Fallacies Quiz

What is the technical name for the following formal fallacy? If William Van Farowe was a good leader then he would have won the election outright but he is a bad leader and therefore, he did not win the election outright.

• Affirming the consequent

• Denying the antecedent

• False dilemma

• Slippery slope

Explain why the following is a fallacious argument. In your explanation, name the fallacy. A feather is light and what is light cannot be dark, so a feather cannot be dark.

• Straw man

• Ad hominem

• Equivocation

• Red herring

Explain why the following is a fallacious argument. In your explanation, name the fallacy. The temperature in my home town has been getting significantly warmer over the past 20 years and so this means that global warming must be happening.

• Hasty Generalisation

• Post hoc ergo propter hoc

• Appeal to authority

• Bandwagon

What is the technical name for the following formal fallacy? If you are in a self-driving car then you will be safe. You are safe right now, therefore, you are in a self-driving car.

• Affirming the consequent

• Denying the antecedent

• False dilemma

• Slippery slope

Explain why the following is a fallacious argument. In your explanation, name the fallacy. To this day scientists have not been able to find life anywhere else in the universe, so we must be the only living things in all of existence.

• Argument from ignorance

• Circular reasoning

• Hasty generalization

• Red herring

What is the technical name for the following formal fallacy? If you are wearing the new shark deterrent technology then you won’t be involved in a shark-related incident. Given that you have not been involved in a shark-related incident, consequently you must be wearing the new shark deterrent technology.

• Affirming the consequent

• Denying the antecedent

• False dilemma

• Slippery slope

Explain why the following is a fallacious argument. In your explanation, name the fallacy. Many right-leaning politicians will claim marriage equality is not right but we all know that those ideas come from the Churches they attend, and so we can dismiss their claims.

• Genetic fallacy

• Ad hominem

• Straw man

• Appeal to authority

What is the technical name for the following formal fallacy? If a street is covered in graffiti then you are in a bad area but this street has no graffiti on its walls thus you must be in a good area.

• Denying the antecedent

• Affirming the consequent

• False dilemma

• Slippery slope

What is the technical name for the following formal fallacy? If Brussels is larger than Karratha and Karratha is larger than Exmouth then Brussels must be larger than Exmouth. But Brussels is not larger than Karratha therefore Brussels is not larger than Exmouth.

• Denying the antecedent

• Affirming the consequent

• False dilemma

• Slippery slope

Evaluate the strength of the inference in the following argument. State the cogency of the argument. Justify your answer. The Mona Lisa is not a beautiful piece of art. This is because most people do not find it to be beautiful at all.

• Moderate

• Lacking cogency

• P1 is likely incorrect and the inference is inductively moderate

• Strong