Material Fallacies

a. Argumentum Ad Hominem argument against the person

i. Jun Lozada is not credible because he looks funny when he cries
b. Argumentum Ad Populum arguer appeals to people
i. All the others in the class want the party in the gym, so don't you think we should have it there, too?
c. Argumentum Ad Baculum arguer appeals to force
i. If you expect to receive allowance tomorrow, I suggest you don’t talk to your boyfriend anymore.
d. Argumentum Ad Misericordiam arguer appeals to pity
i. Please give me an A+ in this exam because if I don’t get an A+, I will lose my scholarship. I won’t be
able to continue my studies.
e. Argumentum Ad Verecundiam arguer appeals to wrong authority
i. You don’t need to go to the hospital. I am a doctor. In Philosophy.
f. Argumentum Ad Ignorantiam an assumption that since something is not proven false, it must be true, and
vice versa.
i. Not all men are cheaters because you can’t even prove that my boyfriend has already cheated on me
g. Ignoratio Elenchi missing the point, valid premise, irrelevant conclusion
i. Crime rates are getting higher because of riding-in-tandem criminals. In order to catch these
criminals, we must forbid motorcycle riders in using helmets.
h. Petitio Principii: begging the question; assumes what it attempts to prove
i. The Bible is saying the truth about God’s existence because God guided the people who wrote the
Bible.
i. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc: assumes that because one thing follows the other that the first event is the
cause of the second event.
i. Yesterday, I fell down on my face. 5 mins later, my crush said he finds me beautiful. Now I try to fall
down on my face every day. 
j. Non Sequitur: fallacy of consequent; the error in this fallacy is due to a lack of logical connection
i. If it rains, then the ground is wet. The ground is wet. Therefore, it rained.
ii. If it rains, then the ground is wet. It did not rain. Therefore, there is no reason for the ground to be
wet.
k. Fallacy of Hasty Generalization: the sample is too small; to support an inductive generalization about a
population
i. My boyfriend cheated on me. My father cheated on my mom. My best friend’s father cheated on her
mom. Therefore, all men are cheaters.
l. Fallacy of Accident: applying a general rule to an exceptional case
i. The maximum speed limit in NLEX is 60kph. Your father is in the passenger’s seat, having a heart
attack but you can’t step on the wheel because of the speed limit.
m. Compound Question: assumes the conclusion at issue.; usually intended to trap the respondent into
acknowledging something which he/she does not want to acknowledge
i. Are you still a heavy smoker?
n. Slippery Slope: this happens when an argument tries to prove that proposition A is unacceptable because
of a series of unacceptable events following from it
i. Banning pornographic materials is dangerous to our freedom because if we allow this to happen,
soon, they will also ban art, and freedom of expression will become meaningless.
o. Straw Man Fallacy: “when a person distorts an opponent’s argument for the purpose of easily attacking it,
demolishes the distorted argument, and then concludes that the opponent’s real argument has been
demolished”
i. Feminism is a man-hating activity and to hate men is not a promotion of gender equality. Therefore,
feminism is bad.
p. Red Herring: when the arguer diverts the attention of the listener by changing the subject to a different but
sometimes subtly related one
q. Arithmetical Fallacy: consists in applying the rules of arithmetic to practical situations without
qualifications.
i. If you can finish a book in 5 hours, then, there is no reason for you to not be able to finish 4.8 books
in 24 hours.