Fallacy No3: Appeal To Authority

This is one of the most common fallacy of all time. It goes something like this:

1. Mr N is (claim to be) an authority on the subject S.

2. Mr N. makes a statement C about S.

3. Then C must be true.

Look out for this fallacy. We are more often than not fall for this.

Fallacy No2: Ad ignorantiam

Fallacy No2 :

Ad ignorantiam - basically states that a specific belief is true because we don't know that it isn't true.

This is a favourite fallacy of those who dabble in pseudoscience.

Fallacy No 1: Ad hominem

To be able to think clearly in a world where almost everything is layered with sensationalism and half truths is important. There 20 known fallacies and let us start with No1, the most used, Ad Hominem.

Ad Hominem, translated from Latin to English, means "against the man" or "against the person."And this how the argument will sound like:

Jane: The world is heading towards an environment disaster
John: Of course you will say that, you are member of Greenpeace.
Jane: What about the arguments I presented to support my case.
John: Like I said, you are Greenpeace activist and you have to say that. All you Greenpeace members ever do is cause panic and demonstrate. You people are good at nothing else.

Ad Hominem is a fallacy because the character, action and circumstances have no bearing to the truth or falsity of the claim being made.