Index

Note: Page numbers in bold refer to diagrams, page numbers in italics refer to information contained in tables.

9/11 “Truthers” 290-1, 319

see also September 11 attacks

abortion 256, 262-3, 285, 294-5, 310 abstract existence 378-81 abstraction 380-1

accent 27, 241-5 accident

converse 330-1

fallacy of 145, 299-300, 374, 408

Activia 400

ad hominem 25, 232, 313

ad hominem: bias 71-6

ad hominem: circumstantial

77-82, 90

ad hominem: direct 3-7, 83-7, 91, 93, 118, 350

ad hominem: tu quoque 88-93, 232

and appeal to ridicule 118

and the complex question

fallacy 316

see also poisoning the well; reductio ad Hitlerum

ad infinitum see argument by repetition

ad nauseam see argument by repetition ad populum 155

addiction 79

adverse consequences 94-7

advertising

and the false cause fallacy 335-6, 339-40

and hasty generalization 356

and the slippery slope fallacy 385, 387

and the suppressed evidence fallacy 400 affirming the consequent 20-1, 42-5, 125-6

affirming a disjunct 39-41

African Americans 215-16

agency

ascribing human-like 305-6

causal 379

Airborne 400

al Qaeda 319

alcohol consumption 146-7

Aldrich, Henry 52, 64

Alexander of Aphrodisias 51-3, 64-5 aliens

and the middle ground fallacy 367-8

and the mystery, therefore magic fallacy 190

see also unidentified flying objects all or nothing 301-4 Almossawi, Ali 264 alternative medicine 154-5, 383

ambiguity

and the existential fallacy 333

and the fallacy of four terms 57-8 linguistic 40, 57-8

see also fallacies of ambiguity American Civil Liberties Union 225 American Philosophical Association 282 American Society for the Defense of

Tradition, Family and Property Students Action 386 amphiboly 27, 246-9 analogy

strong arguments from 236-7

weak 234-7

ancient Egyptian pyramids 190 and statements 44

animals 236-7, 305-6, 339-40

welfare 123

Anscombe, Elizabeth 282, 283, 284-5 antecedents 42-3

denying the 46-7 anthropomorphic bias 305-7 anti-gay views 348, 349 anti-Muslim sentiment 352 anti-Semitism 197, 217 anti-vaccination advocates 340, 344 appeal to authority 291

inappropriate 25, 31, 168-71, 203 appeal to emotion 118, 203, 278

appeal to emotion: force of fear 98-101

appeal to emotion: pity 102-5 appeal to force 25 appeal to ignorance 106-10, 191

burden of proof model 107-8, 138 interrogative form 107, 109

appeal to the masses see appeal to the people

appeal to the people 25, 26, 112-14

argument from popularity

version 112

bandwagon version 113 disjunctive type 113 emotive form 113

negative form 113 appeal to the person see ad hominem appeal to personal incredulity 115-16 appeal to ridicule 118-20 appeal to tradition 121-4 Aquinas, Thomas 202

natural law theory 194-5 Archaeopteryx 186 argument by repetition 215-18 argument from fallacy 125-7 argument to logic see argument from fallacy

arguments 6-11,8, 29-34

and accent 242

and ad hominem: bias 71-6

and ad hominem: circumstantial 77-82

and ad hominem: direct 83-7 and adverse consequences 94-7 and the all or nothing fallacy 302-3 from analogy 234-7

and the anthropomorphic bias 307 and appeal to emotion: force of fear 98-101

and appeal to emotion: pity 102-5 and appeal to ignorance 106-10 and appeal to the people 112-14 and appeal to ridicule 118-20 and appeal to tradition 123 bad 29-33, 33

and base rates 135-6

and begging the question 308-10 and burden of proof 138 chain 213 circular 308 and claims 7-9, 8 cogent 31, 32 and the complex question 314-16 and composition 250-1 and confusing an explanation for an excuse 253, 254

content 21

and countless counterfeits 141, 143 deductive 13-14, 17, 29-30,

31-2, 34

and the definist fallacy 256 and equivocation 26-7, 261-4 and the etymological fallacy 268 as evidence 3-4

ex silentio (from silence) 110

arguments (cant’d)

and the existential fallacy 332 and fallacies of ambiguity 260 and the fallacy of accident 299 and the false cause fallacy 335, 338, 340

and formal fallacies 20, 26-7 and the genetic fallacy 161, 162 good 29-33, 32, 34 and inappropriate appeal to authority 170, 171

inductive 13, 17-18, 29-32, 34 and informal fallacies 25, 26-7 invalid 30, 32, 33, 43-5, 47, 250-1 and irrelevant conclusions 172-3 and the is/ought fallacy 360-3 and kettle logic 174-6 and the masked man fallacy 365 moral 103-4 and persuasion 9-11 and proof by verbosity 289-92 and proving too much 201-3 and red herrings 208-9 and reification 378-9 and the sorites fallacy 294 sound 30, 31-2, 32, 203 and special pleading 220-2 and the straw man fallacy 223-5 strong 30-1, 32, 33 structure/form 20-1, 28-9, 30,

34, 45

testing the form of 45 truth 203 uncogent 31, 32, 33 unsound 30, 32, 33 validity 30, 32, 32, 33, 42-4, 47, 203, 362

weak 30-1, 32, 33

see also claims; premises; syllogism argumentum ad ignorantiam see appeal to ignorance

argumentum ad lagicam see argument from fallacy

argumentum ad papulum see appeal to the people

argumentum ad temperantiam see middle ground argumentum verbosium see proof by verbosity

Aristotle 195, 202, 206

function argument 194

logic 14-16, 51, 55-6, 58, 60-2, 333 means between the extremes 180

Nicamachean Ethics 146, 194 Prior Analytics 14-15, 51-3, 55-6,

60, 64, 309

Sophistical Refutations 51 on syllogism 15, 52, 54, 55-6, 60 Topics 309

Arkowitz, Hal 143

Arp, Rob 55

art, and the intentional fallacy 357-9 artificial intelligence 307

ASCC 96-7

assumptions 251

unwarranted 407-9

warranted 408-9

astrologers 129

see also horoscopes

atomic weapons 164 attentiveness 340, 400 attraction, law of 199 audiences, ignorance 225 authority, inappropriate appeal to 168-71

autism 155, 340, 344

autokinetic effect 327

availability error 128-31, 152-3, 320, 393

Ayres, Bill 351

back masking 328

bank robbery 232

Barack, Obama 39, 41

Barfield, Owen 311, 312, 313 Baronett, Stan 98, 118 base rate 133-6

Bayes’ Theorem 134

BBC News 243

Beatles 328

Beckwith, Francis 263 begging the question 23-4, 27, 202,

274, 308-10, 316, 408

Behe, Michael 116, 190 beliefs 33 contradictory 174-6 opaque 365,366 testing 320 transparent 365, 366 and unwarranted assumptions 408

Ben-Zvi, Yitzhak 145

Bennett, Bo 277

Berra, Yogi 174, 175

bias 377

ad hominem 71-6 anthropomorphic 305-7 confirmation 128, 152, 317-20, 393, 404-5

in-group/out-group 377

liberal mainstream media bias frame 197

linguistic 221

Bible 309, 395

see also Old Testament

Biblical literalism 302

Big Bang Theory, The (TV show) 342-3

Bigfoot 190, 191, 202, 203

Billig, Michael 205-6 bin Laden, Osama 319 biological sciences 381

Birmingham Six 94

blame, assignment 146

Blastland, Michael 355

Blondlot, Rene 153

Blow, Charles M.

