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Logical Fallacies

Instructions:

Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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Match each statement with the correct term.
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This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.

1. This argumentative fallacy in which the rhetor frames an issue in terms of exaggerated threats or dangers.
Ad hominem Example
Begging the Question Example
Scare Tatics
Red Herring

2. Even though it's only the first day - I can tell this is going to be a boring course.
Bandwagon appeal
Non sequitur Example
Red Herring Example
Hasty Generalization Example

3. Either you support the president in everything he says and does or you are not a patriotic American
Dogmatism Example
Hasty Generalization
Faulty Analogy Example
Either/Or. Example

4. This move oversimplifies an opponents' view point and then attacks that hollow argument. This opponents position is misrepresented as being more extreme than it actually is - so it becomes easier to refute.
Red herring Example
Ad hominem
Equivocation Example
Straw Man

5. This sort of argument relies on the faulty assumption that because one event follows another - the second necessarily causes the first
Slipper Slop Example
Scare Tatics Example
Faulty Causality
Straw Man

6. I gave you everything i had to give to you(right then and there when you asked me - but of course everything I could have given you if I took into account what I maintain elsewhere.)
Dogmatism
Scare Tatics Example
Begging the Question Example
Equivocation Example

7. There's no way a man could love a man or a woman love a woman as much as a man and woman love each other.
Dogmatism Example
Red Herring
Appeals to False Authority Example
Appeals to False Authority Example

8. That boy scout made an old lady's day by visiting and entertaining her in her nursing home; we should give generously to the boy scouts as a result.
Faulty Analogy
Faulty Analogy Example
Either/Or. Example
Sentimental Appeals. Ex

9. This involves drawing an analogy that is based upon faulty equations or identifications of terms. The writer makes a comparisons between two objects which is either inaccurate or inconsequential.
Bandwagon appeal
Red Herring Example
Faulty Analogy
Slippery Slope

10. Students in kindergarten at Jefferson Elementary school did better when given milk and cookies than when not; therefore students at UWEC will do better too if they are given milk and cookies in class.
Appeals to False Authority
Bandwagon appeal
Faulty Analogy Example
Sentimental Appeals Example

11. This is a conclusion based on insufficient evidence. In other words - you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts.
Either/Or. Example
Either/Or. Example
Either/Or.
Hasty Generalization

12. We can either stop using cars or destroy the earth.
Either/Or. Example
Non sequitur
Scare Tatics Example
Straw Man

13. Britney Spears says that George W. Bush has got a great plan for the economy - and so therefore I am supporting him because I trust what she has to say.
Scare Tatics Example
Slipper Slop Example
Red Herring
Appeals to False Authority Example

14. Filthy and polluting coal should be banned.
Faulty Analogy
Hasty Generalization Example
Dogmatism
Begging the Question Example

15. American students' relatively poor performance in foreign language and geography examinations means that they should be subjected to regular standardized tests in these two areas each year throughout their mandatory period of schooling.
Ad hominem Example
Red herring Example
Equivocation Example
Non sequitur Example

16. The level of mercury in seafood may be unsafe - but what will fishers do to support their families?
Either/Or. Example
Red herring Example
Slippery Slope Example
Non sequitur Example

17. If we let homosexual couple live on our street before you know it our neighborhood will start to become like Greenwich Village in New York or the Castro District in San Francisco.
Ad hominem
Begging the Question EX.
Slippery Slope Example
Faulty Analogy Example

18. The writer suggest that readers should listen and follow what someone has to say about something that he or she is in fact not a credible - reliable authority on.
Equivocation Example
Appeals to False Authority
Ad hominem
Faulty Analogy Example

19. If we can Hummers because they are bad for the environment eventually the government will ban all cars - so we should not ban hummers.
Straw Man
Begging the Question EX.
Slipper Slop Example
Sentimental Appeals

20. If you restrict my right to say whatever I want however I want this is the beginning of totalitarianism in America.
Hasty Generalization Example
Straw Man
Appeals to False Authority Example
Slippery Slope Example

21. This fallacy of argument recommends a course of action on the grounds that everyone else is following the same path.
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Faulty Causality
Dogmatism Example
Bandwagon appeal

22. The conclusion that the writer should prove is validated within the claim. The author assumes as true they very claim that is disputed - in a circular argument.
Begging the Question
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Appeals to False Authority Example
Straw Man Example

23. I drank bottled water and now I am sick - so the water must have made me sick.
Sentimental Appeals Example
Appeals to False Authority Example
Equivocation Example
Faulty Causality Example

24. I knew a gay guy who was not very masculine; this just goes to show that gay guys are more effeminate than straight men.
Faulty Causality Example
Non sequitur Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Hasty Generalization Example

