Fallacies of Relevance – Logic Lectures

May 21, 2025

Lecture 11.3: Fallacies of Misdirection

Some arguments marred by fallacies seem merely weak, whereas others seem to shoot off quite strongly in the wrong direction. In this lecture, we explore the latter group–the fallacies of misdirection.

Lecture 11.2: The Emotive Fallacies

We continue our survey of informal fallacies with five ways in which people often try to appeal to our emotions. There’s nothing wrong with that–as long as we recognize the difference between emotional appeal and logical argument–between pathos and logos.

Lecture 11.1: The Ad Fontem Fallacies

Our primary concern until now has been to learn how to reason soundly; fallacies (as defects in reasoning) have been of only secondary importance. But the fallacies now take center stage as we wrap up our study of logic with a survey of informal fallacies. Today, we examine the first of four families of informal