Common Fallacies in Listening

Common Fallacies in Listening

A fallacy is a common reasoning error that undermines the logic of an argument.
Fallacies are either irrelevant points or illegitimate and they are identified through their lack
of supporting evidence (Lisle, 2010). One of the fallacies in daily life is appeal to ignorance,
it occurs when a person takes advantage of another person lack of knowledge in a particular
subject to portray that their own argument is correct. Guilt by association or association
fallacy occurs when a person links a specific practice or idea with someone or something
negative to infer guilt on another person (Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, n.d.).
Appeal to faith is when an arguer relies on faith as his/her argument bases and there is
less to gain even in further discussions. Faith relies on belief that does not stand by evidence
or logic and it depends on irrational thoughts that further produce intransigence. Some
arguments are based on arguments from authority through using words from experts as an
argument base instead of evidence or logic that can support the argument. Experts claims
does not mean they got it right and arguers presenting testimonies from experts without
source or resource of evidence are not right. Circular reasoning are fallacy form where an
individual states their proposition aiming to prove something example is the belief- Bible’s
existence is from God; God exists as portrayed in the Bible (Lisle, 2010).
Bandwagon fallacy concludes the merit of an idea because majority of people practice
or believe in it. The number of people believe in something is not the evidence of the
existence or truth and evidence of the issue. Suppressed evidence or ‘half-truths ‘are
statements that are intended to deceive through omission of facts required for accurate

Running Head: COMMON FALLACIES IN LISTENING

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descriptions. False dichotomy or excluded middle concentrates on extreme; good or bad, love
or hate, guilty or not guilty and excludes the maybes available in the universe. Believe of two
wrongs make a right is one fallacy used daily where actions are justified by accusing
someone else of doing the same (Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, n.d.).

Running Head: COMMON FALLACIES IN LISTENING

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