12. Fallacies

Fallacies are bad arguments that seem good and can therefore trick us. After a critical thinking course, students usually remember the fallacies. Could it be the pompous, Latin names? Could it be the anecdote-like structure and the fun they had during class exercises? Could it be that everybody has numerous examples for each and every fallacy? Perhaps it is that after the course they start encountering and recognizing fallacies everywhere they look? Fallacies can be spotted anywhere, from political discourse to advertising, from the office to the kitchen table. This chapter goes through a list of fallacies we may encounter both in business and in our day-to-day lives, with examples, a description of their mechanisms, and advice on ways to counteract them.