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Answer
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Selective use of only small or a few snippets of evidence or things that look like evidence to reinforce an argument, perhaps even in the face of contrary evidence.
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Cherry picking
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Example: "Dr Stu Pidd published a study that proves that breathing kills you, therefore breathing should be banned."
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Making a rhetorical statement that assumes the truth of the assertion you're attempting to prove.
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Begging the Question
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Example: "If you're so smart then what am I thinking right now?"
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Latin for 'to the man', where someone personally attacks the arguer rather than the substance of their argument.
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Ad hominem
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Example: "You don't know what you're talking about because you're stupid."
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Also know as the Bandwagon fallacy, which appeals to peer pressure or popular opinion rather than evidence.
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Ad Populum
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Example: "All the cool kids at school smoke and I wanted to be cool so I started smoking."
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The misleading use of a term with more than one meaning or sense by glossing over which meaning is intended at a particular time.
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Equivocation
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Example: "2 wrongs don't make a right, but 3 lefts do."
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If P, then Q; Q. Therefore, P.
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Affirming the consequent
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Example: "All elephants are pink; Nelly is an elephant. Nelly is pink."
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If P, then Q. Not P. Therefore, not Q.
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Denying the antecedent
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Example: "Sugar is unhealthy; Diet Coke has no sugar. Diet Coke is healthy."
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When someone concludes that an event causes another simply because it happened first
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Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc
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Example: "The cows we lying down when it was raining. Cows can control the weather."
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C.S. Lewis' concept: "Assume that your opponent is wrong, and explain his error"
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Bulverism
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Example: "You would think that because you're racist."
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A result of hindsight bias. It happens when someone claims they predicted an event after it occurred, i,e, "retroactive clairvoyance."
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Postdiction
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Example: "I will either fly or ruin that family's picnic."
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A logical fallacy in which one reaches an unwarranted conclusion without considering all the facts.
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Hasty Generalization
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Example: "This year it was hotter than last year, therefore global warming accelerating rapidly".
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Claiming that something may be true for one person, but not for someone else
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Relativist fallacy
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Where the options presented are limited (and/or mutually exclusive), and reasonable alternatives are omitted.
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False dichotomy
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Example: "If you are not with me then you are against me."
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Also called a 'Camel's nose', where one thing will lead to another, much more serious thing.
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Slippery slope
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Example: "If we legalise gay marriage then people will start marrying lamps, and then chairs, and then there'll be a nuclear holocaust."
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Covertly replacing an opponent's argument with a different proposition, and then to refute or defeat that false argument instead of the original proposition.
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Strawman
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Example: "We should spend less money on weapons." "So you want to leave use defenseless?"
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Fallacy that reinterprets evidence in order to prevent the refutation of one's position.
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No true Scotsman
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Example: "You're not a feminist because a real feminist wouldn't say that."
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When differences in data are ignored, but similarities are stressed, named after a joke where a Texan shoots a wall, and then paints a target where most bullet holes are closest together.
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Texas sharpshooter fallacy
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Idea by Nicholas Shackel (2005), where an arguer makes broad statements in one scenario, and then retreats to a highly defensible position when challenged. Named after a medieval structure.
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Motte and Bailey
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A self-evident truth that requires no proof and is therefore not questioned, or possibly even questionable.
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Axiom
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The human tendency to interpret meaningful patterns within random data.
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Apophenia
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The interpretation of specific shapes or sounds in random stimuli.
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Pareidolia
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