Sources & Resources
Listed here are quality general resources on logical fallacies, as well as sources of information used in the Fallacy Files. Specific sources and resources on individual fallacies will be found at the end of the particular file for each fallacy. If you know of any good resources which are not listed here but should be, or there is a broken link to a resource, please let me know.
Bibliographies | Books | Email Course | Fun | Lesson Plans | Mini-Courses | Online Article | Web Indices | Weblogs | Websites | Non-English Websites
Web Site
Fallacies
By Dr. Michael C. Labossiere. Based on a Macintosh tutorial, it provides short explanations of 42 fallacies, with multiple cooked-up examples. A reliable source, hosted by the Nizkor Project. Also see the PDF version in the "Books" section, below.
Non-English Web Sites
Falacias
By Walter Jerusalinsky. En espaņol.
Fallacies
By Dr. Michael C. Labossiere. Labossiere's work translated into Italian.
Weblog
Fallacy Files Weblog
By Gary Curtis. The weblog that accompanies this website, it includes examples taken from the media and current events, as well as puzzles, paradoxes, book reviews, and links and pointers to articles and books of current interest.
Web Indices
Critical Thinking on the Web: Fallacies
Tim van Gelder's fallacies category in his guide to quality critical thinking resources on the web. Some overlap with this list, but also some differences which may help to give the reader a different perspective. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated for many years.
Fun with Fallacies
Fallacies can be fun and funny! Cases in point:
- Gary Curtis, Funny Fallacies
The humor page for this site.
- Dave Barry, "How to Argue Effectively" (PDF)
Let me put it this way. In terms of arguments vis-a-vis winning, this article will tell you how to do so more often, on any topic qua topic, against any opponent, so to speak.
- James W. Benham & Thomas J. Marlowe, "Logical Fallacies"
A unique collection of examples.
- Voros McCracken, "Change the Subject, and Change Your Life"
How to argue about baseball; or, rather, how not to argue about baseball. Also useful for not arguing about other topics.
- Max Shulman, "Love is a Fallacy" (PDF)
Dobie Gillis is hoist on his own logical petard.
Online Article
Fallacies
By Bradley Dowden. An article from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, written by one of the two editors of that reference work. Consists of a short introductory discussion of the scholarly controversies over fallacies, followed by a long list of named fallacies. There are 164 names of fallacies, though many of the fallacies have multiple names. I count 103 fallacies with substantive entries, though necessarily each entry is brief since the entire article is one long webpage! Unfortunately, the examples given are either short cooked-up ones, or the typical textbook chestnuts. If you can't find a fallacy listed in the Fallacy Files, this would be the most likely place to find a short but sound explanation of it on the web.
Lesson Plans
The Language of Deception
By Joe Miller, Annenberg Classroom Fact Check. A lesson plan on how emotive language and euphemisms are used to deceive.
Monty Python and the Quest for the Perfect Fallacy
Also by Joe Miller, Annenberg Classroom Fact Check. A good lesson plan on logical fallacies from the same people who fact check the politicians, with some interesting examples taken from advertisements.
Email Course
Logic Basics: Understanding Arguments
By Gary Curtis. This course consists of ten short lessons delivered by email daily by a company called Highbrow. It's a very brief introduction to the fundamental concepts of logic needed to analyze and evaluate reasoning―and, I might add, to understand fallacies. It's a Premium course, which means it's not free, but you can try out Highbrow's Premium service for a month for free, and the course only takes ten days!
Mini-Courses
Decision Academy
Mini-courses are short, online courses. The Clearer Thinking organization's Decision Academy offers free mini-courses on "Rhetorical Fallacies", "Probabilistic Fallacies", "The Planning Fallacy"―which I don't think is a logical fallacy―and "The Sunk Cost Fallacy"―which I'm often asked about―and some related ones on improving decision-making.
Books
Forty Two Fallacies (For Free)
By Michael C. Labossiere. This is the same work as that listed above under "Web Sites", but in PDF format.
The Fallacy Files Book Shelf
Reviews of books on logical fallacies, informal logic, critical thinking, cognitive illusions, and related subjects.
Bibliographies
Fallacies
A short and spotty bibliography from PhilPapers, but it includes some papers and books not listed in the next one.
Select Bibliography of Recent Work on the Fallacies
Compiled by Hans V. Hansen, and originally published in Fallacies: Classical and Contemporary Readings, edited by Hans V. Hansen and Robert C. Pinto (1995), pp. 339-348. Thorough bibliography through 1995 of the writings of philosophers and logicians.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to C. Leonhardt, Aislinn Pluta, Vance Ricks, Paul Sobolik, and Alfred Uhl.
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