Monthly Archives: December 2012

Emotive Language: Attempting to stir up any emotions rather than presenting a good argument in a situation where emotions are not appropriate or necessary. Refutation: arguments are worthy nor not based on their internal structure, soundness, and well supported statements … Continue reading →

Appeal to The People (Argumentum Ad Populum): Asserting that something is right or true because a large number of people say it is. Refutation: A large number of people agreeing on something does NOT make it right. Example: Adam: Betty, … Continue reading →

Argument to The Future (Argumentum Ad Futurum): Basing a conclusion on a predictive statement (claiming a certain future event will happen). Refutation: No human knows for sure that a certain even will happen in the future at a specific time; … Continue reading →

Misuse of Analogy: Basing a conclusion on an analogy (a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be used). Refutation: Analogies are used to explain, or make something more understandable. They don’t prove anything.  Just because … Continue reading →

Concerning today’s shooting, I suspect that a quick perusal of the internet will produce many calls for tighter gun control. I call that response “Diving Board Thinking”- someone has an issue that they carry with them at all times and … Continue reading →

Different Answer/Don’t Care Fallacy: The position that if person B does not agree with Person A’s answer to a problem, then Person B must not care about the problem. Refutation: People can care – even care deeply about a problem, … Continue reading →

Actual Quote on Facebook 12/12/12:   “It’s sad that the Republican party doesn’t care what the American people want, but merely want to carry out their own agenda. And they wonder why they lost the election? What happened to “We … Continue reading →

Changing the Subject (Henothesis): Attempting to move the opponent onto a different topic so his argument won’t be attacked. Refutation: It is very difficult to juggle more than one argument at a time. It is much more productive to resolve … Continue reading →

Argument To The Man (Argumentum Ad Hominem):  Attacking  the other person instead of the argument. Refutation: Arguments are like math problems.  It makes no difference who presents them – they stand or fall on their own merit. Example:  Adam: Betty, … Continue reading →

Causal Reductionism:  Asserting that a complex effect is a result of only one of its factors. Refutation: A complex effect, by definition, need several factors to work together to bring it about. Referring to only one of the factors is … Continue reading →