In Summary

What it comes down to is this: we all have beliefs (thoughts, opinions) about ourselves, the world around us, and reality, as we perceive it, and we make those beliefs known to ourselves in our own minds or in spoken or written form through claims.

There are times, however, when you need or would like to reason to a claim, or from a claim, and when you do this, you are beginning to form an argument (unless you’re simply providing an explanation or account). The claim you are reasoning to (or inferring) is the conclusion of the argument, while the claim(s) you are reasoning from is/are the premise(s). The conclu­sion is the claim you’re trying to persuade or convince others (and yourself) is true, while the premise(s) is/are the claims that are supposed to support (justify, demonstrate) the conclusion such that the reasoning involved in the move from premise(s) to conclusion is correct (appropriate, legitimate).

The reasoning involved in the move from premise(s) to conclusion is an essential part of constructing a good argument because a good argument is one where the conclusion you are reasoning to actually does, in fact, follow from the premise(s). If the conclusion does not follow from the premise(s), then it’s a fallacy, either formal (deductive realm) or informal (inductive realm). The other essential part of a good argument has to do with all of the premises in the argument being shown to be true with evidence. Thus, there is a logical two-step process that you have to go through when constructing your own arguments as well as evaluating the arguments of others: (1) make sure the conclusion follows from the premise(s) and (2) make sure all of the premises are true.

When you evaluate an argument and note that the conclusion actually does not, in fact, follow from the premise(s), then you have located a fallacy. If the argument is a deductive argument in the realm of deductive reasoning, then you have located a formal fallacy, several of which you will find described in this book. With formal fallacies, the argument’s structure will make the fallacy apparent. If the argument is an inductive argument in the realm of inductive reasoning, then you have located an informal fallacy. With informal fallacies, an investigation of the content of the argument’s claims will make the fallacy apparent. You will see that there are a good deal more informal fallacies described in this book precisely because many types of informal fallacies have been identified throughout human history.

We hope that you will benefit from the information in this book. The contributors have done an excellent job of explaining the fallacies. But don’t merely take our word for it - go ahead and see for yourself, and the evidence for the truth of our claim, “The contributors have done an excellent job of explaining the fallacies,” should become clear.