Boehner, John 376

Book of Revelation 395

Boole, George 333

Boolean logic 61

Boudry, Maarten 138, 139

Bowser (Super Mario character) 185 brain

and constructions of reality 325, 327 and the homunculus fallacy 165, 166-7

right hemisphere 325-6

Branden, Nathaniel 388 breastfeeding 339 Brown, Darin 152, 155

Brown, Mike 352-3

Buckingham, Bill 115-16 burden of proof 137-9, 191 Bureau of Justice Statistics 133

Buridan, John 54, 64

Burley, Walter 54

Bush, George W.

Bush administration 256, 319

calculus 230

Callicles 114

Calrissian, Lando 185

Cameron, Kirk 235

Camping, Harold 319, 395 Camus, Albert, The Stranger 252-3 cancer 96-6

capacity, diminished 147 Capehart, Jonathan 352 carbon dioxide emissions 401 card games 158

Carlin, George 270 carnivorism 235

Carson, Ben 223-4

Cartesian theater 166, 167

Cartesian worldview 213 categorical claims 14-16, 14-15 categorical logic 14-16, 49-65, 333

exclusive premises 51-4

four terms 55-9

illicit major and minor terms 60-2 undistributed middle 63-5 categorical syllogism 51, 60 categories of things 14, 16, 55

vagueness 295

Catholic Church 263

Catholics 170

causal agency 379 causation, mistaking the relevance of proximate 181-3

cause and effect 287-8, 383 causes

fallacy of the single cause 287 intermediate 182

jointly sufficient 287, 288 proximate 182

sufficient 287-8

ultimate 182

see also false causes

Center for Disease Control 344

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 383 “chain reactions” 385, 386, 387 chance 158

see also gambler’s fallacy

change

ignoring the evidence for 121 resistance to 121

character

and ad hominem: circumstantial

77-81, 90-1

and ad hominem: direct 83, 84, 85, 86-7, 91

and ad hominem: tu quoque 88-9, 90, 91-2

and the ad hominem argument: bias 71-6

and essentializing 149, 151 cheating 220, 232, 300 Cheetham, Erika 394 Cheney, Dick 175, 197, 199 Chernobyl nuclear disaster 394 Chesterton, G.K. 313 child poverty 338-9 child psychology 205-6 choice 146-8

Christian law 284

Christians 115-16, 119, 197, 318, 319, 376-7, 400

chronological snobbery 311-13 Chrysippus 16-17, 21

Church 200

see also Catholic Church

Church of Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptists, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879 376-7

Churchill, Winston 299

CIA see Central Intelligence Agency circular arguments 308 circular reasoning 24

see also begging the question

claims 1-2, 21, 34 ambiguous 275 and arguments 7-9, 8 categorical 14-16,14-15 and composition 251 and conclusions 7-9, 11, 13 evidence for 2-5, 11

false 2, 4-5, 10, 17, 125-6, 198, 276, 405

and inferences 6-7, 8

lack of evidence regarding

106-10

naturalistic 195

normative 195, 371-2

and premises 7-9, 11, 13 prescriptive 10-11

and propositional logic 16

and reasoning 16

true 2, 4, 6, 9, 10-11, 13-14, 17, 125-6, 198

truth 2-3, 11, 397

truth-value 160-2, 212-13, 333 unfalsifiable 374, 403

universal 333

and unwarranted assumptions 408 weakened 274-5

Clark, Jeff 95

Clark, Theo 95

classification 55, 382-3

Clifford, W.K.

climate change 286-7

anthropogenic 116, 401

Clinton, Bill 169-70

Clinton, Hillary 209, 223, 318

Clue (film, 1985) 210

Coast to Coast AM with George Noory (radio show) 25

cocaine 339

Code of Hammurabi 231, 232

coffee 339

Cohen, Carl 108

Cohen, Elliot D. 44

coin flipping 157-8, 159

Colbert, Stephen 216, 314, 347 cold reading techniques 393-4

CollectiveEvolution.com 382

Collins, Robin 190

color perception 325

Columbine High School shooting 1999 352

Columbus, Christopher 153 commas 241, 242-4 common consent arguments 114 communists 106, 352 compensation 231, 232 competence, perceived 169 complex question 23, 314-16

explicit form 314-15 implicit form 314, 315 complexity, and proof by verbosity

289-90

composition 27, 250-1 compromise 368

Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur 210 concepts

higher-order 388, 389, 391 lower-order 388, 389, 391 moral 284

stolen 388-91 conclusions 7-9,8, 11-14, 19-20,

28-9, 34

and ad hominem:

circumstantial 79-81

and ad hominem: direct 85, 87 and adverse consequences 95-7 and affirming the consequent 42, 43, 44-5

and appeal to emotion: force of fear

98-100

and appeal to emotion: pity 102-5 and argument from fallacy 125-7 and begging the question 308 and the complex question

fallacy 316

and composition 250

and denying the antecedent 47 and the exclusive premises fallacy 54 and the existential fallacy 332 and the fallacy of four terms 57, 58 and the fallacy of illicit major and minor terms 61

false 29, 44-5, 47, 125-6, 174, 202, 208-10

and the false cause fallacy 335,

338, 342

and the genetic fallacy 160 and good arguments 30-2, 34 and inductive reasoning 17-18 and informal fallacies 21, 22, 23, 26

and the irrelevant conclusion fallacy

172-3

and the is/ought fallacy 361-3 and kettle logic 174, 175 and the masked man fallacy 364,

