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reproduced without explicit permission
These Self-Illustrating Logical Fallacies are just too good to pass up. Many thanks to the author and I hope he or she doesn’t mind my taking liberties reproducing them here.
I’ll let them speak for themselves, but you may have to think about some of these a little:
1. Begging the question, or petitio principii, is the most common type of fallacy because it is the one that occurs most frequently.
2. A bad set of options is either a false dichotomy or a true dichotomy.
3. You should never label an argument as a slippery slope argument, because next thing you know, you’re going to be calling all arguments that and where will it end?
4. Special pleading is the only type of logical fallacy that is not fallacious. This is because it is “special.”
5. If you don’t know what argumentum ad hominem is, you’re an idiot.
6. An appeal to authority constitutes a logically sound claim. Even the Pope agrees, and he knows a lot of things.
7. There’s nothing wrong with a hasty generalization. After all, most of my friends believe that.
8. Saying I provided a false analogy is like me saying you’re just plain wrong.
9. A non-sequitur conclusion is one which does not follow from the premises, therefore the premises must be wrong.
10. Argumentum ad logicam is a fallacy, so it always leads to a false conclusion.
11. Amphibolies will deceive the foolish, because that is their nature.
12. You can’t accuse someone of the fallacy of equivocation without being guilty of using “equivocation” yourself. See?
13. If I am affirming the consequent, then I am committing a logical fallacy. I am committing a logical fallacy, thus I must be affirming the consequent.
14. If I am denying the antecedent then I am committing a logical fallacy. I am not denying the antecedent, therefore I am not committing a logical fallacy.
15. My fallacy of composition is comprised of sensible words, so naturally it is a sensible statement.
16. A fallacy of division is nonsense, therefore it is comprised of nonsensical words.
17. You better damn well believe that I never resort to an appeal to force.
18. Is your inquiry a loaded question or a stupid one?
19. People who object to a straw man are simply prejudiced against the noble straw people.
20. A non causa pro causa argument is made by nitwits, therefore it is this type of argument that is the cause of human nitwitism.
21. A lot of people know that an argumentum ad populum is valid, especially in this democracy we live in. They can’t all be wrong.
22. Ignoratio elenchi must be a rather popular fallacy, since sociological studies have shown that people tend to think emotionally rather than rationally.
23. My own arguments, by virtue of coming from me, can never really constitute a true “no true Scotsman” fallacy.
24. How can you say a claim is guilty of reification? Where is the empirical evidence for reification? Show me something solid I can hold in my hand, else there is no reason to believe you.
