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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fallacy
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
pathetic fallacy
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
ecological
▪ The twin problems of ecological and individualist fallacies occur when inferences are drawn about one level of analysis using evidence from another.
▪ Are there problems with ecological or individualist fallacies?
▪ This use of data at two levels of analysis seeks to minimize the problem of ecological fallacy.
naturalistic
▪ Moore says that those who try to identify good with some complex property are committing what he calls the naturalistic fallacy.
pathetic
▪ It was all just like a pathetic fallacy.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Don't believe the fallacy that money brings happiness.
▪ It's a fallacy that all fat people are fat simply because they eat too much.
▪ The idea that a good night's sleep will cure everything is a complete fallacy.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ However, it is important immediately to dispose of one popular fallacy.
▪ However, the assumption that productivity must be directly related to biomass or chlorophyll is a fallacy.
▪ It is a fallacy to think that the more information an organisation has the better will be the decisions.
▪ It was essentially a new attempt to revive the Burkeian fallacy of empire through freedom, obedience through liberty.
▪ The error is in taking the polynomial to be a structural representation of the system, but the basic underlying fallacy remains.
▪ This fallacy has snared philosophers from Plato to Leibniz and beyond, and it still snares many major physicists.
▪ This fallacy says that everything that can happen, will happen, given enough time.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fallacy

Fallacy \Fal"la*cy\ (f[a^]l"l[.a]*s[y^]), n.; pl. Fallacies (f[a^]l"l[.a]*s[i^]z). [OE. fallace, fallas, deception, F. fallace, fr. L. fallacia, fr. fallax deceitful, deceptive, fr. fallere to deceive. See Fail.]

  1. Deceptive or false appearance; deceitfulness; that which misleads the eye or the mind; deception.

    Winning by conquest what the first man lost, By fallacy surprised.
    --Milton.

  2. (Logic) An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not; a sophism.

    Syn: Deception; deceit; mistake.

    Usage: Fallacy, Sophistry. A fallacy is an argument which professes to be decisive, but in reality is not; sophistry is also false reasoning, but of so specious and subtle a kind as to render it difficult to expose its fallacy. Many fallacies are obvious, but the evil of sophistry lies in its consummate art. ``Men are apt to suffer their minds to be misled by fallacies which gratify their passions. Many persons have obscured and confounded the nature of things by their wretched sophistry; though an act be never so sinful, they will strip it of its guilt.''
    --South.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fallacy

late 15c., "deception, false statement," from Latin fallacia "deception, deceit, trick, artifice," noun of quality from fallax (genitive fallacis) "deceptive," from fallere "deceive" (see fail (v.)). Specific sense in logic, "false syllogism, invalid argumentation," dates from 1550s. An earlier form was fallace (c.1300), from Old French fallace.

Wiktionary
fallacy

n. 1 deceptive or false appearance; deceitfulness; that which misleads the eye or the mind; deception. 2 (context logic English) An argument, or apparent argument, which professes to be decisive of the matter at issue, while in reality it is not. A specious argument.

WordNet
fallacy

n. a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning [syn: false belief]

Wikipedia
Fallacy

A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or "wrong moves" in the construction of an argument. A fallacious argument may be deceptive by appearing to be better than it really is. Some fallacies are committed intentionally to manipulate or persuade by deception, while others are committed unintentionally due to carelessness or ignorance. Lawyers acknowledge that the extent to which an argument is sound or unsound depends on the context in which the argument is made.

Fallacies are commonly divided into "formal" and "informal". A formal fallacy can be expressed neatly in a standard system of logic, such as propositional logic, while an informal fallacy originates in an error in reasoning other than an improper logical form. Arguments containing informal fallacies may be formally valid, but still fallacious.

Fallacy (disambiguation)

Fallacy or logical fallacy

A fallacy is when the reasoning used in an argument or debate contains a factual, punctual or logical error. A fallacious argument appears correct in one way but it proves to be wrong in the examination. If both the premises and conclusion are correct the argument is still fallacious if the conclusion is not logically valid. Logical fallacies are flaws in a reasoning that lead to illogical statements. They occur when ideas are being argued within a group of people. Logical fallacies masquerade as reasonable statements, yet they are in fact statements designed to manipulate the reader by appealing to emotions rather than intellect. An argument which is irrelevant leads to conclusion because it doesn’t follow the premises. It is also called a non-sequitur (In Latin which means it does not follow). A good argument avoids logical fallacies and instead it relies on well-conducted research, critical thinking. Good arguments are based on evidence, reason but not on emotion. It may refer to:

  • Formal fallacy
  • Informal fallacy
  • Mathematical fallacy

Usage examples of "fallacy".

Let them accede, then, to his proposition for a committee, and he would pledge himself to explode the fallacy of agricultural protection, and to put an end to the present system within two years from the publication of its report.

Villiers made a calm and effective reply, in which he especially directed his skill as a debater to the exposure of the fallacies of Sir Robert Peel, whose ignorance or partizanship he handled with a calm and dignified severity.

Professor Surdity, that the distinction between pain and pleasure is nothing but a fallacy of words?

God created the so-called anomaly so that we could at long last--but once and for all--prove the fallacy of the uniformitarian and evolutionist doctrines so dear to the scientific establishment.

Inasmuch as all uses or truths and goods of charity, which a man renders to the neighbor may be rendered either according to the appearance or according to the verities of the Word, he is in fallacies if he renders them according to the appearances he has confirmed, but renders them as he should if he does so in accord with the verities.

That was an anthropocentric fallacy that people had inherited from the ancient faiths and myths.

But all this was of no consequence now, and Bernard steered further and further away from the liability to detect fallacies in his friend.

But, on the other hand, the assumption that men are unclassifiable, because practically homogeneous, which underlies modern democratic methods and all the fallacies of our equal justice, is even more alien to the Utopian mind.

At one time, it was a common enough psychotherapeutic fallacy that subjects could get trapped in.

Credibility fallacies are those in which uncertified people present themselves as experts: the famous actor dressed as a doctor recommending a certain medicine.

Syllogism in the Second Figure with two affirmative premises, and therefore the fallacy of undistributed Middle.

That gentleman seized every opportunity, in and out of the house, to vituperate Lord Palmerston, and persisted in reiterating as facts, fallacies which had been many times exposed.

He now shall know I can produce a man, 150 Of female seed, far abler to resist All his solicitations, and at length All his vast force, and drive him back to Hell-- Winning by conquest what the first man lost By fallacy surprised.

Obviously, then, if one confirms appearances in himself, he mistakes the clothing for the man, whereupon appearance becomes fallacy.

It is a fallacy to suppose that an encyclopaedic knowledge is desirable.