365, 366

and modus tollens 47

negative 58-9 particular 332 and proving too much 202-3 and red herrings 208-10 and the slippery slope fallacy 385 and the straw man 225 and syllogisms 15 true 47, 203, 308, 362 truth 43

unjustified 364

Concorde fallacy see sunk cost fallacy conditional statements 42-4, 46-7 conditionals 44

confabulation 130, 131 confirmation bias 128, 152, 317-20,

393, 404-5 conflict, inflation of 280-1 confounders 336, 339 confusing an explanation for an

excuse 252-4 conjunctions 44, 321-3, 382 consciousness 204 consensus, contradiction 152-6 consensus gentium (common consent)

arguments 114 consequences, adverse 94-7 consequentialism 162 consequents 47

denying the consequent 46 conservatism 153, 154 conspiracy theorists

and evidence denial 319-20

and moving the goalposts 187 and proof by verbosity 290-1 and the representative heuristic 383-4

and suppression of evidence 401 constructive nature of perception 324-8

context 245

continuums 293-5

contradictories 108

contradictory beliefs 174-6

converse accident 330-1

Copi 99-100

Copi, Irving M.

coronary heart disease 336, 339 counter-evidence 273-6 counter-examples 331, 362, 374 countless counterfeits fallacy 140-3 courts of law 2-3

and ad hominem: direct 86-7

and appeal to emotion: pity 104-5

and attribution of guilt 138

and the suppressed evidence fallacy 399

Covert, Bryce 135

Cowan, Tom 245

Craig, William Lane 190

Craske-Trump Theorem 290 creation mythology 235-6, 389 creationists 244-5, 280, 302 credibility 73, 76-81, 83-4, 86, 175 crimes of passion 98 criminal justice system 353 criminality 149-50, 215-16 criticism 348-9

cryptozoology 25-6

cum hoc ergo propter hoc 335-6, 340 Cuonzo, Margaret 180

Damer, Edward 105, 168

D’Arms, Justin 372

Darwin, Charles 115-16, 186, 234

On the Origin of Species 186, 244-5

Darwinian evolution 115-16, 186, 244-5, 264

death penalty 231, 400 deception 277, 404

intention to deceive 19 deduction/deductive reasoning 12-17, 29-32, 32-3, 34

and ad hominem: bias 74

and ad hominem: circumstantial 80

and ad hominem: direct 85

and affirming the consequent 125 and categorical logic 14-16

and the fallacy of four terms 56-8

and formal fallacies 19-21

and the is/ought fallacy 360-1

and modus ponens 21, 42-5, 74,

80, 85

and propositional logic 14, 16-17 see also categorical logic deductive arguments, and countless counterfeits 143 definist fallacy 255-8, 278-9 Degeneres, Ellen 408 demarcation problem 198 Demby, Gene 217 Democrat-in-name-only (DINO) 375-6 Democritus 311 Dempsey, Liam 347 Dennett, Daniel 360 Denning, Lord 94, 97 denying the antecedent 46-7, 46-7 denying the consequent 46 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) 150, 151 “depth of search premise” 110 Descartes, Rene 213, 389

Third Meditation 109 design argument see teleological argument detensification 274 determinism 150

Deuteronomy 231 Devil 199, 200 Dewey, John 164, 380-1 Dick, Philip K., “Minority Report” 133-4

dictum de omni 333 diet 96-7 differential treatment 219-22 Digby (blogger) 374 Dilnot, Andrew 355 diminished capacity 147 diminished responsibility 145-8 DINO (Democrat-in-name-only) 375-6 dinosaurs 186

DirectTV 385, 387 disjunctions 41, 44, 361-2 distribution 61-2, 63-5 divine design 190 divine intervention 190 divine judgment 199 division 27, 259-60 DNA see deoxyribonucleic acid doctors, authority of 170 Donne, John 358 Doody, Ryan 227-8 double entendres 247 double standards 220 double talk 277

Dowden, Bradley 303 “Dr.

Earth, age of the 280, 281 Eastwood, Clint 349-50 economic depression 291 economy 343-4 Eichmann, Adolf 145-6 Einstein, Albert 152, 153, 154 emotion

and the appeal to the people 113 and the moralistic fallacy 372 see also appeal to emotion Empire Strikes Back, The (film, 1980) 185 empirical method 380-1 Engel, Morris 220 Enlightenment 311 enthymemes 315 environmental factors 150 environmentalism 74-5 Epictetus 397-8 epistemic humility 366, 370 epistemological problems 362, 363 equivocation 26-7, 261-4 “error destroys action” maxim 282 Esquire (magazine) 267 essence 151 essentializing 149-51 ethics 193, 284 etymological fallacy 266-8 etymons 266-8 Eukanuba 339-40 euphemism 270-2, 278 evidence 2-5, 8, 11, 34 arguments as 3-4 and authoritative explanations 3 and the availability error 128-31 and confirmation bias 319-20 counterfeit 140-3 forms of 3-4 historical 10 and informal fallacies 25 lack of 106-10, 191 legitimate 140 logical/mathematical entailment 3, 5 negative 110 and reductio ad absurdum 119-20 sense evidence of spatiotemporal entities 3, 4, 5

suppressed 23, 153, 399-402 and the testimony of trusted others 3, 4

and unwarranted assumptions 408-9

weak 143

see also counter-evidence evidence denial 319-20 evil, problem of 110 evolution, theory of 115-16, 186, 244-5, 264

ex silentio (from silence) arguments 110

exclusive premises 51-4 excuses, confusing explanations for 252-4

executions 183, 400 existence

abstract 378-81

“existence precedes essence” 151 and the existential fallacy 333 of God 23-4, 109, 114, 137, 143, 235, 309, 333 proof of 389

existential fallacy 332-4

Exodus 231 expectations, and perception 326

experience

first-person 204-6

religious 199

expert opinions 3, 4, 115

backhanded undermining of 116 and inflation of conflict 280-1 Extenze 400

extremist views 367-8 eyewitness testimony 86-7 unreliability of 25, 131, 143 see also leading the witness

fairness, principle of 219-20, 222 fallacies 18-29

definition 19, 125

as errors in reasoning 125

reasons to be concerned about 27-33 see also formal fallacies; informal fallacies; specific fallacies fallacies of ambiguity 25, 26-7, 239-95 accent 27, 241-5 amphiboly 27, 246-9 composition 27, 250-1 confusing an explanation for an excuse 252-4

definist fallacy 255-8, 278-9 division 27, 259-60 equivocation 261-4 etymological fallacy 266-8 euphemism 270-2, 278 hedging 273-6 if by whiskey 277-9 inflation of conflict 280-1 legalistic mistake 282-5 oversimplification 286-8 proof by verbosity 289-92 sorites fallacy 180, 293-5 fallacies of personal incredulity 115-16 fallacies of presumption 22-5, 297-409

