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Accent Fallacy

When the meaning of a word, sentence, or entire idea is interpreted differently by changing where the accent falls.

accentus, emphasis fallacy, fallacy of accent, fallacy of prosody, misleading accent

Accident Fallacy

When an attempt is made to apply a general rule to all situations when clearly there are exceptions to the rule. Simplistic rules or laws rarely take into consideration legitimate exceptions, and to ignore these exceptions is to bypass reason to preserve the illusion of a perfect law. People like simplicity and would often rather keep simplicity at the cost of rationality.

a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid, destroying the exception, dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, dicto simpliciter, converse accident, reverse accident, fallacy of the general rule, sweeping generalization

Ad Fidentia

Attacking the person’s self-confidence in place of the argument or the evidence.

argumentum ad fidentia, against self-confidence

Ad Hoc Rescue

Very often we desperately want to be right and hold on to certain beliefs, despite any evidence presented to the contrary. As a result, we begin to make up excuses as to why our belief could still be true, and is still true, despite the fact that we have no real evidence for what we are making up.

making stuff up, MSU fallacy

Ad Hominem (Abusive)

Attacking the person making the argument, rather than the argument itself, when the attack on the person is completely irrelevant to the argument the person is making.

argumentum ad hominem, personal abuse, personal attacks, abusive fallacy, appeal to the person, damning the source, name calling, refutation by caricature, against the person, against the man

Ad Hominem (Circumstantial)

Suggesting that the person who is making the argument is biased or predisposed to take a particular stance, and therefore, the argument is necessarily invalid.

argumentum ad hominem, appeal to motive, appeal to personal interest, argument from motives, conflict of interest, faulty motives, naïve cynicism, questioning motives, vested interest

Ad Hominem (Guilt by Association)

When the source is viewed negatively because of its association with another person or group who is already viewed negatively.

argumentum ad hominem, association fallacy, bad company fallacy, company that you keep fallacy, they’re not like us fallacy, transfer fallacy

Ad Hominem (Tu quoque)

Claiming the argument is flawed by pointing out that the one making the argument is not acting consistently with the claims of the argument.

argumentum ad hominem tu quoque,  appeal to hypocrisy, you too fallacy, hypocrisy, personal inconsistency

Affirmative Conclusion from a Negative Premise

The conclusion of a standard form categorical syllogism is affirmative, but at least one of the premises is negative. Any valid forms of categorical syllogisms that assert a negative premise must have a negative conclusion.

illicit negative, drawing a negative conclusion from affirmative premises, fallacy of negative premises

Affirming a Disjunct

Making the false assumption that when presented with an either/or possibility, that if one of the options is true that the other one must be false. This is when the “or” is not specifically defined as being exclusive.

the fallacy of the alternative disjunct, false exclusionary disjunct, affirming one disjunct, the fallacy of the alternative syllogism, asserting an alternative, improper disjunctive syllogism, fallacy of the disjunctive syllogism

Uncomfortable Ideas: Facts don't care about feelings. Science isn't concerned about sensibilities. And reality couldn't care less about rage.

This is a book about uncomfortable ideas—the reasons we avoid them, the reasons we shouldn’t, and discussion of dozens of examples that might infuriate you, offend you, or at least make you uncomfortable.

Many of our ideas about the world are based more on feelings than facts, sensibilities than science, and rage than reality. We gravitate toward ideas that make us feel comfortable in areas such as religion, politics, philosophy, social justice, love and sex, humanity, and morality. We avoid ideas that make us feel uncomfortable. This avoidance is a largely unconscious process that affects our judgment and gets in the way of our ability to reach rational and reasonable conclusions. By understanding how our mind works in this area, we can start embracing uncomfortable ideas and be better informed, be more understanding of others, and make better decisions in all areas of life.

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