Fallacy
Fallacy
is any unsound step or process of reasoning, especially one which has a deceptive appearance of soundness or is falsely accepted as sound. The unsoundness may consist either in a mistake of formal logic, or in the suppression of a premiss whose unacceptability might have been recognized if it had been stated, or in a lack of genuine adaptation of the reasoning to its purpose. Of the traditional names which purport to describe particular kinds of fallacies, not all have a sufficiently definite or generally accepted meaning to justify notice. See, however, the following
affirmation of the consequent;
amphiboly;
denial of the antecedent;
equivocation;
ignoratio elenchi;
illicit process of the major;
illicit process of the minor;
many questions;
noncausa pro causa;
non sequitur;
petitio prtncipii;
post hoc ergo propter hoc;
quaternio terminorum; secundum quid;
undistributed middle;
vicious circle. — A. C.