Fallacies of Relevance and

Fallacies of Defective Induction

 Fallacies of Relevance

In these fallacies, the premises of the argument

are simply not relevant to the conclusion.
Because the connection is missing, the premises
offered cannot possibly establish the truth of the
conclusion.
● The appeal to emotion
● The appeal to populace
● The red herring
● The straw man
● The attack on the person
● The appeal to force
● Missing the point (irrelevant
conclusion)
 Appeal to Populace or Argumentum
Ad populum
● An informal fallacy in which the support given
for some conclusion is an appeal to popular
belief.
● Instead using of evidence or rational
arguments, speaker relies on expressive
language to excite enthusiasm for or against
some cause.
 ● Bandwagon
Fallacy
One variety of this bad
argument is particularly crass
because it suggests no more
than that one is well advised
to buy (or join, or support,
etc.) simply because that is
what everyone else is doing.
many will be
anxious to “jump on the
bandwagon”
 Appeal to Emotion

fallacy in which the argument

relies on generosity, altruism, or
mercy,
rather than on reason.
Also known as
argument ad misericordiam.

● Appeal to Pity or ad
misericordiam
 The Red Herring
● A fallacy in which attention
is deliberately deflected
away from the the issue.
● Argument whose
effectiveness lies in
distraction
 The Straw Man Fallacy
● Is a variety of red herring, because it also
introduces a distraction from the real disputes,
however the distraction is of a particular kind:
● “ it is an effort to shift the conflict from its
original complexity into a different conflict, other
than those originally in dispute.
● Straw Man: "So you're saying I evolved from
a monkey? Then how come I don't throw
feces and climb trees?" Evolution doesn't
make that claim, but by claiming that it does,
the arguer is trying to beat down a much
easier argument.
●

● Red Herring: "So you believe in evolution? I'll

bet your parents would be disappointed in
you." The arguer is distracting from the issue
by bringing his opponent's parents into this -
they have no impact on whether or not the
theory is correct.
 Argument against the Person or
argument ad hominem
● An argument in which the thrust is directed,
not at a conclusion, but at some person who
defend the conclusion in dispute.

● 2 major forms of argument ad hominem:

➢ The abusive
➢ The circumstantial
 The Abusive
● Attacking the person making the argument,
rather than the argument itself, when the attack
on the person is completely irrelevant to the
argument the person is making.
 The Circumstancial
● Tu quoque or “You too”, “look who's talking'
- when the circumstance of the speaker are
used not merely as ground for attack – but
used rather in a plainly negative spirit.
- the substance f the fallacy is to contend that
you (first party) are just bad as I am, just guilty
of whatever it is you complained about.
It may be true that the first party is guilty of the
conduct in question, but that does not support
the innocence of the second party, which is the
issue in the argument at hand.
 The Appeal to Force or argument ad
baculum
● Establishing
proposition as true
by resorting to
force.
● Threats or strong-
arm methods to
coerce one's
opponent can
hardly be
considered
arguments at all.
 Missing the Point or Ignoratio
Elenchi
● Committed when on refutes, not the thesis
one's interlocutory is advancing, but some
different thesis that one mistakenly imputes to
him or her.
● Is a mistake that is made in seeking to refute
another's argument.
 Fallacies of Defective Induction

● The mistake arises from the fact that the

premises of the argument, although relevant
to the conclusion , are so weak and
ineffective that relying on them is a blunder.
● Premises are relevant and yet are wholly
inadequate
 ● Argument from Ignorance
● The appeal from inappropriate authority
● False Cause
● Hasty Generalization
 Argument from Ignorance or
argument ad ignorantiam
● The assumption of a conclusion or fact based
primarily on lack of evidence to the contrary.
Usually best described by, “absence of
evidence.”
● Conclusion is supported by an illegitimate
appeal to ignorance, as when it is supposed
that something is likely to be true because we
cannot prove that it is false
“X is true because you cannot prove that X is false.”
“X is false because you cannot prove that X is true.”
Appeal to Inappropriate Authority or
argument ad verecundiam
● Appeal to authority is illegitimate because
the authority appealed to has no special
claim to expertise on the matter in question.
● Using an authority as evidence in your
argument when the authority is not really an
authority on the facts relevant to the
argument. As the audience, allowing an
irrelevant authority to add credibility to the
claim being made.
 Example:
● “My genius professor in Math said that
Alexander the Great was dumb. No wonder
why most historians do not include this fact in
their books.”

● Care must be taken in determining whose

authority it is reasonable to rely on, and whose
to reject
 False Cause
● Argument non causa pro causa
● An informal fallacy in which the mistake arises
from accepting as the cause of an event what is
not really its cause
● In which sometimes that is not the really cause
of something else is treated as its cause.
● We sometimes mistakenly presume that one
event is caused by another because it follows
that other closely in time.

● Example: “After my son had his vaccines, he

developed autism. Therefore, the vaccines
caused autism.”
 Hasty Generalization
● An informal fallacy in which a principle that is
true of a particular case is applied, carelessly or
deliberately, to the great run of cases.

● We commit when we drawn conclusion about

all the persons or things in a given class on the
basis of our knowledge about only one or few of
members of that class