accident 145, 299-300, 374, 408

all or nothing 301-4 anthropomorphic bias 305-7 begging the question 23-4, 27, 202, 274, 308-10, 316, 408 chronological snobbery 311-13 complex question 23, 314-16 confirmation bias 317-20 conjunction 44, 321-3, 382 constructive nature of perception 324-8

converse accident 330-1 existential fallacy 332-4 false cause 22-3, 335-6, 385, 408 false cause: cum hoc ergo propter hoc 335-6, 340

false cause: ignoring common cause 338-40

false cause: post hoc ergo propter hoc 126-7, 340, 342-4

false dilemma 23, 178-9, 202-3, 346-7, 408

free speech 348-50

guilt by association 351-3 hasty generalization 354-6 intentional fallacy 357-8 is/ought fallacy 360-3, 371 masked man 364-6 middle ground 367-8 mind projection 369-70 moralistic fallacy 371-2 no true Scotsman 374-7 reification 378-81 representative heuristic 382-4 slippery slope 126, 178, 274, 385-7 stolen concept 388-91 subjective validation 392-5 subjectivist fallacy 396-8 suppressed evidence 23, 153, 399-402

unfalsifiability 403-5 unwarranted assumptions 407-9 fallacies of relativism

psychologist’s fallacy 204-6 subjectivist fallacy 396-8

fallacies of relevance 25, 69-237 ad hominem 25, 118, 232, 313, 316 ad hominem: bias 71-6 ad hominem: circumstantial 77-82 ad hominem: direct 3-7, 83-7, 91, 93, 118, 350

ad hominem: tu quoque 88-93, 232 adverse consequences 94-7 appeal to emotion 118, 203, 278 appeal to emotion: force of fear

98-101

appeal to emotion: pity 102-5 appeal to force 25 appeal to ignorance 106-10, 191 appeal to inappropriate authority 25

31, 168-71, 203 appeal to the people 25, 26,

112-14

appeal to ridicule 118-20 appeal to tradition 121-4 argument by repetition 215-18 argument from fallacy 125-7 availability error 128-31, 152-3,

320, 393 base rate 133-6 burden of proof 137-9, 191 countless counterfeits 140-3 diminished responsibility 145-8 essentializing 149-51 Galileo gambit 152-6 gambler’s fallacy 157-9 genetic fallacy 160-2 historian’s fallacy 163-4 homunculus 165-7 irrelevant conclusion 172-3 kettle logic 174-6 line drawing fallacy 177-80 mistaking the relevance of proximate causation 181-3 moving the goalposts 185-8 mystery, therefore magic fallacy

189-91, 306 naturalistic fallacy 193-5 poisoning the well 196-200 proving too much, fallacy 201-3 psychologist’s fallacy 204-6 red herrings 208-10, 232, 316 reductio ad Hitlerum 212-14 special pleading 219-22 straw man 178, 179, 223-5, 274 sunk cost 227-8 two wrongs make a right 230-3 weak analogy 234-7 fallacist’s fallacy see argument from fallacy

fallacy of accident 145, 299-300, 374, 408

fallacy fallacy see argument from fallacy fallacy of the maturity of chances see gambler’s fallacy

fallacy of/to moderation see middle ground

false causes 22-3, 335-6, 385

false cause: cum hoc ergo propter hoc 335-6, 340

false cause: ignoring common cause 338-40

false cause: post hoc ergo propter hoc 126-7, 340, 342-4

and unwarranted assumptions 408 see also slippery slope false compromise see middle ground false dichotomy 316 false dilemma 23, 178-9, 202-3, 346-7, 408

see also all or nothing false negatives 134 false positives 134 falsifiability 198, 199, 403-5 fear 98

appeal to emotion: force of fear 98-101

Feinberg, Joel 282, 283-5 Fenner, David 357 fetus 256, 262-3, 285, 294-5

Fields, W.C.

First World War 288 first-person point of view 204-6 Fleischmann, Martin 153

Flew, Antony 374-5 “flim-flam” 140, 141, 142, 143 Fogelin, Robert 119 folk concepts 180

Fool Us (TV show) 189

Foot, Philippa 194

Forer, Bertram 392-3

Forer effect 393-4 forgetting 130-1 formal fallacies 19-21, 28, 32, 34, 35-65

affirming the consequent 20-1, 42-5, 125-6

affirming a disjunct 39-41 and categorical logic 49-65 denying the antecedent 46-7 distinction from informal 26-7 exclusive premises 51-4 existential fallacy 332-4 fallacy of the undistributed middle 28, 63-5

four terms 55-9

illicit major and minor terms 60-2 and invalid arguments 30 and propositional logic 20, 37-47 undistributed middle 63-5

fossil record 186-7

Foucault, Michel 161 four terms, fallacy of 55-9

Fox Nation 344

Fox News 318

Frankena, William 255

Franz Ferdinand, Archduke 288 free speech 348-50

Freud, Sigmund 160, 161, 174, 175-6 Freudian psychoanalysis 198

Frosted Mini-Wheats 340, 400 fruitfulness 154

Fulton 153

Galen, De Captionibus (On Fallacies) 51 Galileo Galilei 152

Galileo gambit fallacy 152-6 gambler’s fallacy 157-9

Garner, Eric 353

Geis, Irving 157 generalization

and converse accident 330

definition 354-5

and the fallacy of accident 299-300 and the irrelevant conclusion fallacy 172-3

proper 354-5

see also hasty generalization genetic fallacy 149, 160-2, 203, 313 genetically modified food 75-6 geocentrism 312, 404 Germany 302

Gervais, Ricky 165, 167 Ghost Hunters (TV show) 328 ghosts

and the anthropomorphic bias 306

and burden of proof 138

and the constructive nature of perception 326, 328

and countless counterfeits 140, 141-2

and the mystery, therefore magic fallacy 190

Gilliam, Franklin D. 216 global warming 280, 401 God 277, 302, 400

belief in 162, 201, 202

as creator 235-6

existence of 23-4, 109, 114, 137, 143, 235, 309, 333

omniscient 364, 366

and the problem of evil 110

and the supernatural 190 creator 389 gods 160, 202, 306 Goddard, Ives 266 Goebbels, Joseph 217 Goldbach’s Conjecture 108 golden mean fallacy see middle ground Golden Rule 299

Goldstein, Rebecca 143 good 194-5

Google 41 government 379 Grant, John 290 gravity, theory of 154 gray fallacy see middle ground Great Depression 291 Greenback, John 389 guilt

attribution 138

by association 313, 351-3 Gula, Robert 268, 352 gun regulation 302-3 Gustafson, Kaaryn 216 Gustave, Eiffel 3 Guthrie, Stewart 306

