Fallacies and Argument Appraisal

Fallacies and Argument Appraisal presents an introduction to the nature, identification, and causes of fallacious reasoning, along with key questions for evaluation. Drawing from the latest work on fallacies as well as some of the standard ideas that have remained relevant since Aristotle, Christopher Tindale investigates central cases of major fallacies in order to understand what has gone wrong and how this has occurred. Dispensing with the approach that simply assigns labels and brief descriptions of fallacies, Tindale provides fuller treatments that recognize the dialectical and rhetorical contexts in which fallacies arise. This volume analyzes major fallacies through accessible, everyday examples. Critical questions are developed for each fallacy to help the student identify them and provide considered evaluations.

1. Introduction to the study of fallaciousness; 2. Fallacies of diversion; 3. Fallacies of structure; 4. Problems with language; 5. Ad Hominem arguments; 6. Other 'Ad' arguments; 7. The Ad Verecundiam and the misuse of experts; 8. Sampling; 9. Correlation and cause; 10. Analogical reasoning.

Presents an introduction to the nature, identification, and causes of fallacious reasoning, along with key questions for evaluation. Drawing from the latest work as well as standard ideas relevant since Aristotle, Tindale investigates cases of major fallacies in order to understand what has gone wrong and how this has occurred.

Christopher Tindale is Professor of Philosophy at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. He is editor of the journal Informal Logic: Reasoning and Argumentation in Theory and Practice, author of Acts of Arguing: A Rhetorical Model of Argument, and co-author of Good Reasoning Matters, 3rd edition and Rhetorical Argumentation.