1 Running Head: FALLACY JOURNAL 5 FALLACY JOURNAL Name Institution Date Emotionally Loaded Language This fallacy arises when one uses the terms that shows more about ones feelings on the issues other than the rational basis from which those feelings are derived or when one uses emotions to alter the belief or behavior of others. Emotionally loaded language uses terms to evoke emotional response towards a particular product rather than explaining the reasoning for using or purchasing the product (Frans van Bart and Bert 2009). This fallacy manipulates emotions in order to get ones attention away from an important issue. An emotional appeal is directed to divert the audience emotions and often uses the appeal of prejudice rather than offer a good assessment of a situation (Frans van Bart and Bert 2009). In the advertisement words positive connotation also known as glittering word such as glamour, intrigue and power have been used. The audience associates the words glamour, intrigue, power and sex with an internationally known icon, playboy Bunny (Frans van Bart and Bert 2009). The fallacy is in the inference. By purchasing the key to the play boy club lifestyle and one can own powerful sexuality. Ones reasoning contain the fallacy of appeal to emotions when ads appeal one to purchase the product merely because the appeal arouses ones feelings of sexuality. Sexuality is a strong emotion. Sexual connection is instinctive, immediate and appeals to everyone. A person doesn’t usually apply critical thinking to sexual impulses, so this type of advertisement pays off quickly. Appeal to ignorance  This fallacy argues on the basis of what is not known and cannot be proven. It holds the belief that if one cannot prove that something is false then it must be true and vice versa.  Appeal to ignorance occurs when one believes something to be true that is not, because one has no knowledge about the subject to prove otherwise. For instance, an argument that is based on stereotype (Frans van Bart and Bert 2009). The cigarette advertisement asks the audience to accept the truth of the claim that pleasure tastes great in red because there no proof that the contrary exists. In this case, there is no reason for holding to this belief but one is asked to accept the statement as true because it cannot be proven false. The assumption that pleasure tastes great in red is an error in reasoning. The audience is made to assume that pleasure does not taste great in blue, yellow or green. This advert is simply illogical rhetoric that also uses an appeal to emotional language. The meaning associated with the word pleasure is universally positive. Inconsistency A fallacy is inconsistent if it contains two assertions either implicit or explicit, which are logically incompatible with each other. Inconsistency may occur between words or actions. The fallacy occurs when one accepts an inconsistent set of claims, that is, when one accept a claim that logically confl.

1. 1
Running Head: FALLACY JOURNAL
5
FALLACY JOURNAL
Name
Institution
Date
Emotionally Loaded Language
This fallacy arises when one uses the terms that shows more
about ones feelings on the issues other than the rational basis
from which those feelings are derived or when one uses
emotions to alter the belief or behavior of others. Emotionally
loaded language uses terms to evoke emotional response
towards a particular product rather than explaining the
reasoning for using or purchasing the product (Frans van Bart
and Bert 2009). This fallacy manipulates emotions in order to
get ones attention away from an important issue. An emotional
appeal is directed to divert the audience emotions and often
uses the appeal of prejudice rather than offer a good assessment
of a situation (Frans van Bart and Bert 2009).
In the advertisement words positive connotation also known as
glittering word such as glamour, intrigue and power have been
used. The audience associates the words glamour, intrigue,
power and sex with an internationally known icon, playboy
Bunny (Frans van Bart and Bert 2009). The fallacy is in the
inference. By purchasing the key to the play boy club lifestyle
and one can own powerful sexuality. Ones reasoning contain the
fallacy of appeal to emotions when ads appeal one to purchase

2. the product merely because the appeal arouses ones feelings of
sexuality.
Sexuality is a strong emotion. Sexual connection is instinctive,
immediate and appeals to everyone. A person doesn’t usually
apply critical thinking to sexual impulses, so this type of
advertisement pays off quickly.
Appeal to ignorance
This fallacy argues on the basis of what is not known and
cannot be proven. It holds the belief that if one cannot prove
that something is false then it must be true and vice versa.
Appeal to ignorance occurs when one believes something to be
true that is not, because one has no knowledge about the subject
to prove otherwise. For instance, an argument that is based on
stereotype (Frans van Bart and Bert 2009).
The cigarette advertisement asks the audience to accept the
truth of the claim that pleasure tastes great in red because there
no proof that the contrary exists. In this case, there is no reason
for holding to this belief but one is asked to accept the
statement as true because it cannot be proven false. The
assumption that pleasure tastes great in red is an error in
reasoning. The audience is made to assume that pleasure does
not taste great in blue, yellow or green. This advert is simply
illogical rhetoric that also uses an appeal to emotional language.
The meaning associated with the word pleasure is universally
positive.
Inconsistency
A fallacy is inconsistent if it contains two assertions either
implicit or explicit, which are logically incompatible with each
other. Inconsistency may occur between words or actions. The