Haile Selassie 394

Haley’s comet 394

hallucinations 326

mass/collective 25-6

Ham, Ken 280

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, king of Bahrain 270

Hanson, Victor Davis 223 happiness 112, 113, 193, 194

Hart, Herbert 283-4

Hartmann, Betsy 212

Harwood, William 183

hasty generalization 23, 24-5, 27, 129, 354-6

and chronological snobbery 313

and converse accident 330

and essentializing 150

and inflation of conflict 280

and stolen concepts 390

Hawking, Stephen 169, 170, 171 health-related behaviors 95

hearing 327-8

Hebraic law 230, 231, 232

hedging 273-6

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 232

Heidegger, Martin 91-3, 213-14

Henry IV 394

heroin 339

heuristic, representative 382-4

Hiltzik, Michael 352 hindsight 163-4 hippocampus 166 Hirst, W. 131 historian’s fallacy 163-4 historical fallacy 164

Hitchens, Christopher 311

Hitler, Adolf 163-4, 212, 213, 214, 302

Big Lie technique 217

Mein Kampf 302

Hitler, Adolf, Big Lie technique 217

Hitler regime 282

HIV denial 155

Holmes, Baxter 267

Holmes, Sherlock 210

Holocaust 213, 217 homeopathy 142

Homer 202 homosexuality 348, 349, 386, 400 homunculus fallacy 165-7 Honore, Tony 283-4 Hoover, J. Edgar 352 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) 336, 339 horoscopes 403, 404-5 see also astrologers hot hand fallacy 158 House Freedom Caucus 376 Huckabee, Mike 351 Huff, Darrell 157 Huffington Post 209 Huggett, Nick 202 human beings 262-3 Hume, David 198, 235-6, 320, 361 humility

epistemic 366, 370 intellectual 120 hunter-gatherers 306 Hurley, Patrick 71, 74, 81, 234, 261, 354, 385-7

Husserl, Edmund 205, 213 hyperbole 178 hypotheses 198

and confirmation bias 318 falsifiability 403-4 formulation 150

ideas 397 if by whiskey 277-9 “if-then” statements 42, 44, 74, 80, 85 converse 42

ignorance appeal to 106-10, 138, 191 audience 225

illicit major and minor terms, fallacy of

60-2 illusions 326-7 imagination 369 imitation 169 immigration 286 impressions 397 in-group/out-group bias 377 inappropriate appeal to authority 25,

31, 168-71, 203 inconsistency 77-9, 80-1, 90, 220 incredulity, appeal to personal 115-16 indeterminacy 273

indiscernibility of identicals principle 364-5 induction/inductive reasoning 13,

17-18, 21-7, 29-32, 32-3, 34

and ad hominem: bias 74

and ad hominem: direct 85

and the appeal to ignorance 109

and appeal to the people 113-14

and the is/ought fallacy 363 problem of 198 inductive arguments, and countless counterfeits 143

inferences 6-9, 6-7, 8, 11-12

and categorical logic 14

disjunction introduction rule of inference 361-2

from a part to a whole 251

and the is/ought fallacy 360-1

and the masked man fallacy 364, 365, 366

and mind projection 370 inflation of conflict 280-1 infomercials 22 informal fallacies 19, 21-7, 24, 32, 34, 67-409

distinction from formal 26-7 fallacies of ambiguity 25, 26-7, 239-95

fallacies of presumption 22-5, 297-409

fallacies of relevance 25, 69-237

and weak arguments 31 Inhofe, James 286-7 Inquisition 199 insanity, as legal defence 161 Institute of Medicine of the National

Academy of Sciences 343 intelligence quotient (IQ) 95, 339 intentional fallacy 357-8 intentionality, of inanimate objects 198 intermediate causes 182 interpretation 241-5, 246-7

art 357-9

“interrogator’s fallacy” 314 IQ see intelligence quotient

Iraq 175

weapons of mass destruction 291-2

Iraq War 183, 228, 319 irrationality 220 irreducible complexities 190 irrelevant conclusion (ignoratio

elenchi) 172-3

is/ought fallacy 360-3, 371

ISIS 183

Islamophobia 224

Israel 232-3

Israel, John 135

Jacobson, Daniel 372

James, William 204-5, 380

Japan 164

Jarus, Owen 190

Jason 274

Jastrow, Robert 234, 235

Jaynes, R.T. 369-70

Jefferson, Thomas 212, 302

Jesus 302, 319

Jews 92, 123, 197

International Jewry 217

Jillette, Penn 39, 41

John Paul II, Pope 263 jointly sufficient causes 287, 288 Jordan, Michael 169, 171 judgments

moral 171

objective 396-8 subjective 206, 396-8

jurors 143, 147

justice

and cultural difference 245

and law 112

restorative 232

retributive 231-2

Kaczor, Christopher 263

Kahneman, Daniel 321, 323

Kant, Immanuel 109, 332, 333, 396-7 karma 198

Kellogg’s 340, 400

Kelly, Thomas 114

Kennedy, John F. 232, 261, 383-4, 401

Kenny, Anthony 166 kettle logic fallacy 174-6 Kierkegaard, Soren 364, 366 Kneale, Martha 63-4

Kneale, William 63-4 knowledge

lack of 107, 108, 110 progress and 311-13

Kreeft, Peter 140, 141

Kremlin 383

Kristof, Nick 343

Krugman, Paul 216

Kurtz, Howard 118

labelling 151

Lacan, Jacques 205-6, 396 Lacanian psychoanalysis 205-6

Lancet, The (journal) 344 language

amphiboly 246-9 direct 272

and informal fallacies 21-2 meaning 241-5 offensive 267-8

see also linguistics Lasky, Victor 232 latency 274 law 283, 302-3

Christian 284

divine 285

Hebraic 230, 231, 232 and justice 112 moral 283

natural 285

law of attraction 199

law of excluded middle 52

law of identity 52

law of non-contradiction 52

Le Verrier, Urbain Jean Joseph 153 leading questions 143 leading the witness 315

Left, The 224 “legal-like” concepts 283-5 legalistic mistake 282-5

Leman, Patrick 384

Levin, Josh 217

Leviticus 231, 400

Lewis, C.S. 311, 312, 313

lex talionis 231

lexical stress 241

liberal mainstream media bias

frame 197

Life of Brian (film, 1979) 407-8 Lilienfeld, Scott O. 143

Limbaugh, Rush 291

Linda problem 321-2

line drawing fallacy 177-80 linguistics

linguistic ambiguity 293-4 linguistic bias 221 and syntax 246 see also language

loaded questions 314, 315, 408 lobbyists 99-100

Loch Ness monster 25, 141, 190 logic 301

conservativeness of 361-2

dream world 175

modern 51-2

semantic 333, 333

see also categorical logic; propositional logic

Los Angeles Times (newspaper) 209, 352 lunatic fallacy see genetic fallacy lung cancer 336, 339

