How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 57

Ascribes cause where none exists. The flaw is failing to account for natural fluctuations. It is frequently
a special kind of the post hoc fallacy.
Reification (hypostatization)
A fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction (abstract belief or hypothetical construct) is treated as if it
were a concrete, real event or physical entity. In other words, it is the error of treating as a "real thing"
something which is not a real thing, but merely an idea.
Retrospective determinism
The argument that because some event has occurred, its occurrence must have been inevitable
beforehand.
Shotgun argumentation
The arguer offers such a large number of arguments for their position that the opponent can't possibly
respond to all of them. (See "Argument by verbosity" and "Gish Gallop", above.)
Special pleading
Where a proponent of a position attempts to cite something as an exemption to a generally accepted
rule or principle without justifying the exemption.
Wrong direction
Cause and effect are reversed. The cause is said to be the effect and vice versa.
Faulty generalizations
Faulty generalizations
Reach a conclusion from weak premises. Unlike fallacies of relevance, in fallacies of defective
induction, the premises are related to the conclusions yet only weakly buttress the conclusions. A faulty
generalization is thus produced.
Accident
An exception to a generalization is ignored.
No true Scotsman
When a generalization is made true only when a counterexample is ruled out on shaky grounds.
Cherry picking (suppressed evidence, incomplete evidence)
Act of pointing at individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a
significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.
False analogy
An argument by analogy in which the analogy is poorly suited.
Hasty generalization (fallacy of insufficient statistics, fallacy of insufficient sample, fallacy of the
lonely fact, leaping to a conclusion, hasty induction, secundum quid, converse accident)
Basing a broad conclusion on a small sample.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire (also Hasty Conclusion, Jumping to a Conclusion).
The dangerous fallacy of quickly drawing a conclusion and/or taking action without sufficient
evidence. E.g., “My neighbor Jaminder Singh wears a long beard and a turban and speaks a funny
language. Where there's smoke there's fire. This is war, our country is in danger, and that’s all the
evidence we need to string him up!’” A variety of the “Just in Case” fallacy.
Snow job

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