Fallacy means error, deceit or falsehood. Usually a fallacy is a wrong idea that is conveyed as true, deceiving other people.
In the realm of logic, a fallacy is the act of arriving at a certain wrong conclusion from propositions that are false.
Aristotle's philosophy addressed the call "formal fallacy" as a sophism, that is, a wrong reasoning that tries to pass as true, usually with the intention of deceiving other people.
According to Aristotelian philosophical logic, the “informal fallacy” it differs from the formal, mainly in that the former uses valid reasoning, in principle, to arrive at results that are inconsistent and with false premises.
Unlike formal fallacies, which are easier to identify, informal fallacies, because they have a valid logical form, can be difficult to identify.
See also: meaning of sophism.
Fallacy can also be synonymous with ruse or deceit, an attitude that aims to gain an advantage over another person by deceiving them. It is often related to lack of honesty.
Originating from the Latin term
fallacy, this word indicates the characteristic or property of something that is fallacious, i.e, deceive or eludes.In some cases, fallacy can also indicate shouting or chattering, a confusion caused by the noise of many voices.
scarecrow fallacy
The scarecrow fallacy (or straw man fallacy) consists in the distortion of an argument and the attempt to discredit the distorted argument, to refute the original argument (not distorted). It is a wrong strategy because the argument that is refuted is not the argument that was initially presented.
Let's look at the example of the exchange of arguments between two people:
João:"Children under 21 should be prohibited from buying alcoholic beverages".
Peter:“This is to encourage people over 80 to consume more and sell alcohol to those under 21! That is inadmissible!"
In this example, Peter distorted John's argument by "putting words in his mouth" to try to refute it.
logical fallacies
There are several types of logical fallacies, each of which focuses on a different method or technique of trying to convince from a false argument.
For example, a “false dilemma” it consists of presenting two options / alternatives as unique, when in fact there would be a third or several other hypotheses besides the one presented.
Another example of a logical fallacy is that argumentation that is linked to motives rather than rationality, such as the appeal to pity, appeal to force, appeal to the people, among other sentimental appeals.
naturalistic fallacy
The naturalistic fallacy is a philosophical conception created by the English philosopher George Edward Moore and George Robert Price.
This concept reveals the error of thinking that a certain attribute or property is natural and has its physical origin. An example is to assume that human goodness or altruism (or other ethical behavior) are defined as natural properties.
Furthermore, this fallacy reveals the conflict between the "is" and the "should be".
See also:meaning of ad hominem.
