1. A misleading, deceptive or false notion.
2. An argument that uses poor reasoning.
Over the course of the year there will be a number of types of fallacies presented as “word of the week” such as Straw Man, Ad Hominem and Tu Quoque. For now it is enough to outline what this word means in general.
In common usage the term can mean any idea which is false or misleading such as “That the world is flat was at one time a popular fallacy”.
In Philosophy and Ethics we are more interested in the second use of the term; an argument that uses poor reasoning. Last week the word of the week was Syllogism (see here). Sometimes Syllogisms that look good prove to be false; these are known as deductive fallacies.
In common usage the term can mean any idea which is false or misleading such as “That the world is flat was at one time a popular fallacy”.
In Philosophy and Ethics we are more interested in the second use of the term; an argument that uses poor reasoning. Last week the word of the week was Syllogism (see here). Sometimes Syllogisms that look good prove to be false; these are known as deductive fallacies.
1. All pigs have snouts. |  |
This looks like a good syllogism at first glance - but it is in fact fallacious.
“That creature” may well be a pig, but the conclusion does not follow from the premises. In fact it could be a shrew, aardvark, or even a crocodile. The problem is that statement 1 has been reversed; in this case “all pigs have snouts” is being read as “all snouted animals are pigs”. It is a common misconception that the only snouted animals are pigs, and so at first glance the syllogism works. But when you think about it more carefully you see that it is an example a deductive fallacy; individually the steps appear logical, but when placed together is actually incorrect
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