Visual Field Guide

The anatomy of a bad argument

Every fallacy has the same skeleton: a premise, a flawed leap where the reasoning breaks, and a conclusion that doesn't follow. Learn to see the leap, and the trick loses its power.

Relevance

The premises are psychologically persuasive but logically irrelevant to the conclusion.

Weak Induction

The premises are relevant, but too weak or unrepresentative to support the conclusion.

Presumption

The argument smuggles in an unproven assumption — the conclusion is presupposed or the options are rigged.