Logic is Overrated

A fallacy is an argument which provides poor reasoning in support of its conclusion. Fallacies differ from other bad arguments in that many people find them psychologically persuasive. That is, people will mistakenly take a fallacious argument to provide good reasons to believe its conclusion. An argument can be fallacious whether or not its conclusion is true.

Fallacies can be categorized in a number of ways. For example, formal fallacies rely on an incorrect logical step; informal fallacies do not rely on incorrect logical deduction. Verbal fallacies use some property of language to mislead, for example, ambiguity or verbosity.

Fallacies are also often concerned with causality, which is not strictly addressed by logic. They may also involve implicit (or unstated) assumptions.

Fallacies often exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor. For example, an argument may appeal to patriotism or family or may exploit an intellectual weakness of the listener. Fallacious arguments may also take advantage of social relationships between people. For example, citing an important individual's support for a view to encourage listeners to agree with it.

Considered by themselves, fallacies can often seem obviously bad. However, arguments are often structured using rhetorical patterns that obscure the logical argument - deliberately or not - making fallacies difficult to diagnose. Also, the component parts of the fallacy may be spread over a large period of time.

This is a list of fallacies.