Fallacies

It’s Friday night and you want to go to a concert. You tell your parents or guardian that
everyone will be going, that it is supposed to be the safest concert that your city has
ever had, that if you don’t get to go, you won’t be invited to any parties for the rest of
your teenage years, and that if you parents trust you, they will let you go. Your parents
tell you that they think your argument is filled with fallacious reasoning. You aren’t sure
if that’s a compliment until you find out that fallacious reasoning means “false thinking.”
People reason fallaciously when they draw incorrect or false conclusions. Such
conclusions may be illogical, or they may be based on incomplete information.

For an argument to be convincing, it must be based on logic, or correct reasoning.
Opinions should be supported by reasons and evidence, such as facts, statistics,
examples, or expert testimony.

Fallacious or faulty reasoning can be hard to spot, so it’s important to watch for it
whenever you evaluate an argument.

Hasty

Generaliations -

Conclusions

drawn from weak

or insufficient

evidence

Your friend said

the concert

you’re attending

would have

extra security.

Obviously,
this will be the
safest concert
your city has
ever had.

False Cause & Effect -

Assuming that event A
caused event B simply
because A came first.

Going to concerts
will make me more
popular

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consectetur adipiscing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor.

After I went to the
concert, I was
invited to a party.

Either/or Fallacy -

the assumption that a

problem or situation has
only one possible cause
or resolution when there

may be several.

If your parents
don’t let you to
go the concert,
then they don’t

trust you.

Stereotyping -

believing that all

members of a
group share a

certain

characteristic

Fallacious Reasoning (by Kylene Beers)

​Edgar Allan Poe was a very, very disturbed man. Every single story and poem he ever wrote is about a disturbed

​In this selection, there are several types of fallacious reasoning, or arguments that are not logical. Answer the questions on the next slides about this.