Fighting Fallacies | Equivocation

We continue our series with another informal fallacy: equivocation. Equivocation is a fallacy of language, it’s informal because it isn’t a mistake in the logical form of an argument, rather it has to do with the language used in the argument. Unlike some of the other fallacies we’ve covered, this one is fairly simple. Philosopher,...

Fighting Fallacies | Bulverism and Other ad hominems

We’ve looked at the Abusive ad hominem fallacy already in an earlier post, but there are plenty of close relatives in the ad hominem family that need further explanation. You’ll remember that an ad hominem fallacy is an informal fallacy because it has to do with the language of the argument and not with the...

Fighting Fallacies | The Abusive Ad Hominem

Of all the fallacies tossed around today, the abusive ad hominem is the most malevolent. I know in my last Fighting Fallacies post I said that the straw man fallacy is the most prevalent today, but this one really gives it a run for it's dishonest money. The abusive ad hominem fallacy is another informal...

Fighting Fallacies | The Straw Man

"That's a straw man!" We hear this phrase tossed around all the time and it's gotta be the most common fallacy out there, but what is the Straw Man Fallacy? In order to define this specific fallacy we first need to understand a few key terms like logic, reason, argument, and of course, we need...