Lunsford, Andrea A. 346 lying 232

Mafia 383

magic, mystery, therefore magic fallacy 189-91, 306

magicians 142

Maier, D.S. 289-90

Maitzen, Stephen 362

major terms, fallacy of illicit major and minor terms 60-2

Mandela, Nelson 241 marijuana, as gateway drug 339, 343 Mario (Super Mario character) 185 marriage, same-sex 310, 386, 405 Marx, Groucho 247

Mary, Mother of God 324, 327 masked man fallacy 364-6

Mathias, Charles, Jr. 121

McCarthy, Jenny 344

McCarthy, Joseph 106, 352 McCarthyism 352 McCartney, Paul 328 McConnell, Mitch 343-4 McCoy, Glenn 197 McMahon, Kenneth 108 McRaney, David 228 meaning

ambiguous words 276 double 246-9 and language 241-5 and syntax 246 unintended 248

“means and ends” reasoning 162 measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination 344 mediums 129, 142

memory

and the availability error 129-30 flashbulb 131

unreliability of 130-1, 143 mens rea 282-3 mental capacity 147 mental disorders 369-70 mental existence 389 mental illness 253 Merchant, Stephen 165 Mercury 154 middle ground 367-8 middle terms 53, 56

fallacy of the undistributed middle 28, 63-5

Mill, John Stuart 112, 113, 114, 193, 194, 287

Miller, Michael 146, 147 mimicry 169 mind projection 369-70 mind-body dualism 199 mind-external reality, independence from belief 397-8

mind-internal 397 minds open 405 other 307 philosophy of mind 265 minor terms, fallacy of illicit major and minor terms 60-2

“mirror stage” 205

misogyny 349 mistaking the relevance of proximate causation 181-3

MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccination 344

modern logic 51-2 modus ponens (“method of

affirming”) 21, 42-5, 74, 80, 85 modus tollens (“the mode of

taking”) 47, 110

Monsanto 75-6

Monte Carlo fallacy see gambler’s fallacy Monty Python 407-8

Moore, G.E. 193-4, 195, 255

morality

of abortion 256

of the appeal to tradition 122,

123, 124

and the is/ought fallacy 360-2

moral arguments 103-4

moral concepts 284

moral judgments 171

moral law 283

moral properties 193-4

moral responsibility 146-8

moral standards 164

moralistic fallacy 371-2

and the naturalistic fallacy 193-4

and reductio ad Hitlerum 213

Morton, Sheila 338

moving the goalposts 185-8

MSNBC 318

murder 252-3, 282-3, 285

Murdock, Casey 330

Muslims 224

Myers, Martin 340 mystery, therefore magic fallacy

189-91, 306

narrative scripts 216, 217

Natapoff, Alexandra 352

National Crime Victimization

Survey 133

National Football League (NFL) 187 National Geographic’s Is It Real?

(show) 141

National Review 224

National Rifle Association (NRA) 181,

182, 225, 383 Native Americans 266, 267-8 natural law theory 194-5 natural properties 193-5 natural selection 116, 190, 244-5 naturalistic fallacy 193-5, 255 nature 160, 378, 401 properties of 369-70 Nazi Party 213-14 Nazis 91-3, 171, 213-14, 233 near-death experiences 199 necessary causes 287, 288 necessary conditions 44, 47 Neil, Samuel 51, 52, 54 neuroscience 166

New York Times, The (newspaper) 216, 267, 352-3

Newton, Isaac 3, 154 NFL see National Football League NGRI see not guilty by reason of insanity

Nielsen, Eric 228 Nieman Reports 216 Nintendo 185

Nixon, Richard 83, 232 no true Scotsman 374-7 “non-syllogistic” 51, 53 Norenzayan, A. 306 normative claims 371-2 normative properties 194-5 “noseeum” principle 110 Nostradamus, Michel 392, 394-5 not guilty by reason of insanity

(NGRI) 161 Novella, Steven 325 NRA see National Rifle Association Nuremberg Principles 146 Nye, Bill 280 Nyhan, Brendan 319

Obama, Barack 183, 187, 209, 351-2,

400-1

Obama Administration 344 objective judgments 396-8 objective validation 392

Ogelsby, Pat 278

Olay 400

Old Testament 400

omniscience 364, 366 ontology 333 open minds 405 oppression 122 Oprah effect 169 or statements 44

ambiguity of 40-1

exclusive 40-1

inclusive 40-1 orders, following 145-6 O’Reilly, Bill 189, 190 Ortega, Tony 140-1

Oswald, Lee Harvey 383, 401 other minds 307

overinflation 183 oversimplification 286-8 overstatement 274

pain, animals and 236-7 paleontology 186-7

Palestinians 233

Palin, Bristol 348, 349

Palin, Sarah 349, 351 paradoxes 180

and the sorites fallacy 293-4

Zeno’s 178, 202 paranormal 140, 141, 142

and the anthropomorphic bias 306

and confirmation bias 404

and subjective validation 395 see also ghosts; supernatural paranormal, the 138, 139 pareidolia 327, 328

Paris terrorist attacks 2016 330

Park, Robert L. 156

parsimony 154 partiality 220 Pascal, Blaise 201

Pascal’s wager 201-3 past, romanticizing the 122

Pasteur, Louis 152

patterns 327

Pauley, William 234

Pearl Harbor 163

Pelosi, Nancy 74-5

Penn & Teller 189

Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (TV show)

129, 305 Pentagon 271 Pentateuch 232 perception

constructive nature of 324-8 perceptual constancy 326-7 unreliable nature of 143 perfectionist fallacy 303 perjury 86-7, 94, 97 personal circumstances, and ad hominem 77-82 persuasion

and appeal to emotion: force of fear 99 and arguments 9-11

persuasive definition see definist fallacy Petraeus, General David 84-6 pets 305-6, 339-40

Pew Research 268 Phillips, Emo 376-7 philosophic fallacy 380 philosophy, religious 312-13 philosophy of mind 265 physical existence 378-81, 389 physicalism 95 Piercy, Joseph 241 Pigden, Charles 361, 362 Pigliucci, Massimo 138, 139 Pilkington, Karl 165, 167 Pineda, Diego 340 pitch 19

Pitkanen, Risto 390 pity, appeal to emotion: pity 102-5 placebo effect 142 plane crashes 128-9

