FINAL EXAM LOGICAL FALLACIES
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Ad hominem - Correct Answers -Def- "against the man", name calling, personal attack
fallacy; when you attack the person instead of the argument
Ex- "you should grow a brain before opening your mouth and arguing with me"
appeal to emotion - Correct Answers -Definition: manipulating an emotional response in
place of a valid or compelling argument
Ex: Pathos (advertisement with sad puppy with big cute eyes and floppy ears)
Hasty Generalization - Correct Answers -def- drawing conclusions based on insufficient
or unrepresentative evidence (sample size is 1)
ex- "Alexander is a brunette boy who is good at math so all brunette boys must be good
at math"
slippery slope - Correct Answers -definition: A fallacy that assumes that taking a first
step will lead to subsequent steps that cannot be prevented
ex: if you don't bring a pencil, you can't take notes, and if you can't take notes, you will
fail the class, and if you fail, your GPA will plummet, so you won't graduate and you'll
end up homeless
appeal to ignorance/shifting the burden of proof - Correct Answers -def- demanding that
others disprove our assertions "prove me wrong"
ex- "I am an Alien. Prove me wrong"
Appeal to tradition - Correct Answers -def- argument is supported because of its
correlation with a past or present tradition
ex- everyone in our family went to law school at Harvard so you must go to Harvard Law
School as well.
red herring - Correct Answers -def- distracting from the original topic using an irrelevant
topic
ex- "did your organization accept money from a terrorist"
"my organization has done so many good things for the world"
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Ad hominem - Correct Answers -Def- "against the man", name calling, personal attack
fallacy; when you attack the person instead of the argument
Ex- "you should grow a brain before opening your mouth and arguing with me"
appeal to emotion - Correct Answers -Definition: manipulating an emotional response in
place of a valid or compelling argument
Ex: Pathos (advertisement with sad puppy with big cute eyes and floppy ears)
Hasty Generalization - Correct Answers -def- drawing conclusions based on insufficient
or unrepresentative evidence (sample size is 1)
ex- "Alexander is a brunette boy who is good at math so all brunette boys must be good
at math"
slippery slope - Correct Answers -definition: A fallacy that assumes that taking a first
step will lead to subsequent steps that cannot be prevented
ex: if you don't bring a pencil, you can't take notes, and if you can't take notes, you will
fail the class, and if you fail, your GPA will plummet, so you won't graduate and you'll
end up homeless
appeal to ignorance/shifting the burden of proof - Correct Answers -def- demanding that
others disprove our assertions "prove me wrong"
ex- "I am an Alien. Prove me wrong"
Appeal to tradition - Correct Answers -def- argument is supported because of its
correlation with a past or present tradition
ex- everyone in our family went to law school at Harvard so you must go to Harvard Law
School as well.
red herring - Correct Answers -def- distracting from the original topic using an irrelevant
topic
ex- "did your organization accept money from a terrorist"
"my organization has done so many good things for the world"
