Logical Fallacies
A practical logical-fallacies reference with clear explanations, usable examples, and teaching tools.
Theory
This section collects longer-form pieces that sit behind the LogFall reference pages. The goal is to explain not just what the fallacies are, but how to use them responsibly, how to rebut them clearly, and how to avoid turning fallacy language into a blunt rhetorical weapon.
Use these articles for the theory behind analogy-based rebuttals, classroom process, AI-assisted classroom analysis, and fallacy-centered critical thinking instruction.
A rigorous guide to answering bad reasoning with clarifying analogies before reaching for a technical label.
This article explains why some of the clearest rebuttals do not start by naming the fallacy. Instead, they expose the shape of the mistake with a parallel analogy that makes the misstep obvious before any label is introduced.
A practical teaching process and adaptable curriculum for using logical fallacies in a critical thinking class without collapsing the subject into jargon drills or point-scoring.
This article gives teachers a repeatable classroom process, a unit sequence, and a wider curriculum frame for teaching logical fallacies as part of a serious critical thinking course.
A classroom model for teaching logical fallacies by having students collaboratively design a Gemini Gem or other pre-prompted agent that identifies, scores, and responds to weak reasoning.
This article shows how teachers can use collaborative AI-agent design to teach fallacy recognition, comparison, scoring, rebuttal, and repair without surrendering judgment to the model.
A practical guide to telling the difference between bad arguments in public form and the background mental habits that often help produce them.
This article shows why fallacies and cognitive biases overlap, why they are not the same thing, and how to teach the difference without turning either topic into mush.
A restraint-focused guide to false positives, overlabeling, and the discipline of withholding a fallacy charge when the fit is weak.
This article argues that a good critical thinker needs a working brake pedal as well as an accelerator: sometimes the wisest move is not to reach for a fallacy label.
A comparison guide to the fallacies students and readers most often collapse together, with exact splits and memorable examples.
This article is built for the moment when a student says, 'Wait, how is that not just a red herring?' That moment is where real understanding begins.
A constructive guide to turning a bad argument into a better one by narrowing claims, adding evidence, clarifying terms, and fixing the inference.
This article treats fallacy diagnosis as the beginning of the job rather than the end. Spotting the damage matters, but rebuilding the argument matters more.
An accessible taxonomy of different kinds of reasoning breakdowns and why they should not all be taught or diagnosed in the same way.
This article explains why some errors are structural, some are evidential, some are causal, and some are statistical, and why lumping them all together makes students dumber than they need to be.
A foundational article on why argument quality and conclusion truth come apart, and why that distinction is central to serious critical thinking.
This article explains one of the first shocks of logic class: a claim can be right for embarrassingly bad reasons, and that still matters.
A practical article on how base rates, sample size, uncertainty, regression, and causal design make many fallacies easier to diagnose.
This article shows that probability and statistics are not side dishes to fallacy study. In many cases, they are the flashlight.
A guide to using fallacy vocabulary with humility, precision, charity, and enough restraint to remain useful in actual conversation.
This article is for anyone who wants to think clearly without becoming the conversational equivalent of a smoke alarm taped to a trumpet.
A guide to using argument maps to surface hidden premises, show exactly where support fails, and teach fallacies visually.
This article treats argument maps as x-rays for reasoning. They do not replace judgment, but they do make the fractures easier to see.
A classroom article on how to teach fallacies through live rhetorical materials rather than canned examples alone.
This article focuses on the practical side of teaching: prompts, assignments, rubrics, and activity types built around real debates and public argument.
A wider theory article on why analogy is one of the most powerful tools in criticism, teaching, and argument repair when used carefully.
This article widens the lens from fallacy rebuttal alone and asks why analogy, at its best, is one of reason's favorite crowbars.
An article on how feeds, clipping, outrage incentives, virality, and attention economies change which fallacies thrive in public discourse.
This article explores what happens when bad arguments are no longer merely spoken or printed, but optimized for velocity, salience, and engagement.