Something rarely discussed that's important to recognize about "logical fallacies": in real-world situations, most of them are only SOMETIMES fallacies.
Here are a bunch of examples:
(1) Appeal to authority: some authorities ARE reliable. For example, ask a physicist about a well-established idea in physics, and you'll likely get the right answer.
(2) Bandwagon effect: lots of people believing something often is evidence for it being true. For example, lots of people saying they heard ...
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probabilistic reasoning
The many ways to make inferences
There are a LOT of ways to make inferences. Many more, I think, than is generally realized. And they all have their weaknesses.
You can make inferences using…
(1) Deduction:
As a consequence of the definition of X and Y, if X then Y.
X applies to this case. Therefore Y.
“Plato is a man, and all men are mortal; therefore Plato is mortal.”
“For any number that is an integer, there exists another integer greater than that number. 1,000,000 is an integer. So there exists an in...
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