25. The administration closed the smoking court in our school at the end of the last year - and fights among students have gone down his year; therefore - closing the smoking court caused the reaction in fights among students.
Faulty Causality Example
Scare Tatics Example
Either/Or. Example
Slipper Slop Example

26. Either you worship God or you worship Satan.
Begging the Question Example
Either/Or. Example
Faulty Causality Example
Ad hominem

27. Relying on manipulatively heart-warming or heart-wrenching appeals to emotion to win support for what has not been otherwise rationally justified.
Sentimental Appeals
Either/Or. Example
Ad hominem Example
Faulty Causality Example

28. There's no way that anyone can argue that abortion is anything other than murder.
Dogmatism
Scare Tatics Example
Either/Or. Example
Dogmatism Example

29. This is a diversionary tactic that avoid key issues - often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them.
Faulty Causality Example
Non sequitur
Red Herring
Faulty Analogy

30. This logical fallacy proposes that there are simply cannot be another possible way of making sense of and engaging with an issue but the one you represent.
Dogmatism
Faulty Causality Example
Appeals to False Authority Example
Begging the Question Example

31. This is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it only to two sides or choices.
Scare Tatics Example
Dogmatism
Begging the Question
Either/Or.

32. Here's what I think about what you have written: anyone who opposes the death penalty for murder is a criminal at heart.
Hasty Generalization Example
Ad hominem Example
Dogmatism
Red herring Example

33. A black family move into my neighborhood once - and they were financially quite well-off - better than we were; this proves that black people actually are economically equal to whites.
Hasty Generalization Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Equivocation Example
Faulty Causality Example

34. I don't support the President's foreign policy; look at the disastrous way he has taken care of our domestic economy.
Slippery Slope
Red herring Example
Begging the Question Example
Equivocation

35. Person: A we should liberalize the laws one beer B: No any society with unrestricted access to intoxicants loses its work ethic and goes only for immediate gratification.
Straw Man Example
Slippery Slope Example
Begging the Question Example
Scare Tatics Example

36. Because of the possibility of poisoning of Halloween candy by some people who give it out to trick or treaters - communities should ban trick-or-treating.
Scare Tatics Example
Faulty Analogy
Hasty Generalization Example
Slippery Slope

37. You can't give me a C - I'm an A student.
Sentimental Appeals
Sentimental Appeals. Ex
Begging the Question EX.
Slipper Slop Example

38. You can't trust jim to do a good job as student body president; he doesn't dress with an up-to-date sense of style.
Bandwagon appeal
Red Herring Example
Non sequitur Example
Begging the Question EX.

39. In this case the writer forms an argument which leaves out a necessary portion in a logical sequence - seeming to suggest a logical connection when in fact one does not exist.
Non sequitur
Slipper Slop Example
Either/Or.
Bandwagon Appeal Example

40. It has been scientifically proven that people need to drink a certain amount of water every day to keep healthy. Water is liquid and so is beer. Therefore people should be able to substitute beer for water - drinking beer each day as doctors recommen
Begging the Question Example
Either/Or. Example
Red Herring Example
Faulty Analogy Example

41. I can't be guilty of embezzlement; I'm an honest person.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Begging the Question Example
Ad hominem Example
Scare Tatics Example

42. My friend - who is serving in infantry in Iraq - tells me that the government has a secret plan for how to win the war that they won't release until after the election - and because he is my friend and I like and respect him - this must be true.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Straw Man Example

43. This is a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens - then eventually through a series of small steps - through B -C -...X -Y -Z will happen - too basically equating A and Z.
Begging the Question
Sentimental Appeals
Slippery Slope
Faulty Analogy

44. Green Peace's strategies aren't effective because they are all dirty - lazy hippies.
Ad hominem Example
Non sequitur
Sentimental Appeals. Ex
Sentimental Appeals

45. In listening to what you have to say I have this to say in reply: only an idiot would argue for pursuing a peaceful solution to this conflict.
Ad hominem Example
Red Herring
Faulty Analogy Example
Begging the Question Example

46. Everyone else is going out and getting drunk tonight - so you should too.
Faulty Causality Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Faulty Analogy

47. This is an attack on the character of a person rather than her/his opinions or arguments.
Hasty Generalization Example
Sentimental Appeals
Ad hominem
Hasty Generalization Example

48. This argument gives a lie an honest appearance - by insisting on What is only partially or formally true.
Dogmatism Example
Non sequitur Example
Equivocation
Red herring Example

49. Because of the possibility of a terrorist hijacking or mechanical failure - flying on a plane is too dangerous and should be avoided altogether.
Equivocation
Scare Tatics Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example

50. She is feminist; she must hate men.
Hasty Generalization
Either/Or. Example
Appeals to False Authority Example
Non sequitur Example