Talk

A few false arguments

Argumentam ad antiquitatem Argues that something is right because its old.

Argumentam ad baculum might makes right

Argumentam ad crumenam Argues that those with money must be right. He won so much money in the stock market there fore he must be smarter.

Argumentam ad hominem This is a good one! There are basically two forms. The first form is abusive. You criticize the person who makes the statement. You could also criticize some one who is easier to criticize. For example you could say that some person with notriety (Idi Amin perhaps) would havemade a similar statement. You attack the statement by attacking the person (against the man). The second form known as the circumstantial form attempts to persuade someone by appealing to their circumstances. For example defending college aid by appealing to the person's reliance of student aid?

The second form is also known as poisoning the well of discord. Thats a cool sounding term for sure. It implies that you subvert the mechanism of discord by utilizing the circumstances to taint a person's reputation. If I said "you are a lier, and everything you say is false" then I have removed the basis for a discussion between us.

Argumentam ad ignorantiam This is another great one. This one appears when someone says that something is true because it hasnt been proven false, or vice versa.

Argumentam ad Lazarum This is the fallacy of assuming that someone who is poorer is right. This is the opposite of argumentam ad crumenam.

Argumentam ad misericordiam Appeals to pity.

Argumentam ad nauseam The belief that the more often an argument is repeated the truer it becomes.

Argumentam ad novitatem The opposite of argumentam ad antiquitatem. Something newer must therefore be right.

Argumentam ad numerum The idea that something must be true because a great number of people believe it to be true.

Argumentam ad populum The approach used to win an argument by appealing to the masses. This argument utilizes emotion to involve people.

Argumentam ad verucundiam This approach uses the respect for a well known figure to prove the point.

Other terms non causa pro causa (cum hoc ergo propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc), petitio principii, tu quoque,

Essentially what we notice in this list of false arguments is that there are subtle ways in which you can shift from the pure, impersonal logic of an argument and introduce human variables to make your point. Some of these are pretty subtle, for example with argumentam ad verucundiam utilizes respect for a famous personality to ramrod an argument on his/her reputation. Similarly argumentam ad populum is very commonly used.

The place to get a good summary is at infidels.org
A more comprehensive discussion of this and other tools of the philosophical trade is at Virtual Salt and at intrepid software