Logical Reasoning & Argument Analysis Flashcards

Which choice best identifies an 'appeal to authority' fallacy?

Answer: A celebrity endorses a medical claim outside their expertise

Relying on someone with no relevant expertise is a faulty appeal to authority.

An argument states: 'No one has proven ghosts don't exist, so they must be real.' This error is:

Answer: Appeal to ignorance

Claiming something is true because it hasn't been disproven is an appeal to ignorance.

Which choice would most effectively weaken: 'Our city's recycling program works because trash is down 10%'?

Answer: A new landfill fee, not recycling, reduced trash

Identifying an alternative cause undermines the program's claimed effect.

'A school is like a business; therefore it should fire its least productive teachers immediately.' This argument relies on:

Answer: A possibly false analogy

The reasoning assumes schools and businesses are alike in all relevant ways.

Which is an unstated assumption in 'We should hire Maria because she graduated from a top university'?

Answer: Top-university graduates make good employees

The argument assumes graduating from a top school predicts job performance.

A passage uses the word 'free' to mean 'no cost' early on and 'unrestricted' later to reach its conclusion. This is which fallacy?

Answer: Equivocation

Shifting a word's meaning mid-argument is equivocation.

Which best states why anecdotal evidence is generally weaker than statistical evidence?

Answer: Single cases may not represent the larger pattern

Individual stories may be exceptions rather than typical of the whole group.