Practice Test: Logical Fallacies

Matching skip

Short Answer skip

1. Impressing with Large Numbers
   
2. Appeal to Pity
   
3. Slanted Language
   
4. Appeal to Personal Factors
   
5. Hasty Generalization
   

Multiple Choice skip

1. False Analogy
   1. Words with positive or negative connotations; can add a persuavsive emotional charge; words may be used to express genuine and appropriate feeling or may be the vehicle for mindless prejudice; lead peope in one direction; generate a strong emotional response
   2. Appealing to an authority figure by agreeing with what they believe in or say
   3. Try to make one's claim reasonable by saying that "everybody" agees; uncritical use of numbers can easily lead to absurdity
   4. The whole of something will have the same quality as each of its parts; the belief that each part will have the same quality of the whole
   5. X is (adjective) because Y is (adjective); weakens an argument if it is improper, too vague, or if it is stretched too far
2. Misuse of Humor
   1. Assuming in a definition or in the premises of your argument the very point you are trying to prove
   2. Appealing to an authority figure by agreeing with what they believe in or say
   3. Basing conclusions on inadequate evidence; conclusion could be justified by a different set of proofs
   4. To blind and befuddle; subversive activity (a kind of logical guerrilla warfare) and is a confession of weakness in the saboteur's position
   5. X is (adjective) because Y is (adjective); weakens an argument if it is improper, too vague, or if it is stretched too far
3. Ambiguity
   1. The whole of something will have the same quality as each of its parts; the belief that each part will have the same quality of the whole
   2. Argumentum ad ignorantiam; claim that since one has never proved a claim it must therefore be false; how do you know that it is/is not?
   3. Argumentum ad hominem; focusing on a person's lifestyle or other personal qualities on may evade the true issue at hand; positive or negative thrust; poisoning the well (to undercut an opponent's credibility or to assassinate his character); tu quoque (you're another) - to charge another when you are charged with wrongdoing
   4. 2 meanings of 1 saying; heart of jokes
   5. Argumentum ad populum; associating cause with the popular virtues; unfulfillable promises
4. Appeal to Force
   1. X is (adjective) because Y is (adjective); weakens an argument if it is improper, too vague, or if it is stretched too far
   2. Argumentum ad hominem; focusing on a person's lifestyle or other personal qualities on may evade the true issue at hand; positive or negative thrust; poisoning the well (to undercut an opponent's credibility or to assassinate his character); tu quoque (you're another) - to charge another when you are charged with wrongdoing
   3. Once introduced into a discussion, they tend to sidetrack everyone
   4. Someone may imply that your argument cannot lie true because his own is in the majority
   5. Appealing to an authority figure by agreeing with what they believe in or say
5. Black and White Thinking
   1. Argumentum ad ignorantiam; claim that since one has never proved a claim it must therefore be false; how do you know that it is/is not?
   2. Someone may imply that your argument cannot lie true because his own is in the majority
   3. Appealing to an authority figure by agreeing with what they believe in or say
   4. Either...or...; reducing all possible options to two extremes; leaves little doubt about which option he or she considers.
   5. Assuming in a definition or in the premises of your argument the very point you are trying to prove

True or False skip

1. The Bare Assertion
   Try to make one's claim reasonable by saying that "everybody" agees; uncritical use of numbers can easily lead to absurdity

   True   False

2. False Cause
   Post hoc, ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this); if A precedes B, it need not therefore be the cause of B; A may have been the only sufficient cause of B; it may also have been one of several necessary causes; A and B may be entirely coincidental

   True   False

3. Oversimplification
   2 meanings of 1 saying; heart of jokes

   True   False

4. Composition and Division
   The whole of something will have the same quality as each of its parts; the belief that each part will have the same quality of the whole

   True   False

5. Irrelevant Appeals to Authority
   Refusing to back up a disputed claim with proper reasons

   True   False