Here are three logical fallacies I really enjoy – avoiding that is.

Appeal To Authority

If an authority said or thinks x, therefore it is true.

For example, if the Bureau of Land Management said, “The earth is flat.” Simply because an authority said it, wouldn’t make the statement true.

The Fallacy Fallacy

If a claim is supported by poor arguments, therefore it is false.

For example, if I said, “We should eat healthy food.” But then supported it with various fallacious and poor arguments, like “Because one of my friends said it was in style.” It wouldn’t make eating healthy food a false claim.

Anecdotal

Using personal experience, or an isolated example instead of a valid argument, to dismiss statistics.

For example, if my grandfather smoked 30 cigarettes a day and lived until 90 – I can’t logically say this disproves studies showing the direct relationship between smoking and decreased life expectancies.

Go forth and conquer your fallacies.

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash.