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Five Argument Mistakes to Stop in 2015

 

1. Attacking a view by focusing on the supporters of that view (Ad Hominem)

Example: “How can you say that you are not in favor of your son having his wedding outside of Imo State, Nigeria when you had your wedding in Chicago, IL USA?”

 

2. Making an illegitimate appeal to the opinion of an authority (Ad Verecundiam)

Example: “He started his own dating website and had the most girlfriends in high school and he said that taking Ginseng cures all sexually transmitted diseases.”  (Having a dating website and many girlfriends does not imply expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of STDs.)

 

3. Circular Reasoning

Example: “My boss is always right because she tells me she is right” (Haha… this may actually be a good job promotion tactic?)

 

4. Mistaking a Correlation for a Cause and Effect relationship (Post hoc ergo propter hoc)

Example: “He definitely caused the smell.  I mean it wasn’t smelling before he arrived.” (Chei!)

 

5. Assuming that whatever is true of a group as a whole must also be true for each of its parts or members

Example: “Finance executives like to sign their own agreements with vendors, and as the VP of Finance, I guess she will sign this vendor agreement as well.”