas

▪ form confused ideas

▪ form superficial concepts

▪ misuse words

▪ ignore relevant viewpoints

▪ fail to see issues from points of view other than their own

▪ confuse issues of different types

▪ lack insight into their prejudices

▪ think narrowly

▪ think imprecisely

▪ think illogically

▪ think one-sidedly

▪ think simplistically

▪ think hypocritically

▪ think superficially

▪ think ethnocentrically

▪ think egocentrically

▪ think irrationally

▪ be incompetent at problem solving

▪ make poor decisions

▪ lack insight into their own ignorance

Few of these flaws fall neatly under traditional fallacy labels. Nevertheless, it is useful to have some sense of what the common fallacies are and of how to distinguish them from sound reasoning.

All fallacies result from an abuse of a way of thinking that is sometimes justified. For example, generalization is one of the most important acts of human thinking. Making comparisons by analogy and metaphor is another. As we begin to focus on fallacies, we will begin with a detailed emphasis on generalizations and comparisons (and the errors of thought that emerge from their misuse). We will then focus in detail on some of the most widely used fallacies. We do not have the space to approach all fallacies in this same detailed way. In total, we focus on 44 fallacies (which we introduce as “44 Foul Ways to Win an Argument”). We view these fallacies as unethical strategies for winning arguments and manipulating people. They are the “dirty tricks” of intellectual life. Those who use them with success are able to do so precisely because, at some level, they deceive themselves into believing that their reasoning is sound.