Plato 98, 114, 405

Republic 282 poetry 358 poisoning the well 196-200, 313 police homicide rates 133, 135-6 political correctness 270 politicians 19

and ad hominem: bias 71, 74-5 and ad hominem: tu quoque 88-9 and the all or nothing fallacy 302

and appeal to the people 113

and the appeal to personal incredulity 116

and the appeal to tradition 121

and argument by repetition 216, 217

and begging the question 310

and false dilemmas 346-7

and guilt by association 351-2 and hasty generalization 354, 355-6 and the no true Scotsman fallacy 375-6

and post hoc ergo propter hoc 343-4

and red herrings 209-10

and reductio ad Hitlerum 213

and reification 379

and suppression of evidence 401 and two wrongs make a right 232 Pons, Stanley 153 Ponzo illusion 327 Pope, the 170

Popper, Karl 198, 199, 403-4 positivism, wicked 282, 283 post hoc ergo propter hoc 126-7, 340, 342-4

Postman, Neil 313 poverty 338-9

Praeger, Dennis 224 pragmatic arguments 96 pragmatics 241-2

fallacies of see accents

prayers, answered/unanswered 199 predictability 404

prediction 393, 394-5, 403, 404-5 pregnancy, unwanted 236 prejudice 24-5, 72, 408, 409 premises 7-9, 8, 11-14, 17, 19-20, 28-9, 34

and ad hominem: bias 74

and ad hominem: direct 85

and affirming the consequent 42, 43, 44-5, 125

assessing the truth of 29

and begging the question 308

and the complex question fallacy 314

and composition 250 contradictory 174

and denying the antecedent 47

“depth of search premise” 110 and the exclusive premises fallacy 51-4

and the existential fallacy 332-3

and the fallacy of accent 241-5 and the fallacy of four terms 57-9 and the fallacy of illicit major and minor terms 61

and the fallacy of the undistributed middle 63-5

false 29, 30, 31, 32

and the false cause fallacy 335, 338, 342 and good arguments 30, 31, 32, 32, 34 and informal fallacies 21, 22, 23,

25, 26

and the irrelevant conclusion fallacy 172-3

and the is/ought fallacy 361-3

and kettle logic 174, 175-6 major 42 minor 42, 46

and modus tollens 47

negative 52-4, 58-9

and proving too much 202-3 and the slippery slope fallacy 385 and syllogisms 15

true 30-1, 32, 32, 34, 44-5, 47, 202, 203, 362

truth 43

universal 332-3

premonitions 130 presentism 164

Princess Peach (Super Mario character) 185

principle of explosion 154

Prior, Arthur 361, 362 pro-life position 256, 263, 270, 285 probabilistic reasoning 133-4, 369 probability theory

and the conjunction fallacy 321-3 misapplication of the rules of probability 321-3

quantum theory of 369-70 and the representative heuristic 383 problem of induction 198

ProCon.org 386

progress 311-13

prohibition 278

Project Mogul 150 proof 107, 109, 110, 389 burden of 107-8 negative 109-10 proof by verbosity 289-92 see also proving too much propaganda 215, 216, 218, 302 properties of nature 369-70 property, as theft 388-9, 390 property dualism 365 prophecy 393, 394-5 propositional logic 14, 16-17, 20, 37-47 affirming the consequent 20-1, 42-5 affirming a disjunct 39-41 denying the antecedent 46-7 propositional syllogism 42, 46 propositions

descriptive 360-1, 362 false 301

and the is/ought fallacy 360-3 moral 361

normative 361 true 301 prosodic stress 241-2, 243 Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph 388 Proverbs 286 proving too much 201-3 proximate cause 182 pseudoscience 198-9 psychics 129, 393-4 psychoanalysis 161, 198, 205-6 Psychological Review, The 164 psychologism 204, 205 psychologist’s fallacy 204-6 psychologizing 205 punctuation 241, 242-4 pyramids 190

qualification 274-5 quantum theory, of probability 369-70 questions

complex 23, 314-16 leading 315 loaded 314, 315, 408 open-ended 315 Socratic 316

Quine, W.V. 380

quotation mining 400

racial groups 381 racism 95, 150, 172, 224, 286, 349-50, 353

radical skepticism 370 radical views 367-8

Ramachandran, V.S. 325

Rand, Ayn 388, 389, 390

Randi, James 140

rapid eye movement (REM) sleep 130 rapture 319, 395

rationality 389

Ray, Gene 289, 290

Reagan, Ronald 215, 384

Reagan era 339

reality

mind-external 397-8

and morality 372 reasoning 11-18, 34

and the anthropomorphic bias 306-7 circular 24

errors in see fallacies

“means and ends” 162

and the moralistic fallacy 371-2 probabilistic 133-4, 369 two-step process 28-9 see also deduction/deductive

reasoning; induction/inductive reasoning

recall 130

red herring 208-10, 232, 316 redskins 266, 267, 268 reductio ad absurdum (reduction to absurdity) 4, 119-20 reductio ad Hitlerum 212-14

reflexes 381

Reich, William 153

Reichenbach 202 reification 378-81

pernicious 37-80, 381

Reifler, Jason 319 reincarnation 199

relativism 396-7

fallacies of 204-6, 396-8

multiple kinds of 396 relativity 295, 398 relativity theory 152, 154

relevance see fallacies of relevance religion 161, 311

and confirmation bias 318

and the no true Scotsman fallacy 376

and the supernatural 190

religious experience 199 religious philosophy 312-13

REM (rapid eye movement) sleep 130

Rennie, John 401 repetition, argument by 215-18 representative heuristic 382-4 Republican-in-name-only (RINO)

375-6

Republicans 224, 343-4 respect 120 responsibility

diminished 145-8

moral 146-8

Ricoeur, Paul 161

ridicule, appeal to 118-20

RINO (Republican-in-name-only)

375-6

Roberts, Henry 394

Robertson, Phil 348, 349

Robison, Richard 107, 108

Rockmore, Tom 213

Roman law 231, 232

Ronson, Jon 317

Roudinesco, Elizabeth 205

Rowe, William 120

Rowling, J.K. 375, 377

Rumsfeld, Donald 291-2

Ruskiewicz, John J. 346

Ruskin, John 378

Ryan, Paul D. 376

Sacks, Oliver 326

Sagan, Carl 153

Salem witch trials 199

same-sex marriage 310, 386, 405 sample size 354-5

Sartre, Jean Paul 151

Schick, Theodore 130, 154, 319, 326, 327, 383

Schultz, Debbie Wasserman 224 Schwarzenegger, Arnold 346-7 science 198-9

scientific consensus, contradiction 152-6

scientific evidence, suppression 401 scientific research 110

scientific theory, proving true 198 scope 154

Scottish independence referendum 2014 375, 377

search engines 40-1

Second World War 164, 302 self-fulfilling explanations 197, 199-200

self-interest 109 semantic logic 333 senses

misleading nature of 324-8

sense evidence of spatiotemporal entities 3, 4, 5

sentential logic see propositional logic sentimentality 121, 124

September 11 attacks (9/11) 131, 187, 233, 254, 287, 352, 383

see also 9/11 “Truthers”

sexism 123

sexual assault 146-7

shares 344

Shaw, George Bernard 404 Sheidlower, Jesse 267-8 Sheldrake, Rupert 155, 389 Shermer, Michael 156

