The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning

by Nathaniel Bluedorn, Hans Bluedorn, Rob Corley (Illustrator)

Overview

The Fallacy Detective has been the best selling text for teaching logical fallacies and introduction to logic for over 15 years.

"Can learning logic be fun? With The Fallacy Detective it appears that it can be. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to improve his reasoning skills."--Tim Challies, curriculum reviewer

"Cartoon and comic illustrations, humorous examples, and a very reader-friendly writing style make this the sort of course students will enjoy."--Cathy Duffy, homeschool curriculum reviewer

"I really like The Fallacy Detective because it has funny cartoons, silly stories, and teaches you a lot!"--11 Year Old

What is a fallacy? A fallacy is an error in logic a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking. This is a handy book for learning to spot common errors in reasoning.

- For ages twelve through adult.

- Fun to use -- learn skills you can use right away.

- Peanuts, Dilbert, and Calvin and Hobbes cartoons.

- Includes The Fallacy Detective Game.

- Exercises with answer key.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780974531571
Publisher:	Christian Logic
Publication date:	04/04/2015
Edition description:	4th Workbook ed.
Pages:	266
Sales rank:	165,377
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: What Is a Fallacy?

The Inquiring Mind

1. Exercise Your Mind

2. Love to Listen

3. Opposing Viewpoints

Avoiding the Question

4. Red Herring Fallacy

5. Recognizing Red Herrings

6. Special Pleading

7. Ad Hominem Attack

8. Genetic Fallacy

9. Tu Quoque

10. Faulty Appeal to Authority

11. Appeal to the People

12. Straw Man

Making Assumptions

13. The Story of Aroup Goupta

14. Assumptions

15. Circular Reasoning

16. Equivocation

17. Loaded Question

18. Slippery Slope

19. Part-to-Whole

20. Whole-to-Part

21. Either-Or

Statistical Fallacies

22. What Is a Generalization?

23. Hasty Generalization

24. What Is an Analogy?

25. Weak Analogy

26. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

27. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc in Statistics

28. Proof by Lack of Evidence

Propaganda

29. What Is Propaganda?

30. Appeal to Fear

31. Appeal to Pity

32. Bandwagon

33. Exigency

34. Repetition

35. Transfer

36. Snob Appeal

37. Appeal to Tradition and Appeal to Hi-Tech

38. Find Some Propaganda on Your Own

The Fallacy Detective Game

Answer Key

Editorial Reviews

I love your book! I never knew how much fun logic was until I read your book. P.S. I am 12 years old. --Paul Muenster, student



I'm always delighted when two sides that seem mutually opposed come together in harmonious agreement. I'm even more delighted when I've taken one of those sides. In this case, I write of the efforts of Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn, brothers from Iowa who advocate homeschooling and create educational materials from a Christian worldview. The fruit of the latest Bluedorn effort is a short text, The Fallacy Detective, designed to be a primer in logic for older children, specifically homeschooled Christian children, though the book is intended for anyone who wants to explore the subject. . . . I find it wonderful that the Bluedorns, among others, are actively reinvigorating the religious world with a healthy dose of independent thought . . . --Andrew C. Thomas, The Tech (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)



My family and I are really enjoying your book. Even my youngest son, who is eight, enjoys attempting to answer the questions. Your book was a great introduction to another program that I had purchased. Going directly into that program probably would have bored my children to tears but now they are interested in the concepts of logic. My children became instantly attracted to the program because of the the comic segments but later couldn't put it down. --LaVera, MD, parent

From the Publisher