List of famous fallacies

Perhaps a fallacy is something more than a flawed reasoning. Perhaps it's a symptom of something else, a competing process which is exerting a powerful influence in say decision making. Since human beings reasoning capacity may be based in at least two components: Logic and Emotions, then fallacies might be interpreted as intrusions of the emotional component into the logical realm of cognition. Maybe recurring fallacy patterns in ourselves or somebody else, may point towards emotional argument that's giving shape to our decision.


Anybody interested in producing sound arguments (i.e. enthymemes), will welcome a review of common fallacies. 

• a) Draw conclusions from insufficient evidence. b) The premises are not good enough to stand the weight of the conclusion. c) The step from the premises to the conclusions is hardly valid.
• Overlooking alternatives: Correlation doesn't imply causality. Either A can cause B, or viceversa, or an external C might be the cause.
• Argumentum ad hominem: weakens an argument, or diverts attention from it, by attacking the honorability/integrity of the person behind it.
• Argumentum ad ignorantiam: claim an argument to be true because it hasn't been shown to be false.
• Argumentum ad misericordiam: Argue on something appealing to pity.
• Argumentum ad nauseam: trying to prove something (usually false) by endless repetition. Brain washing. There's an interesting example in Plato's Republic, III in which a (false) story is crafted by Socrates to validate some social hierarchy. Socrates says to Glaucon: "...our unbelieving generation will be slow to accept such a story... Will our citizens ever believe all this? ‘Not in the present generation, but in the next, perhaps, Yes."
• Argumentum ad populum: mobilize the emotions of a crowd to achieve approval of an argument. Also evokes Ortega y Gasset's "mass man" who justifies his decisions based on what the crowd does.
• Circular argument (Begging the Question): To use the conclusion as a premise.
• Metaphorical Fallacy to Deductive Inference: (MFDI): "The MFDI proceeds from informal semantical (metaphorical) claims to a supposedly formally deductive and necessary inference" (Lightbody and Berman, 2010). A special case of the false analogy fallacy.
• Red herring (Irrelevant Conclusion): (or Ignoratio Elenchi) consists in an argument with the deliberate intention to divert the focus from the issue in question.
• + 2 come

Here are some classifications of Fallacies

Fraunce's Fallacy Tree. Source: Hamblin, 1970.

Creighton, 1902

Whately's tree of fallacies (Source: Hamblin, 1970)

Indian tree (Source: Hamblin, 1970)

References: 

Engel, S.M. (1986), With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies. St.Martin's
Hamblin, C.L. (1970), Fallacies. Methuen & Co. Ltd. London.

Toulmin et al. (1979), An Introduction to Reasoning, Macmillan
Weston (2000), A Rulebook for Arguments. Hackett 

Wikipedia: A long list of fallacies is available here.
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The Autonomist: An extensive list of fallacies: http://theautonomist.com/aaphp/permanent/fallacies.php

Glen Whitman website: link
Taxonomy of Logical Falacies: Nice Chart in the Fallacy Files here

Very nice free /pdf  of logical fallacies here