Appeal to Emotion & Ad Hominem
Appeal to emotion: instead of reasoning, it stirs up your sympathy, fear, or anger to make you accept a view.
For example: "If you don't buy this insurance and something happens, what about your kids?"—it never says what's good about the insurance, it just scares you.
Note: the problem isn't that a risk or an emotion gets mentioned—real risks are worth pointing out; the fallacy is only stirring up emotion while giving no real reason.
Ad hominem: instead of rebutting the other person's view, it attacks the person.
For example: "Don't listen to his proposal—look how badly he dresses."—fashion sense has nothing to do with whether the proposal is good.
False Dilemma
False dilemma (also called the either/or fallacy): there are clearly many options, but it's framed as only two extremes, forcing you to pick one.
Example: "Either you support our plan, or you don't want the company to do well."
In reality you can perfectly well "want the company to do well, but think this plan is bad." Wiping out the middle ground is exactly this fallacy's move.
Circular Reasoning
Circular reasoning: using the conclusion itself as the reason that supports the conclusion—you go around in a circle back to where you started, and end up proving nothing.
Example: "Everything in this book is true, because that's what the book says."
"What the book says" is precisely the thing you're trying to prove; using it as the reason means proving something with itself.
自测 · 学完检查一下
想真正动手做题、记进度、攒连胜？到互动课里练。
"Don't trust his weight-loss advice—he's overweight himself." Which fallacy is this?
答案：Ad hominem: attacking the speaker instead of rebutting the advice itself
The person's body shape has nothing to do with whether the weight-loss advice is correct; it attacks the person, not the argument—ad hominem. It never points out what's wrong with the advice itself.
"If you don't work overtime, you don't love this company." Which fallacy is this?
答案：False dilemma: squeezing many possibilities down to just two extremes
You can perfectly well "love the company but reject pointless overtime." The middle ground is wiped out, forcing you to pick between two extremes—a false dilemma.
"He's a good person because he never does bad things; he never does bad things because he's a good person." Which fallacy is this?
答案：Circular reasoning: using the conclusion as the reason, looping back to the start
"Is a good person" and "never does bad things" each serve as the other's reason, going in a circle back to the start and proving nothing—that's circular reasoning.
True or false: "Can you bear to watch your kid fall behind at the starting line? So you have to sign up for this class." This relies mainly on stirring up parents' anxiety without saying what's good about the class, which makes it an appeal to emotion.
答案：True
It gives no real reason like "this class teaches well," and instead uses anxiety and fear to push you to decide—a classic appeal to emotion.
The fallacy of using the conclusion itself as the reason supporting the conclusion, looping back to where you started, is called ____ reasoning.
答案：circular
This "proving itself with itself" fallacy is called circular reasoning; the premise and the conclusion are really the same thing in different words.
True or false: one trick for spotting ad hominem is to block out "who's speaking" and look only at whether the reason itself supports the conclusion.
答案：True
Right. Once you cover who's speaking, if the reason still holds up you should accept it; rejecting it just because of who said it, without looking at the reason itself, is what makes it ad hominem.