Study Notes on Fallacies UGC NET Paper-1

• Fallacies are common errors or tricks in reasoning.
• It undermines the logic of the argument.
• It can be either illegitimate arguments or irrelevant points and are often identified because they lack evidence that supports their claim.
• Fallacies can appear intentionally and unintentionally.
• Unintentional fallacies are error, and intentional fallacies are trick.

Types of fallacies

Straw Man

• In this, instead of on attacking the stronger argument, the opponent attacks the weaker argument.
• Example
• People who are not in favour of the government giving free ration to poor hate the poor.
• In this example, the author move oversimplifies an opponent's viewpoint and then attacks that hollow argument.
• But opposition must be having some valid point to support his argument.

Slippery Slope

• In this conclusion is derived by assuming that if A happens, then eventually Z will happen through small steps B, C,..., X, Y.
• It basically equates A and Z.
• Example
• While scolding a student teacher said ‘Today late for ten minutes, tomorrow late for 20 minutes, and then someday you will simply bunk the class’

Hasty Generalization

• In this, conclusion based on incomplete and insufficient information or may be due to biasness.
• Example:
• For example, if my brother likes to eat a lot of pizza and French fries, and he is healthy, I can say that pizza and French fries are healthy and don't really make a person fat.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

• This in Latin means "after this, therefore because of this." In this, the conclusion is derived by assuming that if 'A' occurred after 'B' then 'B' must have caused 'A.'
• Example:
• Nearly all alcohol addicts drank beer before they tried alcohol. Clearly drinking beer leads to alcohol addiction."

Genetic Fallacy

• In this conclusion is derived due to the origins of a person, or character or nature.
• Example:
• Volkswagons are poor cars because the Nazis created them.

Begging the Claim

• In this, the conclusion is already validated within the claim of the speaker.
• Example:
• Consumption of excessive alcohol kills because alcohol is deadly.

Circular Argument

• In this, the argument is restated rather than actually proving it.
• Example:
• Narendra Modi is a good communicator because he speaks very effectively.

Either/or

• In this conclusion is oversimplified by reducing the argument to two choices or sides.
• Example:
• We can either stop using fossil fuels or destroy the earth.

Ad hominem

• In this, rather the criticising the opinion of the speaker, the speaker's character is attacked.
• Example:
• Workers are on strike for raising the minimum wage, but they are not smart enough to even run a business.

Ad populum/Bandwagon Appeal

• In this, people belives in whatever most people believed in to make oneself to think the same way.
• Example:
• Everyone smokes in public, so it should not be against the law.

Ad Ignorantum

• When someone tries to prove something to be true as it has not been proved false.
• Example
• God doesn't exist because no one can actually prove God existence.

Red Herring

• In this, the speaker actually distracts from the original argument by referring to something else.
• Example:
• In government, arguing for raising taxes - "We need more revenue to support the programs that we have. Children are our future. Let's support children."

Moral Equivalence

• This fallacy compares minor misdeeds with major atrocities, suggesting that both are equally immoral.
• That Policeman who gives me a ticket for over-speeding is as bad as Hitler.

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We hope you all understood the topics discussed above for the upcoming UGC NET Exam 2022.

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