Shredded Wheat 335-6 simplicity 154

Simpson, O.J. 172 Simpsons, The (TV show) 315,

342, 399 sin, original 277 Singer, Peter 236-7 Singer, S. Fred 280 single cause, fallacy of the 287 Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter 119-20 Skeptic Magazine 140-1 skepticism, radical 370

Sketchers 400 slavery 122 slippery slope 126, 178, 274,

385-7

smoking 79-80, 336, 339 social cognitive theory 169 socioeconomic position 336 Socratic questions 316 soldiers 170-1 Solly, Thomas 52 Solomon, judgment of 368 Sorensen, Roy 178 sorites fallacy 180, 293-5 South Park (TV show) 208, 383-4 Southern Law Poverty Center 352 space 202 special pleading 219-22 Spielberg, Steven 133 State 379 statistics, (mis)representation 401 stealing the concept see stolen concept Stein, Gertrude 369 stereotypes

and argument by repetition 217 and essentializing 149, 150 and hasty generalization 355, 356 and mind projection 370 and unwarranted assumptions 408, 409

Stoics 16 stolen concept 388-91 straw man 178, 179, 223-5, 274 hollow man version 224 representational 223-4 selectional (the weak man) 224 stroke patients 325-6 Strongman, L. 307 subjective judgments 206, 396-8 subjective validation 392-5 subjectivist fallacy 396-8 subjectivity 374 substance 64-5 substitution 275 sufficient causes 287-8 sufficient conditions 43-4, 47 sunk cost fallacy 227-8 Super Mario Bros 185 supernatural 190, 198-9, 306 see also ghosts; paranormal superstition 22-3 suppressed evidence 23, 153, 399-402

Swanson, David 175 Sweat, Noah S. “Soggy”, Jr. 277-8 Swift, Taylor 349 syllogism 15, 60-1 categorical 51, 60 disjunctive 41 and the existential fallacy 332 and the fallacy of exclusive premises 51-4

and the fallacy of four terms 56-8 and the fallacy of illicit major and minor terms 61-2

and impossible situations 64-5 incomplete (enthymemes) 315 major term 53, 56, 58 middle term 53, 56, 57-8, 59 minor term 53, 56, 58 propositional 42, 46 valid 55-8, 61, 65 Whately’s sixth rule of 58 syllogistic logic see categorical logic syntax, fallacies of 246-9 Syrian refugees 330 Szalavitz, Maia 343 Szasz, Thomas 230

Taco Bell 356 taxation 257, 401 Taylor, Linda 217 teachers’ pay 73-4 technological advances 312 Ted 2 (film) 179 teleology 198, 235 Temporary Assistance for Needful

Families (TANF) 135 terrorism 254, 287, 330, 351-2 see also September 11 attacks Tesfaye, Sophia 223-4 testability 127, 154 testimony of trusted others 3, 4 testing 243 theft, property as 388-9, 390 theodicy 198 theories 264

Thielen, Martin 376 Thomas, Dave 150 Thomson, Judith Jarvis 236 Thrasymachus 282 tides 190

time 202

Time Cube (2015) 290

Toad (Super Mario character) 185 Tolstoy, Leo 4, 357, 358

Townsend, Tim 141 traditional logic see categorical logic traffic accidents 129

transitivity 3

true positives 134

Trump, Donald 118, 209-10, 223-4, 318, 354-6

truth, and confirmation bias 317

truth tables

and affirming the consequent 45 and denying the antecedent 47 and modus ponens 44, 45 and propositional logic 44-5 truth-values 397-8

claims 160-2, 212-13, 333 necessary 396-7 objective judgments 396-7 subjective judgments 396-7 universal 396-7

truthiness 216

tu quoque fallacy 88-93, 232

Turing Test 307

Turner, Brock 146-7

Turner, Dan 146-7

Tversky, Amos 321, 323

Twain, Mark 241

Twelve Tables 232

two wrongs make a right 230-3

UFOS see unidentified flying objects ultimate cause 182

understatement 273-5

undistributed middle, fallacy of the 63-5 unfair play 220

unfalsifiability 199, 403-5 unidentified flying objects (UFOs)

140-1, 142, 155, 190, 327 see also aliens

United States 228, 233

Constitution 187

presidential election 2016 209-10 United States Sentencing Commission 146-7

universe

complexity of the 235

creation 235-6

untestability 127 unwarranted assumptions 407-9

US Census Bureau 135-6

Ustinov, Peter 241

utilitarianism 112

vaccinations 155, 340, 344

Vader, Darth 185, 187

vagueness 19, 26, 177-8, 271, 274, 295 validation, subjective 392-5

variables, confounding 336, 339 Varnell, Paul 386

Vaughn, Lewis 130, 154, 319, 326, 327, 383

Venn diagrams 322

Venus 141

Vietnam war 228

Vigen, Tyler 340

virtues 120

vision, constructive nature 324, 326-7

Wakefield, Andrew 155, 344

Wallon, Henri 205

Walters, Keith 346

Walton, Douglas 72-3, 77, 79, 83,

88-9, 99-100, 102-3, 106-10, 112-13, 137-8

Warren, Ed 141

Warren, Lorraine 141

Warren, Mary Anne 262-3

Washington Post, The (newspaper) 352 Washington Redskins 266, 267, 268 weak analogy 234-7 weapons 182-3, 223-4 weasel words 271-2

Wegener, Alfred 152

welfare 338-9

“Welfare Queen’ myth 215-16, 217

West, Kanye 349

Whately, Richard 52, 58-9, 64

White House Task Force Report 338-9

Whittington, Harry 197

Wiggins, David 390

Wikiquote 248

Wilkinson, Michael 290

Willard, A.K. 306

William of Sherwood 51-2, 54, 58

Wilson, Darren 352

Wimpy 187-8

Winters, Shelley 219 wiretapping 232 witchcraft 199-200

Wittgenstein, Ludwig 166, 204, 206, 375

Woods, John 106-8, 112, 113

words

with ambiguous meaning 276 and the etymological fallacy 266-8 weasel 271-2

worldviews 318, 325-6

Wreen, Michael 109, 113

Wright brothers 153

Wykstra, Stephen 110

Zabel, Judge Sarah 386

Zagzebski, Linda 114

Zeno’s paradoxes 178, 202

Zeus 306

Zucchino, David 216