In simple terms, a logical fallacy is a flaw in reasoning that weakens your argument; you’ve drawn a conclusion based on illogical, irrelevant, deceptive, or otherwise faulty evidence. You’re probably more familiar with fallacies than you think because many of their names double as common expressions—e.g., cherry picking, poisoning the well, and red herring.
In those three cases, the way we casually use the phrase more or less matches how it’s used in logic, philosophy, and debate. Cherry picking is presenting only the evidence that supports your conclusion. Poisoning the well is discrediting a source, so people don’t trust anything they say (all water that flows from a poisoned well is poison, so to speak). And a red herring is information that diverts attention from the matter at hand.
But in other cases, there’s a difference between what a term means in casual conversation and what it means as a logical fallacy. Here are five fascinating examples, from bandwagon to wishful thinking.
Learn all of them here.
