tutorpackSee prices
All courses

Miscellaneous · course 102 of 105

Name 18 Logical Fallacies on Sight

Spot a bad argument and name the move: 18 common fallacies, from straw man and ad hominem to false dilemma and the gambler’s fallacy, first by definition, then in examples.

3 modules

Try a question

Not on sale yet. When sales open: $4.99 USD for this course, paid once, or every course for $9.99 USD a month. Prices

Runs in Claude (claude.ai, the Claude apps or Claude Code) with your own Claude account. A course opens there as soon as your payment goes through; nothing is shipped.

Preview

What it teaches

What a fallacy is (and what it isn’t: a fallacy in an argument doesn’t make its conclusion false), then the 18 common moves by name: straw man, ad hominem, tu quoque, false dilemma, slippery slope, hasty generalization, cherry picking, post hoc, the gambler’s fallacy, appeal to authority, the bandwagon, appeal to emotion, red herring, loaded question, begging the question, no true Scotsman, the genetic fallacy and equivocation. First from their definitions, then in short examples. The AI asks 3 questions, places you, shows a short card per module, then gives you one definition or example at a time.

How long

32 items. About 30-50 rounds plus a 12-item final: 1-2 sessions (estimate, not timed with a real student). The tutor gives a one-line save code at the end of each session.

The modules

3 modules, drilled one item at a time.

  1. M0

    What a fallacy is

    What a fallacy is (and isn’t)

  2. M1

    Name it from its definition

    Name it from its definition

  3. M2

    Spot it in an example

    Spot it in an example

Before it teaches, it asks

  1. 1
    What are you learning this for (school, work, debating, spotting nonsense online), and which fallacies can you already name?
  2. 2
    Which fallacy: “attacking the arguer instead of the argument.”
  3. 3
    “I think we should make the academic requirements stricter for students. I recommend you support this because we are in a budget crisis, and we do not want our salaries affected.” Which fallacy is in the second sentence?

What’s exact, and what isn’t

Show

Straight from the course’s own notes.

Two sources must agree on every fallacy
Each one is on Wikipedia’s “List of fallacies” and has its own entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s “Fallacies” article. Four candidates without an IEP entry were left out.
Quoted, not written
Every definition is Wikipedia’s list wording, word for word; every example is quoted word for word from a Wikipedia page that names its fallacy; 36 quotes matched on the live pages 2026-10-11.
Other names count
Any name the list gives in brackets is right.
Judgment calls
Real arguments often mix moves. The key is the name the source gives; the tutor says so if a student argues for another.
Honest limits
18 fallacies, 8 examples; Wikipedia’s examples are few and short, so M2 is small. No formal logic.
Not in it yet
Formal fallacies (affirming the consequent and others), cognitive biases, writing your own rebuttals, more examples.