Editing Argument from fallacy

{{Short description|Fallacy that since an argument contains a logical fallacy, its conclusion must be false}}
'''Argument from fallacy''' is the [[formal fallacy]] of [[philosophical analysis|analyzing]] an [[argument]] and inferring that, since it contains a fallacy, its ''conclusion'' must be false.<ref>{{Cite web |last=K. S. Pope |year=2003 |title=Common Logical Fallacies in Psychology: 26 Types & Examples |url=http://kspope.com/fallacies/fallacies.php |series=Fallacies & Pitfalls in Psychology}}</ref> It is also called '''argument to logic'''  ('''''argumentum ad logicam'''''), the '''fallacy fallacy''',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burkle-Young |first=F. A. |title=The research guide for the digital age |last2=Maley |first2=S. |publisher=University Press of America |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7618-0779-7 |page=324}}</ref> the '''fallacist's fallacy''',<ref name="ff" /> and the '''bad reasons fallacy'''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Warburton |first=Nigel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HF6nEOdfZmIC |title=Thinking from A to Z |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-4154-3371-6 |page=25 |access-date=10 August 2013}}</ref>

==Form==
An argument from fallacy has the following general [[argument form]]:

{{poemquote
|If P, then Q.
P is a fallacious argument.
Therefore, Q is false.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morge |first=M. |year=2008 |title=The Argument Clinic: A Baloney Detection Kit. |url=http://www.di.unipi.it/~morge/publis/morge08pisa_show.pdf |journal=PhD Lunchtime Seminar |publisher=Dipartemento di Informatica, Pisa |page=20 |access-date=2010-06-09}}{{poemquote|
''c'' since A
''A'' is fallacious
¬''c''}}</ref>}}

Thus, it is a special case of [[denying the antecedent]] where the antecedent, rather than being a proposition that is false, is an entire argument that is fallacious. A fallacious argument, just as with a false antecedent, can still have a consequent that happens to be true. The fallacy is in concluding the consequent of a fallacious argument has to be false.

That the argument is fallacious only means that the argument cannot succeed in proving its consequent.<ref>John Woods, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fixdSW0eGlAC ''The death of argument: fallacies in agent based reasoning''], [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] 2004, pp. XXIII–XXV</ref> But showing how one argument in a complex thesis is fallaciously reasoned does not necessarily invalidate its conclusion if that conclusion is not dependent on the fallacy.

==Examples==
{{poemquote|
'''Alice''': All cats are animals. Ginger is an animal. Therefore, Ginger is a cat.
'''Bob''': You have just fallaciously [[affirming the consequent|affirmed the consequent]]. You are incorrect. Therefore, Ginger is not a cat.
}}

{{poemquote|
'''Alice''': I speak English. Therefore, I am English.
'''Bob''': Americans and Canadians, among others, speak English too. By assuming that speaking English and being English always go together, you have just committed the [[package-deal fallacy]]. You are incorrect. Therefore, you are not English.
}}

Both of Bob's rebuttals are arguments from fallacy. Ginger may or may not be a cat, and Alice may or may not be English. The fact that Alice's argument was fallacious is not, in itself, proof that her conclusion is false.

{{poemquote|'''Charlie''': Bob's argument that Ginger is not a cat is fallacious. Therefore, Ginger absolutely must be a cat.}}

That one can invoke the argument from fallacy against a position does not prove one's own position either, as this would also be an argument from fallacy, as is the case in Charlie's argument.

==Further==
''Argumentum ad logicam'' can be used as an ''[[ad hominem]]'' appeal: by impugning the opponent's [[credibility]] or [[good faith]], it can be used to sway the audience by undermining the speaker rather than by [[inference objection|addressing the speaker's argument]].<ref name="ff">{{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=D. H. |author-link=David Hackett Fischer |title=Historians' fallacies: toward a logic of historical thought |date=June 1970 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-131545-9 |edition=first |series=Harper torchbooks |location=New York |page=305 |chapter=Fallacies of substantive distraction |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VIvNG8Ect6gC&pg=305 |oclc=185446787 |quote=The ''fallacist's fallacy'' consists in any of the following false propositions... 3. The appearance of a fallacy in an argument is an external sign of its author's depravity.}}</ref>

[[William Lycan]] identifies the fallacy fallacy as the fallacy "of imputing fallaciousness to a view with which one disagrees but without doing anything to show that the view rests on any error of reasoning". Unlike ordinary fallacy fallacies, which reason from an argument's fallaciousness to its conclusion's falsehood, the kind of argument Lycan has in mind treats another argument's fallaciousness as obvious without first demonstrating that any fallacy at all is present. Thus in some contexts it may be a form of [[begging the question]],<ref name="wl">{{Cite book |last=Lycan |first=William G. |author-link=William Lycan |title=Consciousness and experience |publisher=The MIT Press |year=1996 |isbn=0-262-12197-2 |edition=first |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=69 |chapter=Qualia Strictly So Called}}</ref> and it is also a special case of [[ad lapidem]].

==See also==
* [[Argument from ignorance]] (''argumentum ad ignorantiam'')
* [[Argumentation theory]]
* [[Genetic fallacy]]
* [[Logical extreme]]
* [[Logical fallacies]]
* [[Reductio ad absurdum]]
* [[Straw man]]
* [[Vacuous truth]]
* [[Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Wiktionary|fallacy fallacy}}

* [http://www.fallacyfiles.org/fallfall.html Fallacy Fallacy] – The Fallacy Files
*David Hackett Fischer, ''Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought'' Harper & Row, 1970, pp.&nbsp;305–306.
* [http://existentialcomics.com/comic/9 Fallacy Fallacy] at [[Existential Comics]].

{{Formal fallacy}}

[[Category:Propositional fallacies]]
[[Category:Relevance fallacies]]