3. fallacy occurs when one accepts an inconsistent set of claims,
that is, when one accept a claim that logically conflicts with
other claims one hold.
The phrases full of flavor and full of pleasure are logically
inconsistent statements. The statements are used in ignorance,
so that the audience does not realize they are being inconsistent.
They have also been used within an emotive context to make the
audience loose all sense of logic and therefore appealed to use
the product. Another possibility is a intentional use of these
inconsistent statements to confuse the audience and hence divert
them from their real sense.
Appeal to humor
This refers logical fallacy of appeal where, normally sarcasm or
ridicule is used to divert ones attention away from the
discussion or trying to make the other side appear foolish. It is
an attempt to make one lose the issue through laughter. This
fallacy either fails to make a serious point or reduces another’s
claim to its absurd level. It involves using humor to entertain
rather than educate or enlighten.
Today’s advertisements have a great influence in one’s life
because they inform and guide many important decisions that
one makes. Businesses incur huge costs every year to create
humorous advertisements because it is believed that humor is
the most effective means to attract attention in advertisements.
The current advertising climate requires companies to get their
message across with a single image. Humorous advertisements
are one of the most effective ways to get a product noticed in a
very competitive market.
The fallacy in this advertisement is absurdity. The fact that it is
not possible, however the audiences are receptive to humor and
this ads work. Since Pepsi is a well known product, the off
color humor is less likely to offend and may actually become
the subject of the talk which will make it sell quickly.

4. References
Frans van E., Bart G., and Bert M. (2009). Fallacies and
Judgments of Reasonableness: Empirical Research Concerning
the Pragma-Dialectical Discussion. Springer. ISBN 978-90-481-
2613-2.
MASTER LIST OF LOGICAL FALLACIES
The following is a list of all the fallacies that are discussed in
this course. Some are
covered in the textbook and others will be introduced by the
instructor
.
1. Ad hominem or ATTACKING THE PERSON. Attacking the
arguer rather than
his/her argument. Example: John's objections to capital
punishment carry no weight
since he is a convicted felon. Note: Saying something negative
about someone is not
automatically ad hominem. If a person (politician for example)
is the issue, then it is
not a fallacy to criticize him/her.
2. Ad ignorantium or APPEAL TO IGNORANCE. Arguing on
the basis of what is
not known and cannot be proven. (Sometimes called the “burden
of proof” fallacy). If
you can't prove that something is true then it must be false (and
vice versa). Example:
You can't prove there isn't a Loch Ness Monster, so there must
be one.
3. Ad verecundiam or APPEAL TO AUTHORITY. This fallacy
tries to convince the
listener by appealing to the reputation of a famous or respected

5. person. Often times it
is an authority in one field who is speaking out of his or her
field of expertise.
Example: Sports stars selling cars or hamburgers. Or, the actor
on a TV commercial
that says, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV."
4. AFFIRMING THE CONSEQUENT. An invalid form of the
conditional argument.
In this case, the second premise affirms the consequent of the
first premise and the
conclusion affirms the antecedent. Example: If he wants to get
that job, then he must
know Spanish. He knows Spanish, so the job is his.
5. AMPHIBOLY. A fallacy of syntactical ambiguity where the
position of words in a
sentence or the juxtaposition of two sentences conveys a
mistaken idea. Or
syntactical ambiguity deliberately misusing implications This
fallacy is like
equivocation except that the ambiguity does not result from a
shift in meaning of a
single word or phrase, but is created by word placement..
Example: Jim said he saw
Jenny walk her dog through the window. Ow! She should be
reported for animal
labuse. Example: Nine out of ten dentists recommend chewing
sugarless gum. (nine
out of ten implying 90 percent of dentists)
6. APPEAL TO EMOTION. In this fallacy, the arguer uses
emotional appeals rather
than logical reasons to persuade the listener. The fallacy can
appeal to various

