"97 Fallacies to Know" || Book Promo & Preview

This dictionary of fallacies will improve your logic and prevent you from getting fooled by weak arguments. Here's the link to it:
https://www.amazon.com/Fallacies-Know-journalists-politicians-professors/dp/B0BTT5YSDC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33A2Z8OA8IAD9&keywords=97+fallacies&qid=1682253844&sprefix=97+fallacies%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-1
A sample of definitions taken the book:
"11. Appeal to authority
EXAMPLE: (1) Someone asks the reclusive bachelor Isaac Newton for dating advice.
(2) One expert out of many is cherry-picked for his opinion on how to handle the pandemic; the rest are dismissed as quacks.
(3) Someone with a PhD in nutrition & fitness pulls rank in an attempt to disqualify an opponent who has learned about nutrition & fitness from years of study and from experience as a pro bodybuilder.
(4) A student asks a lecturer if he has a PhD in sociology; when told no, he claims he lacks the qualifications to contradict someone who does on matters of public policy, such as gun laws.
(5) Everyone should celebrate the Sabbath, because the Bible says so.
DEFINITION: When someone argues that a proposition is true because an expert or book says it, overlooking that grounds for doubt may still exist because (i) the proposition is outside the expert’s area of expertise; (ii) the proposition is doubted by other learned experts; (iii) the proposition is doubted by others who have learned from experience; (iv) the proposition involves common knowledge or common sense, so a special credential is not necessary to assess it; or (v) the source is not authoritative on such things.
AND MORE: From the fallacy in Latin known as ad verecundiam meaning to shame. Most people mistakenly assume it translates as ‘to authority’. But the root idea is someone being shamed for a lack of knowledge.
Schopenhauer noted that someone of little learning may be ashamed of it, and “the greater is the number of the authorities who weigh with him.” So, this fallacy may work better on the less educated.
One should remember that someone’s opinion – no matter how learned – is no guarantee of truth. The Royal Society was established in 1660 in England to advance science. Their motto was nullius in verba, ‘on the word of no one’, as a warning against the appeal to authority.
Science is still a matter of belief, however, says Nobel Laureate in physics Richard Feynman; that is, “the belief in the ignorance of experts…[because] the experts who are leading you may be wrong.”
Feynman added, “There’s a considerable amount of intellectual tyranny in the name of science.” He would say Dr. Fauci displays sloppy thinking when he says he’s “the voice of science” and “the science says” x. Feynman said that science doesn’t say anything, but experts use that phrase to add heft to their opinions. If they were honest and accurate, they would say something like, “That data shows this,” or “This experiment proves that.” We try to understand what nature says. And nature still holds secrets that will keep us forever humble.
To those who say you are too unlettered to ask a good question or too uncredentialed to speak on a matter, Feynman said, “You have as much a right as anyone else” to learn about the evidence and “to judge whether a sensible conclusion has been arrived at.”

17. Begging the question
EXAMPLE: (1) Someone argues that opium induces sleep, because it’s a soporific.
He thereby attempts to prove a conclusion via a synonym for it, rather than mention its active ingredient, Morphine-6-glucuronide, a pain blocker.
(2) In the OJ Simpson murder trial, when Judge Ito asked Marcia Clark to explain why a piece of evidence was relevant, she said, “Because it’s pertinent.”
This gave the verbal appearance of a justification, but it was just a synonym for ‘relevant’. The judge didn’t seem to notice, though.
DEFINITION: When people justify a conclusion with a premise that means the same thing as the conclusion. Logic books say this fallacy has the form: if p, then p. It can be thought of better, however, as supporting a conclusion with a conclusion equivalent.
AND MORE: ‘Begging the question’ is often misunderstood because it’s a poor translation from the Latin petitio principii (assuming + beginning) which Aristotle originally meant to mean ‘asking for the initial premise’.
In its everyday sense, where usage is loose, saying one is ‘begging the question’ often means either (i) suggesting a question, (ii) asking for one, or (iii) dodging one.
In its logical sense, this fallacy may be tough to spot on the fly, because a different word may mask semantic equivalence. Aristotle said this fallacy may be easily missed and how one needs a nose for what supports what. He wrote, “Demonstration proceeds from what is more certain and is prior.” Rather than say someone is ‘begging the question’, you could go back to Aristotle’s original idea and say, “As Aristotle would say, what is your ‘initial premise’?”

For more samples, see the comments.

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