Logical Fallacies

Kalena, Robert, Tyler

Ad Hominem
1.Appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather
than to one's intellect or reason.
2.Ad hominem attacks can take the form of overtly attacking
somebody, or more subtly casting doubt on their character or
personal attributes as a way to discredit their argument. The result
of an ad hom attack can be to undermine someone's case without
actually having to engage with it.

Appeal to Ignorance
1. Argumentum ad Ignorantiam: (appeal to ignorance) the fallacy that a
proposition is true simply on the basis that it has not been proved false
or that it is false simply because it has not been proved true. This error
in reasoning is often expressed with influential rhetoric.
2., An argument that appears to be neither true or false supported by a
rhetorical question.
3. This fallacy occurs when you argue that your conclusion must be
true, because there is no evidence against it. This fallacy wrongly shifts
the burden of proof away from the one making the claim.

Ad Hominem Example
You didnt finish high school- how could you possibly know about this?
You wouldn't understand since you never had to struggle

Explanation of Fallacy negatively affects

Author #1

The first example of ad hominem is You didn't finish high school- how could you
possibly know about this because you're using someone's educational level as a
mean to exploit and degrade the person's argument. You would expect people to
know that high school students know a lot about on what is happening in the world
since their learning about it in school. But that's not always true.
The second example You wouldn't understand since you never had to struggle
this is an ad hominem since its saying that whatever they had to struggle with they
wouldn't know how it feels.

How to avoid ad hominem

Examine all arguments on their merits regardless of who or what is making them
and regardless of your reasons for hating them or disliking them. You will stay on
the level of the argument and avoid bickering about personalities.

Appeal to Ignorance Example

Example #1:
Although we have proven that the moon is not made of spare ribs, we
have not proven that its core cannot be filled with them; therefore, the
moons core is filled with spare ribs.
Example #2:
To this very day (at the time of this writing), science has been unable to
create life from non-life; therefore, life must be a result of divine
intervention.

Explanation of Fallacy negatively affects

Author #2

Explanation #1: There is an infinity of things we cannot prove -- the

moon being filled with spare ribs is one of them. Now you might expect
that any reasonable person would know that the moon cant be filled
with spare ribs, but you would be expecting too much. People make
wild claims, and get away with them, simply on the fact that the
converse cannot otherwise be proven.
Explanation #2: Ignoring the false dilemma, the fact that we have not
found a way to create life from non-life is not evidence that there is no
way to create life from non-life, nor is it evidence that we will someday
be able to; it is just evidence that we do not know how to do it.
Confusing ignorance with impossibility (or possibility) is fallacious.

How to Avoid this Fallacy or Revise

Logical fallacies are flaws in reasoning that lead to illogical statements.
They tend to occur when ideas are being argued, as in a typical English
essay. Logical fallacies masquerade as reasonable statements, yet they
are in fact statements designed to manipulate the reader by appealing
to emotions rather than intellect.

Works Cited
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/56/Argument_fro
m_Ignorance
"Ad Hominem Examples." Your Dictionary. LoveToKnowCorporation, 2016. Web. 9
Mar. 2016