6. emotions including pride, pity, fear, hate, vanity, or sympathy.
Generally, the issue is
oversimplified to the advantage of the arguer Example; In 1972,
there was a widely-printed advertisement printed by the Foulke
Fur Co., which was in reaction to the
frequent protests against the killing of Alaskan seals for the
making of fancy furs.
According to the advertisement, clubbing the seals was one of
the great conservation
stories of our history, a mere exercise in wildlife management,
because "biologists
believe a healthier colony is a controlled colony."
. FALSE ANALOGY. An unsound form of inductive argument
in which an argument 7.
relies heavily on a weak analogy to prove its point. Example:
This must be a great
car, for, like the finest watches in the world, it was made in
Switzerland
8. BEGGING THE QUESTION or CIRCULAR REASONING.
An argument in
which the conclusion is implied or already assumed in the
premises. Also said to be a
circular argument. Example: Of course the Bible is the word of
God. Why? Because
God says so in the Bible.
SLIPPERY SLOPE or BLACK AND WHITE. A line of
reasoning that argues 9.
against taking a step because it assumes that if you take the first
step, you will
inevitably follow through to the last. This fallacy uses the valid
form of hypothetical
syllogism, but uses guesswork for the premises. Example: We
can't allow students

7. any voice in decision making on campus; if we do, it won't be
long before they are in
total control
10. COMMON BELIEF or APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE. This
fallacy is committed
when we assert a statement to be true on the evidence that many
other people
allegedly believe it. Being widely believed is not proof or
evidence of the truth.
Example: Of course Nixon was guilty in Watergate. Everybody
knows that
11. PAST BELIEF or APPEAL TO TRADITION. A form of the
COMMON BELIEF
fallacy. The same error in reasoning is committed except the
claim is for belief or
support in the past. Example: We all know women should obey
their husbands. After
all, marriage vows contained those words for centuries.
.
12. CONTRARY TO FACT HYPOTHESIS. This fallacy is
committed when we state
with an unreasonable degree of certainty the results of an event
that might have
occurred but did not. Example: If President Bush had not gone
into the Persian Gulf
with military force when he did, Saddam Hussein would control
the world's oil from
Saudi Arabia today
13. DENYING THE ANTECEDENT. An invalid form of the
conditional argument. In
this one, the second premise denies the antecedent of the first

8. premise, and the
conclusion denies the consequent. Often mistaken for modus
tollens. Example: If she
qualifies for a promotion, she must speak English. She doesn’t
qualify for the
promotion, so she must not know how to speak English
.
14. DIVISION. This fallacy is committed when we conclude
that any part of a particular
whole must have a characteristic because the whole has that
characteristic. What is
true of the whole is true of the part. Example: I am sure that
Karen plays the piano
well, since her family is so musical
..
15. COMPOSITION. This fallacy is committed when we
conclude that a whole must
have a characteristic because some part of it has that
characteristic. What is true of
the part is true of the whole. Example: The Dawson clan must
be rolling in money,
since Fred Dawson makes a lot from his practice
..
FAR-FETCHED HYPOTHESIS. A fallacy of inductive
reasoning that is 16.
committed when we accept a particular hypothesis when a more
acceptable
hypothesis, or one more strongly based in fact, is available
Example; The African- American church was set afire after the
civil rights meeting last night; therefore, it
must have been done by the leader and the minister to cast
suspicion on the local
segregationists
17. FALSE DILEMMA (often called the either/or fallacy or

9. false dichotomy). This
fallacy assumes that we must choose one of two alternatives
instead of allowing for
other possibilities; a false form of disjunctive syllogism.
Example: “America, love it
or leave it.” (The implication is, since you don’t love it the only
option is to leave it).
18. EQUIVOCATION. This fallacy is a product of semantic
ambiguity. The arguer uses
the ambiguous nature of a word or phrase to shift the meaning
in such a way as to
make the reason offered appear more convincing. Example: We
realize that workers
are idle during the period of lay-offs. But the government
should never subsidize
idleness, which has often been condemned as a vice. Therefore,
payments to laid off
workers are wrong
19. AMBIGUITY. This fallacy occurs when a term is used in
legitimate but different
senses by two or more persons involved in argumentation.
Example: In the same
discussion both speakers claim they “build bridges,” one is a
construction worker
then other is a dentist.
20. HASTY GENERALIZATION. A generalization accepted on
the support of a
sample that is too small or biased to warrant it. Example: All
men are rats! Just look
at the louse that I married.
21. POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC. (“After this, therefore
caused by this

