Informal Fallacy

Exposition:

An informal fallacy is one that is not formal, that is, it is a type of fallacy in which the content of the argument is relevant to its fallaciousness, or which is fallacious for epistemological, dialectical, or pragmatic reasons. Typically, informal fallacies occur in non-deductive reasoning, which relies on content as well as form for cogency. Also, because content is important in informal fallacies, there are arguments with the form of the fallacy which are cogent. For this reason, when forms for informal fallacies are given, this is for identification purposes only, that is, one cannot tell from the form alone that an instance is fallacious. Rather, the forms will help to differentiate between distinct types of informal fallacy.

Subfallacies:

• Accident
• Ambiguity
• Appeal to Ignorance
• Begging the Question
• Black-or-White Fallacy
• Composition
• Division
• Gambler's Fallacy
• Non Causa Pro Causa
• One-Sidedness
• Red Herring Fallacy
• Special Pleading
• Vagueness
• Weak Analogy

Source:

S. Morris Engel, With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies (Fifth Edition) (St. Martin's, 1994).

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