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Old 08-17-2007, 07:31 AM   #1 (permalink)
Jinn
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Which logical fallacy do you hate the most?

In any forum for discussion, whether written or verbal, logical fallacies are thrown around like leaves in the wind. I've always enjoyed the study of fallacies, particularly logical ones. The most commmon on TFP seem to be straw man, non sequitur, false dilemma, ad hominem and of course, appeal to emotion.

So my question to you all is which logical fallacies you hate most, and why. And in the sense of fairness, which fallacies you are most guilty of using.

I personally despite appeals to emotion, becuase I'm not a very emotional person and it makes the argument feel like very overt manipulation. I prefer to keep emotion out of rational discussions, and someone who brings an emotional argument to a reasonable debate immediately loses my respect. I also dislike Ad hominem, but I think that it's only inevitable. It seems the most commonly abused of the fallacies.

I will admit that I'm probably most guilty of using straw man and slippery slope fallacies, as I often (unconciously) connect their decision with what I percieve the long-term ramifications to be (slippery slope) or to something totally unrelated (straw man).

What about you?

(Included a list of Fallacies from Wikipedia for reference)

List of fallacies   click to show 
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