10. A form of the false cause fallacy in which it is inferred that
because one event
followed another it is necessarily caused by that event.
Example: Mary joined our
class and the next week we all did poorly on the quiz. It must be
her fault.
INCONSISTENCY. A discourse is inconsistent or self-
contradicting if it contains 22.
explicitly or implicitly, two assertions that are logically
incompatible with each other.
Inconsistency can also occur between words and actions.
Example: A woman who
represents herself as a feminist, yet doesn’t believe women
should run for Congress.
23. NON SEQUITUR or IRRELEVANT ARGUMENT. (“It does
not follow.”) In this
fallacy the premises have no direct relationship to the
conclusion. This fallacy
appears in political speeches and advertising with great
frequency. Example: A
waterfall in the background and a beautiful girl in the
foreground have nothing to do
with an automobile's performance.
24. QUESTIONABLE CAUSE. (In Latin: non causa pro causa,
“not the cause of
that”). This form of the false cause fallacy occurs when the
cause for an occurrence is
identified on insufficient evidence. Example: I can't find the
checkbook; I am sure
that my husband hid it.
25. RED HERRING. This fallacy introduces an irrelevant issue

11. into a discussion as a
diversionary tactic. It takes people off the issue at hand; it is
beside the point.
Example: Many people say that engineers need more practice in
writing, but I would
like to remind them how difficult it is to master all the math and
drawing skills that an
engineer requires.
26. SLANTING. A form of misrepresentation in which a true
statement is made, but
made in such a way as to suggest that something is not true or
to give a false
description through the manipulation of connotation. Example: I
can't believe how
much money is being poured into the space program (suggesting
that 'poured' means
heedless and unnecessary spending)
27. STRAW MAN. This fallacy occurs when we misrepresent an
opponent's position to
make it easier to attack, usually by distorting his or her views to
ridiculous extremes.
This can also take the form of attacking only the weak premises
in an opposing
argument while ignoring the strong ones. Example: Those who
favor gun-control
legislation just want to take all guns away from responsible
citizens and put them into
the hands of the criminals.
28. TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT. This fallacy is
committed when we try to
justify an apparently wrong action by charges of a similar
wrong. The underlying
assumption is that if they do it, then we can do it too and are

12. somehow justified.
Example: Supporters of apartheid are often guilty of this error
in reasoning. They
point to U.S. practices of slavery to justify their system.
29. FORCING A DICHOTOMY. This fallacy places the listener
in the position of
having to Choose between an oversimplified either-or choice,
phrased in such a way
that it forces them to favor the arguer’s preferred option.
Example: You can chose
from these three laundry detergents, but X-Brand is the leading
stain and odor
remover. It gets your clothes extra clean compared to the other
brands.
30. APPEAL TO HUMOR. This fallacy either fails to make a
serious point of reduces
another’s claim to its absurd level. Example: I reserve the right
to arm bears.
31. SIMPLE EVASION. This fallacy changes the subject for no
apparent reason, or by
passes a critical issue to divert the attention from the issues
central to the argument.
Example: “Do I have my homework done? So what do you think
of all this rain we
are having?”
32. SHIFTING GROUND. This fallacy occurs when an arguer
abandons his/her original
position on a particular argument and adopts a new one.
Example: Former Vice
President Al Gore was Pro-Life until he accepted the
Democratic Vice-Presidential
Nomination. He now maintains he is Pro-Choice.

13. 33. SEIZING ON A TRIVIAL POINT. This fallacy occurs when
a person locates
another’s weak or indefensible argument and magnifies it out of
all proportion to
discredit a person’s entire position on the proposition. Example:
“She claim Regan
won the 1981 presidential election when in fact it was 1980.
How can we trust her
whole argument if she can’t get the simplest of dates correct?”
34. EMOTIONALLY LOADED LANGUAGE. This fallacy
arises when we uses
terms that show more about our feeling on the issues than about
the rational basis
from which those feelings derive or when we use emotion as the
sole means to alter
the belief or behavior of others. Example: An advertisement
uses the terms,
American, patriot, united, freedom, to evoke an emotional
response towards its
product instead explaining the reasoning for using/purchasing
the product.
35. TECHNICAL JARGON. This fallacy becomes a problem
when the audience is
overwhelmed with too many new terms or when it is used to
impress the audience or
replace sound reasoning. Example: Telling your friend that they
just committed a
fallacy when they have no idea what the term “fallacy” means.